Sexiest Geeks Alive

“Los Angeles is no Silicon Valley, but they do have a valley and a lot of silicone.”

That’s what Calley Nye says.

She started off modeling in NY, but soon realized that she had learned more about marketing than anything. Calley lives in LA now as a viral marketing expert, social media marketing consultant, and marketing strategist for several very successful online campaigns. I stole that right from her website.

She had a brief stint with TechCrunch, but decided she wanted to write on her own blog. She doesn’t write short blog posts either.

Calley will also be writing for Sexiest Geeks Alive. I look forward to her posts because I know they will be full of inspiration.

Calley really fascinates me because she is the same age as me, and she loves social media. She is always online, and always willing to chat about stuff. When Cyan asked me to write a post about Calley on SGA, I was really excited. I put off the interview forever but once I started writing the questions, it was easy.

How old are you, and where did you grow up?

I am 22 and I grew up in Manchester, CT.

What was your first memory of using the Internet?

Hmm…that’s a tough one. My dad works with computers so we first got the internet when I was like 5 or 6. So I never really had a “Wow, this is the internet” moment. It has always been kind of integrated into my life. My most vivid memory though, was when I was working on a report on the White House in the library in 6th grade and went to whitehouse.com.

Who is your current Internet idol? Who do you respect on the web?

Another good question. I have respect for anyone who takes a chance and does something that hasn’t been done before, or has the balls to come up with a better solution to an existing application. But to be specific, one of my idols is Diane Greene, the founder of VMware. Another one of my idols is Mike Arrington, who I had the great opportunity of working with at TechCrunch. He’s extremely smart and passionate about startups, and I think it shows. He really took a chance by giving me the opportunity of writing for TechCrunch, and I will always be incredibly grateful for that.

As you know, blogging has made publishing basically free. Do you think the quality of content in the blogosphere will be better or worse in the future?

I think that the quality will improve because it gives a wider array of people access to the platform. Up until this point, we had to read about news through journalists. Those journalists may have been expert journalists in their specific subject matter, but it does not change the fact that they probably had never done what they’re writing about.

So through blogs, we can get news from a wider net of writers, all with different voices and (usually) no agendas. So you can hear about venture capital news from a venture capitalist, and an entrepreneur, and have a better understanding of what that means for both.

Of course there are thousands of crappy blogs out there, but we can always depend on readers and subscribers to prove which blogs are good and have staying power.

What sites do you check first thing in the morning?

First thing I do is check my email, and I usually just let that take me wherever I need to go. But I always check Twitter, Facebook, and Techmeme.

You are like me; a coder and a writer. Why mess with the codes?

Ha, I don’t feel quite comfortable calling myself a coder yet. When I come across a problem I don’t know how to solve, I have to figure out the answer myself. If I don’t I feel like a failure. I also have very specific images in my head, and for some reason I can’t find anyone who understands them, so I have to figure out how to do it myself.

I am learning for the sole purpose of understanding what I am dealing with. I am working on a couple startups, and I don’t feel comfortable not understanding what I am telling other people to do. If the startup has my name on it, I want to understand every last bit of code that it uses. I guess I’m kind of a control freak.

Just like every other girl I know, they love food. What is your favorite thing to cook? And will you make me some Italian food sometime?

Of course! As long as you don’t say anything like “I’m on a diet” or “I don’t eat carbs.” I hate guys like that.

My favorite thing to cook is pizza. There are so many ways you can do it, so it’s really fun to experiment. My favorite pizza invention so far is a thin crust pizza with mozzarella, asiago, tri-color tortellini and BBQ chicken. Sounds really weird, but its so good! I also like making things vegan. I’m not vegan, but it makes cooking kind of a challenge, and I love a good challenge. I made vegan mac & cheese once and it was amazing!

Tell me about the future of the web. What will it be like in 5 or 10 years? Will MySpace still be around?

Wow, that’s a hard question. I think that the technology of the Internet is changing very soon, and I think that will change the way we use the web. CERN is developing a system called The Grid that is a 10,000 times faster than the average broadband connection. When you think about it, it’s kind of stupid that this technology that runs everything in our lives is still piggybacking on telephone and cable connections. I think it’s about time it has its own. I won’t talk too much about it (because I want to write a post about it), but it’s going to lead to some major changes like the inclusion of more HD and holographic technologies.

Finally, do you use the web more for browsing information, creating content, or communicating?

I use it for all three, probably all equally, but I love browsing for information. I didn’t go to college, because I want to know everything. I didn’t want someone to limit what I could learn. Sometimes I wake up and think “I want to learn how to fix my roommate’s motorcycle today” or “I want to learn more about data structures and algorithms.” And then I do it. I use MIT’s Open Courseware a lot and take random courses, and I have over 1,300 ebooks on my hard drive. My goal is to read them all and I’ve never had a goal that I didn’t achieve, so it will be done. Might take a couple of years though

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Photo credits: Clay Poole, einezo4 and Damon Hall Booth

You can follow Calley on her blog and on Twitter