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Geeksplaining—It’s Like Mansplaining, But…
Wait, let me put this in terms you’ll understand:
Geeksplaining is like mansplaining, only instead of a male telling a female something she already knows, it’s someone with intense knowledge of a limited subject telling exhaustive details of said subject to someone who will never, ever care. Ever.
I asked my wife if I wander off into the technical weeds too often. She paused, then said, “Well Jackster, it’s kind of like, I need to know what time it is, so I ask you. And you start to tell me how to build a clock, and the history of the pendulum, and at some point I say ‘No honey, I just want to know the time.’ And you get all apologetic and embarrassed and you tell me it’s Thursday.”
So I need to work on that.
I guess.
It’s not just my wife. Many years ago one of my nephews, being at that cute age where social skills are developing but speech filters aren’t always engaged, was talking to his cousins while I eavesdropped. “Uncle Jack is pretty smart.” Eh? Keep talking, oh favorite nephew! “You can ask him almost any question, and he can tell you the answer.” Aww! “…and then he keeps going, and going, and…”
Okay. Yes. Working on it.
An earlier version of this was published in Bacon, Eggs, and Geek in November 2015.
