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In a word

18 Jan 2008

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame had a post today about describing yourself (and him) in a single word. It kicked around in the back of my mind for a while and I eventually decided on iconoclast to describe Scott. A definition:

Definition (see #2):

  1. a breaker or destroyer of images, esp. those set up for religious veneration.
  1. a person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc., as being based on error or superstition.

You’d probably have to read his blog regularly to know how appropriate this is.

For me, I haven’t come up with one yet, but if there were a word describing someone always seeking a perfect state of balance, that would be it. If such a word exists, that would be it. I always seem to be seeking the balance point – in life, in code, whatever. Sort of a word that I think about and like is ecotone, which is the transitional area between two ecosystems where they overlap. Maybe I’m an ecotonist. :)

Another great word I first saw in Scott’s comments was infornographer. An infornographer is someone addicted or obsessed with collecting and sharing information. Uh, yeah, I’ll admit to that.

And actually while it’s on my mind, another really cool word I learned lately was abecedarian, which is someone learning the alphabet. Note how the beginning of the word sounds like abcd… Even more fascinating is the story behind it.