IBM Innovation Culture +

IBMers don’t have to remember to circle July 13 on their calendars to celebrate Embrace Your Geekness Day. It’s a daily observance in our hallways, labs and even some parking spots. We love being a haven for Geek Primes because it’s geeks who solve the really tough problems – like putting people on the Moon, cracking the genomic code and storing data on an atomic level. Or in the case of IBM Distinguished Engineer Jerry Denman, it’s making sure that the computer systems powering our malls and online stores keep shopping carts rolling during Black Friday, Cyber Mondays and whenever else we get that collective urge to shop.
We recently interviewed the self-proclaimed IBM Geek for a glimpse into his geekhood:
What’s your geekiest memory?
My first computer class in high school. I was very intrigued by COBOL so I read everything I could find on it. When we reached that section in class my teacher realized I knew more about it than he did, so he challenged me to teach that section to our class. I can trace my passion for technology back to that moment.
What sort of geeky things are you into?
I like to write. My grandmother collected books written by authors who lived in Huntington, IN, where I grew up. When I co-authored my first book she asked me to autograph a copy. When I called her a few weeks later she admitted she couldn’t make it past the title, which was Patterns: Integrating Enterprise Service Buses in a Service-Oriented Architecture, but that she did find my picture and was very proud of me.
What kind of responses do you get to an IBMGEEK vanity plate?
People stop and ask me if I am really that proud to be a geek. I always will answer yes to that because I couldn’t imagine anything better than being a geek and getting paid to do it. And yes, I do own a pocket protector (or two).