So, you are trying to buy a gift for a geek who has kids and have no clue what to get them? Or maybe looking for a gift for yoruself? You are in luck, I’ll be sharing some gift ideas today.

Part of what makes these such good gift ideas is that hours and hours are spent with these, so there are plenty of opportunity for your gift receiver to remember you as the giver of the thoughtful gift they are using.

I am a self taught programmer that wrote my first lines of code and discovered my love for it at 27 years old, with two small kids in the house, and we added another one 18 months later. Ever since I have been trying to excitedly shove information into my head, in the margins of life, here are the gadgets and gifts that made it easier.

  1. Audible Subscription. Working full time and being a hands-on dad, doesn’t give me much time to sit down and read a book, Audible lets me feed my brain while doing other mindless things like driving. You might be wondering how programming and Audible fits together, you can’t directly learn how to code from an audio book, but the mindset needed to tackle something that is difficult and not clearly defined, is something that many audio books can teach you about. Here are a couple of my Recent Favorites

  2. Backbeat Fit headphones. When I am busy working out or cleaning the kids spagetti sauce off the dinner table after they are asleep, these are the best. The absence of wires gives a nice sense of unhindered freedom to let my hands focus on the spagetti sauce and my brain focus on the book. Not worrying about keeping the headphone cable out of the spagetti sauce. At first they hurt my ears if I wore them for a long time but since I wear them almost every day, they are now completely comfortable. Being waterproof is a nice bonus, I haven’t tested it but it’s nice to not worry about getting them wet.

  3. If their job doesn’t pay for online courses, this makes for a great gift. I have seen online programming courses from $10 to $24,000 and you would need to talk to the person you are buying for to find out what they are wanting to learn and if there is anything that fits your budget. The last couple years of my career would have gone much slower without the courses that friends & family gave to me.

I hope this gives you some excellent gift ideas, if you have some other good ideas to share or you have a question about gifts for your Geek, go ahead and comment below.