Should You Date The Geek?

At the one end of the spectrum, we have the beautiful people. Dishy, sultry goddesses or hot, hunky sheiks. If you're financially well-to-do or just looking for a trophy, these make great arm candy. Beauty has its place in the world, and we aren't going to discredit it here.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the people whose greatest asset is not their looks, but their brains and personality. Bring highly skilled intellectually does tend to shape the personality to some extant, so they're related.

Now, this being the Internet, and especially this being about online dating, you may have noticed that there's a lot of geeks on here. That's no mystery. In the general population, it's a toss-up whether any given person has even been online. But a geek always will be.

To clarify: by 'geek' we mean someone who's very proficient at science, engineering, or technology. Especially the computer professional is considered a geek. We don't mean necessarily the stereotype of a socially-inept, awkward person. We mean the kind of person who's brainy, gotten a technical job, and has many hobbies on the side that require intense concentration.

Since the start of online dating, many people have been surprised to discover that the geek personality makes a fantastic mate. Don't look to a geek to be a one-night stand or casual fling; these types of people rarely appreciate this kind of treatment. But for solid, life-long commitment material, geeks wear very well.

So, what is it about geeks that make them such great marriage material?

* They're faithful.

Honesty and intellectual merit often go hand in hand. Geeks are also one of the few left in society clinging to those outdated concepts of integrity, chivalry, and character.

* They're good providers. Any geek probably gets better pay than the average population.

They also tend to be financially stable, since they aren't prone to blowing their money on impulse purchases and maxed-out credit cards.

* They're good company. A non-geek will have interests like TV programs, sports, and drinking. An average geek might be into exotic pets, playing the saxophone, programming in Python, manga comics, an Eastern religion, and has read a ton of books. They'll have something to talk about.

* They're passionate. Geeks never do anything half-way. They'll set out to recreate a scene from the third Star Wars movie in Lego, and they won't stop until it's finished and done perfectly, with all the right colored blocks and exactly the same scale throughout. Now picture them applying that same patience and devotion to you! A geek will be more eager to dig in and solve a problem with your relationship, rather than just give up and get a divorce.

* They're clean. By 'clean', we mean drug and disease-free. They're certainly less sexually promiscuous, and they tend to avoid alcohol and drugs. This makes sense when you realize that intelligent people have a lot to loose by abusing their mind with chemicals, and they get more fun out of an all-night World-of-Warcraft session anyway.

* They're handy. Once an engineer studies to a certain level, there just isn't anything around the house they can't fix. Especially true when they build their own computers, since these days everything more complex than a toaster has a microprocessor built-in. So everything from your microwave to your car becomes just another computer to them, and therefore something they understand.

* They're tolerant. In fat, they demand a certain amount of tolerance. In the geek's world, men and women, straight and gay, black and white, liberal and conservative, all are equal in their outlook. This is just an off-shoot of their careers and the environment they normally inhabit.

Now, we don't guarantee that the first geek you find will be the ideal partner for you. The geek personality has some downsides as well. But if you've searched the web for 'date a geek' and seen some of those online articles raving about them, this explains what the attraction is.