OT: Geeks and ninjahood?

[Bill McGonigle]

On Feb 27, 2007, at 10:29, Drew Van Zandt wrote:

> 80% of the students at the dojo
> I go to are engineers or programmers, and about half the
> engineer-types I mention aikido around say something like "Hmmm I'm
> interested in that, where do you go to learn that?"  (Woburn Aikikai)

You probably have some selection bias by your location and  
socioeconomic stratification, but martial arts are a good local  
maximum solution to the problem of self-preservation, and engineers  
are good at figuring out these kinds of things and working hard to  
achieve a goal.  Many types of people couldn't be bothered, would  
rather call the Police if they have trouble (trust implicit, bad at  
math), or don't plan for the worst (good engineers are optimistic  
pessimists).  My evaluation is that good martial arts training and a  
concealed-carry permit cover you in most possible situations.

I also believe we could stop worrying about terrorism if high school  
kids got 4 years of martial arts training instead of playing badminton.

On Feb 27, 2007, at 11:01, Paul Lussier wrote:

> except Tae Kwan Do,
>     which seems more of a contrived for competition sport than a true
>     martial art), none of which do I have time for :(

This seems to vary greatly by the instructor.  I had one as a kid who  
was very much into the form as an art and a means for spiritual/ 
psychological center.  His teacher was, in turn, the same way.  I  
took it up  again as an undergrad at Dartmouth and was crushed by the  
attitude you've seen (I could only stand a few weeks).  Around here  
it looks like my best bet is going to be to study Kung Fu.

FWIW, I think most geeks frown upon the ninja ethic, at least FLOSS  
geeks.   Of course we all love realultimatepower.net .

-Bill

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