Geeking Out With Friends

Two friends came into town this week and as I was reflecting on our very different conversations, I realized the similarities in what attracts me to each of them and what gets me excited to soak up every word they say.

Marzi is a certified tea specialist that lives in Texas. She travels to Japan to visit tea farms and tea shops and interact with sommeliers to deepen her expertise. Since I moved to Japan, she’s been passing on recommendations to visit tea shops but I have spent very little time heeding her advice. There are times when I feel better if someone that knows what they are doing holds my hand the first time when I am trying something new. We met on an unusually warm late November day at a contemporary tea shop located on the 5th floor of a building in Omotesando, Tokyo. When I’m walking around I rarely explore past street level (big mistake in Tokyo!) so I would never have noticed that this tea shop exists. The moment I walked into the small space I could sense it would be special and my knees were happy about the stools at the bar where we would be sitting. Sakurai Japanese Tea Experience reminds me of going into a spa that smells deliciously of green tea. As with all things in Japan, we were offered a course and opted for 5 different teas with seasonal preparations and delicious snacks. Throughout our time enjoying tea, Marzi explained the process of growing, cultivating, preparing and enjoying the tea with deep knowledge on the chemistry of the leaves and how we experience it. She always asked me what I thought of the tea, and despite my limited vocabulary, I did my best to explain how the tea felt in my mouth and tasted. What was made clear to me and that I have to rectify immediately is that I have been doing myself a disservice by the mediocre teas I’ve been drinking. I drink a lot of coffee made by someone that has a lot of knowledge on the subject, so to explain it from that perspective, it is the difference between drinking burnt coffee made from last week’s grounds that have been sitting in a coffee pot for 2 days and a fresh cup of pour-over coffee made by a barista champion using single-origin Kenyan beans roasted to perfection. Needless to say, I was as enamored with the tea as I was with Mari’s passion and love for the community and the enjoyment she gets from drinking good tea and sharing that with others. Sadly she said that it can be difficult to convince people to join her in experiencing tea, which was surprising to me because anytime I can spend time with an aficionado I jump at the chance.

Tim and I were colleagues at UC Irvine and worked on an interest-driven learning project as well as a related startup utilizing video games such as Starcraft and Minecraft. In fact. Tim taught me everything I know about esports, Minecraft and Twitch (where he now works) that I then passed on to my son (who has far surpassed my abilities). I trust his judgment in what video games to try and immersive experiences to checkout. We met in Shibuya, Tokyo on a cold and drizzly morning at a nondescript coffee shop with black coffee that required two tablespoons of syrup before it was drinkable. As we caught up since the last time Tim was in town the conversation inevitably steered towards interests. He is learning how to play bass and when I asked him what prompted this choice he said it was because of a YouTuber that he admitted to being influenced by, and that is generally how he decides to try new things. In fact, he prefers YouTube over shows and movies because he enjoys actively learning and dislikes being a passive consumer. Tim’s love for esports has expanded beyond playing games and watching YTers, he published a video game called Don’t Forget Our Esports Dream about the South Korean esports scene that was successfully funded through crowdsourcing. Tim is my go-to expert for trends in the space of DIY entertainment, he is a data analyst at Twitch after all, but he also understands how to be a good digital citizen and the value of learning through your interests. As a parent of a kid that can’t speak a sentence without including ‘Minecraft’ in it, this is an important friend to have.

Despite my best efforts, it’s very difficult for me to just enjoy something for the sake of enjoying it, I end up digging to understand the why behind it. And I used to feel bad about that. I’m deeply fascinated by people that go all-in on their subjects of interest and hold a vast well of knowledge that is constantly bursting to be shared with others. This is what my former colleague, Dr. Mimi Ito refers to as “geeking out.” I realized recently that while Marzi enjoys tea, and Tim enjoys games, I really enjoy spending time in the presence of experts, taking in the finer points of their areas of interest. Marzi and Tim generously dropped their geeky knowledge on me and even if I only retain a nugget of it, thanks to their passion and willingness to share, I have leveled up my worldview and experiences. Through these interactions, I find new things to enjoy, and new ways to enjoy things I’m already interested in.