IT People & Coffee - What’s the deal?
If you’ve come to know people who work in IT in your company or just in general have dipped your toes in the IT community, online or in real life, you’ll very quickly find one thing out. We are obsessed with our coffee. A new ticket comes into the helpdesk, a corrupted driver causes a hardware failure, the network drops out for 2 minutes due to NBN being… well, NBN - These are all excuses to go have another coffee.
Some of the biggest coffee “snobs” in your workplace happen to be in the IT department. These are also the people looking over your shoulder to see if you need a hand working the office machine or teaching you the ins-and-outs of their home espresso setup - even though you didn’t ask.
So what’s the deal?
Look - I get it. IT people aren’t the only coffee obsessed folk out there - I worked in a school admin office for 4 years, and let me tell you: teachers also LOVE their coffee. I just don’t think they’re exactly as set on displaying their totally healthy desire to drink 5 a day as a “hobby” or an “obsession”, like the dudes in the IT department seem to be?
I realise I’m dobbing myself in here, but having been made aware of this as sort of a ‘thing’ by people like NetworkChuck - (who, by the way, happens to have his own coffee brand), I sort of felt like it needed to be studied.
A refreshing morning brew overlooking the city in my Paddington apartment.
Let’s start with me. Why do I love coffee? Well, the answer is somewhat the same as everyone else. It gives me a noticeable boost of energy and focus and particularly in the mornings, the ability to… um… wake up. Without it, that’s a task I haven’t quite mastered, to put it lightly.
I came across a YouTuber and online personality by the name of James Hoffman 3 years ago, and his content turned my amateur-helpdesk-quasi-IT-nerd fondness of coffee into an outright obsession. This, according to my loose ability to self-reflect is where I, (and seemingly many other IT people) diverge from other coffee enthusiasts. CULTURE!
There is a world of coffee people out there that strive to make their morning coffee the most complicated act of their day. Not only do they have specialty espresso machines, but they often have accompanying tools like specialist tampers, dosing funnels, scales, spritzers, distribution tools, puck screens and other fascinating items just to brew the perfect shot of espresso, every time. When I was introduced to this realm of coffee-addicts in early 2022, I was entranced. I had just purchased my brand new DelongHi espresso machine, and proceeded to buy an upgraded porta-filter, dosing funnel, distribution tool and burr grinder. I remember looking forward to waking up every morning just to perfect my morning brew and create the essence of happiness in a cup as a daily ritual.
Dabbling in coffee culture is what divides so many tech nerds from other ‘coffee enjoyers’.
This brings me to reason 1 as to why your local IT person is the most coffee obsessed person you know.
1: IT people go big or go home.
I know what you’re thinking - that’s a huge over-generalisation. Ok, sure, but when was the last time you met a bona fide tech guy or gal who wasn’t at times buried deep into a script-writing process, system administration task or diving under a desk to sort through a bunch of cable spaghetti? HMM?
We IT people just LOVE what we do - we’re all in, and this copies over to everything in our lives. In many cases, we also like others to know that we love what we do and are good at doing it - which translates to our ambition to maximise the coffee-drinking & coffee-making experience for ourselves and those around us. Can you blame us?
This is why I think one of and possibly the primary reason IT people just seem to be ‘weird coffee people’ is that we go knee deep into issues in our trade, doing whatever it takes to find solutions - and this vigour manifests itself in things like our love for a good old brew.
A few of my best latte-art creations.
2: We get exhausted!
After working in a school for over 5 years, I’ve noticed coffee is an elixir for admin, teachers and support staff alike dealing with lethargy, usually as a result of their work. We IT people are no different. Sometimes it’s an unexplainable or unseen issue with device-software compatibility, sometimes it’s a Windows Update that has rolled out a fleet of mind-numbing bugs, sometimes it’s a network outage at the worst possible time… being a technician is often exhausting! Coffee makes it a lot better. Sometimes the solution to a particular, pesky issue is behind that first 2 sips of the perfectly-brewed cappucino (or straight shot of golden espresso, if that’s your thing). This leads me to reason 3.
3: Coffee breaks are the best breaks.
Ever dealt with a tech issue which took up more time than you’d have liked, walked away to brew a cup-o-hope, sat down for a few minutes and then returned, only to quickly figure out exactly what the issue was? I certainly have. This is why the best brain-break is a caffeine brain-break. Sit there, stare at the wall or out the office window if you like, talk to a friend in the break room or whatever you fancy; just make sure you’re getting some java into your system. I promise you, you’ll gain more insight in 5 sips than any shower-thinking session could possibly give you! Coffee breaks are a great excuse to relieve your mind of stress, distance yourself from your environment of tech turmoil and somehow return with more IT know-how than you left university with. If you went to university… (I didn’t).
If you’ve made it this far, well done. Not everyone could possibly find within themselves a reason to read on the topic of why some curious, inquiring tech guy on the internet thinks the Technology world and the Java Jive go so heavenly-well together, but alas, you did. Let me know what other things you think make these two worlds overlap so perfectly, and also your thoughts on this topic.
Here’s to many more days of fixing the world’s problems with liquid gold in our veins!
Isaac Whitton, Wavelength Tech.
