What's common between a trekker and a web designer/IT person? 

1. Both have passion for their craft, mountaineers for the outdoors, new places to climb; the designer on new ways of doing things. 

2. Both are accused to be weird. But not nerdy and are trendy. 

3. Those who excel are the young ones.  Can now also hold true for the mountaineers but are mainly in the late 20's t0 30's. 

4. Obsession for equipment.  The IT for their computers, scanners.  What can I say about the mountaineer? 

5. No one's earning from the craft.  Software companies have low margins, designers not paid that high here, e-commerce not getting that high hits. Mountaineers don't earn from the journey, nor from sharing their info and stories.  Certainly not the manufacturers who only cater to a limited few. But both have a wealth of info, technology, experiences, adventures and a fresh way of looking at things. 

6. The IT person needs to be dragged out of the screen to escape from his high stress world, the mountaineer out of his desk to escape from boredom or responsibility. 

7. Both are changing the way the world is run.  Changing the way we look at things and in problem solving. 

8. Both get satisfaction from completion-The mountaineer in reaching the top, the IT person in solving a hitch. 

9. You can no longer take the passion from them.  In extreme cases uncontrollable. 

10. Both can be friends. 

That is why I maintain a circle of friends who are either in the outdoors or in the electronic world.  Sometimes in both.  Welcome to the next millennium. 

Have e-mail, will climb.  No need for pre-climb.  Join the club? 

-Chito