Laptop Stickers: These are My Nerd Gang Signs
I seeeee you!
One of our favorite things to do is to observe people. You can learn a ton about people by watching them (uh…in a non-creepy way, ideally) and seeing what they display as valuable. With nerds, one of the best ways to do this is to look at their laptops – make and model and operating system, sure, but actually the best source of information is to look at their stickers. A laptop is very important among nerds. It is the tool with which they fulfill their purpose, and so it has inherent value. It’s also only so big, so real estate given to stickers is important. You can learn a ton about a nerd by the tech and things they choose to affiliate with.
Examples
The etiquette of stickers is pretty close to the etiquette of tattoos – they are publicly visible, so it’s okay to ask about them, but the displayer might get a little awkward if it’s something very meaningful. You also risk nerd disapproval stares if it’s a nerd thing they think you should know. But…generally, you can find common ground, and you can use laptop stickers as a way to understand the things someone is passionate about, the things they advocate for, and the things they love. And…passionate people who love things enough to show that love are the best kind of people.
People are awesome, and it’s fun to know them better.
While studying a few people and their stickers, we realized that laptop stickers are basically the equivalent of nerd gang signs. Maven or Gradle? Mac or Linux? Suse or Red Hat? Pure Kubernetes, or OpenShift too? Do they like memes? What art style do they like? Witty quotes? Funny TV shows? The Office or Parks and Rec?
Enabling Nerd Gang Affiliation
If your role includes being a technology evangelist, we strongly suggest that you have stickers available when you’re advocating for cool stuff. People love swag. Let the people who already love what you’re trying to implement do some of the advocating for you – while also showing off their affiliation with Your Cool Thing. This lets them decorate their possibly-boring corporate laptop, and it gives you nerd-cred certified, mobile advertising for the tech you’re trying to spread the goodness of.
Usually getting stickers is as easy as asking the sales team of the product. They typically have a bunch, and sometimes they’ll give you hundreds. Sometimes, however, you have to come up with your own, and we’ve found RedBubble.com to be the best place to get custom stickers. (We get no money from them, unless you’re from RedBubble and want to give us money! We also definitely accept payment in stickers…)
Then, next time you give a talk or a workshop for Your Cool Thing, bring stickers, and offer them to the people who attend. If no one wants the stickers, you might be selling the wrong thing. Or…you’re selling it badly. That’s okay, this is helpful to know too! Your sticker might also be too large, taking up too much valuable laptop real estate (average size for tech is about 2″ x 2″, and for Cool Thing I Love is about 4″ x 2-3″).
Community
Really, laptop stickers are a way to indicate the communities that people belong to. It’s less about the Sharks vs the Jets and more about hey you guys I love this so hard that I will tell the world – which opens the door for easier connection with the other people who also also love that thing.