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ZDNet on the Essence of Geek
sebFlyte writes "ZDNet has a feature on The Essence of Geek, which looks at the rise of the geek (and the fact that everyone's turning into one), in the years post .com boom." From the article: "For a few years, an interest in computers and technology became inextricable linked with wealth and power -- geek became chic. Technology companies suddenly became the focus of the kind of attention that had been reserved for the music or fashion industries. In the UK TV makers even went so far as to create a hip series, Attachments, based around the antics of a tech start-up."
Um...no. Owning an iPod and knowing how to use it doesn't make you a geek. Knowing how to use your Windows smartphone doesn't make you a geek. Discussing mobile phone design doesn't make you a geek, because from tfa, I don't think they were talking about protocols or other engineering aspects. Even knowing how to synchronize your email with your smartphone doesn't make you a geek. It makes you a slave, but not a geek.
Knowing how to use technical things in the prescribed manner does not make you a geek, any more than knowing the exits on an airplane makes you a flight attendent. Knowing how to use technical things in ways they were never meant to be used makes you a geek. (and this is only one small definition "geekiness.")
Saying that "we're all geeks" is like saying "everyone is special, just like you."
Mox
Not true.
Owning an iPod and knowing how to download music doesn't make one a geek, that's just common knowledge nowadays. I hope the GeekBar is a bit higher than that.
Trolling is a art,
Nowadays, I constantly have to wear an umbrella because chicks are jumping me all the time...
After all, how different is dressing up for a Star Trek Convention and a Football game? Not much...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Now known as Pepsi UK.
Until the high school cheerleaders start hanging out at the chess club, geek ain't chic.
This is just about toys. Pre-packaged, nearly idiot proof, toys.
Geek = slashdot user
There are no uninteresting things. There are only uninterested people.
Does no one consult authoritative sources anymore, like Wikipedia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks
This notion that the Greeks had a common descent was then comparatively recent. As Thucydides observes, the name of Hellas spread from a valley in Thessaly to the Greek-speaking peoples after the formation of the text of Homer (the Panellenes of Il. 2.530 are the troops of Thessaly, contrasting with the Achaeans), not long before his own time. This places the idea in the Archaic period, when Greek-speakers discovered that the world was wider, wealthier, and more cultured than they had hitherto imagined. Homer's Trojan War is, indeed, a conflict among Greeks: the Trojans speak Greek, bear Greek names, and worship the Greek gods; and Priam is descended from Zeus (see Alaksandus). The Carians are the only people Homer considers barbarophonoi.
Like, omg, I'm so totally a geek now! I can IM, and sync my ipod, and blog, and post myspace pix! And like, even I know that those popups are annoying!
I am SO geek!!!!
Sounds like a line of new cologne from Ralph Loren aimed at today's IT workers.
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
Anybody who saw Attachments will know that the so called "geeks" it portrayed were nothing like the pale and socially inept people of real life. Entertaining enough though.
Q: You know how a geek likes you?
A: He looks at your shoes.
I have been reading too many Doctor Bronner's Castile Soap labels!
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
I still don't have my 5000 groupie girls who would spread their legs open for me en masse'....however, when I meet girls and i tell them I program they pretty much go "oh wow, you must make a lot of money" and then i snicker to myself in sadness...obviously i don't argue with them (what girl wants a poor guy) but hey :) It is, however, more accepted. I know many hot girls who love places like myspace, AIM, etc.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
"For a few years, an interest in computers and technology became inextricable linked with wealth and power -- geek became chic"
I'm pretty sure this is one of the signs of the apocalypse
unlike nerd and anorak, which still tend to be used as insults Dude, I would HATE to be called an anorak! After all, who WOULD want to be identified as "a usually pullover hooded jacket long enough to cover the hips". So insulting.
from TFA
The modern word surfaced in American slang in the early 20th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and continued to refer to various kinds of oddballs. The OED records this example from the 1916 Wells Fargo Messenger: "A new Wells agent struck our town the other week, and say you never saw a more enthusiastic geek!" By the 1950s Webster's dictionary recorded that the word referred to a carnival sideshow weirdo "whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake".
At some point, the word began to be used to refer to people with an interest so obsessive that it puts them outside the mainstream -- as it still is used to talk about people with an inordinate knowledge of, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, it's most immediate association is now with technology, and particularly with people who actually make technology work.
I've found 'geek' to be neutral at best in common usage, and nerd always is negative. Now being 'rich' as opposed to being a 'geek'...I've found the former is always better socially, but is directly proportionate to the latter.
Thank you Dave Raggett
He claims that increasingly, "we're all geeks" -- even if a lot of people don't care to admit it.
I remember when a geek was a guy who was extremely intelligent, read books, didn't dress well or had the latest fashions, never had a good haircut/hygiene, was not good at sports and never made out with girls.
If we are all indeed 'geeks' than the word geek doesn't mean anything. Or maybe we're just all nerds trying to be geeks?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"After all, how different is dressing up for a Star Trek Convention and a Football game?"
Only one has attractive women attending.
geek became chic.
I was never chic. Scrawny, yes, but not chic.
"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." -Thomas Jefferson
The Essence of Geek:
Serves: 1
Ingredients:
2 tbsp Mountain Dew: cooled to room temperature
12 fl oz generic beer
2 oz Cheetos: crushed to fine powder
5 oz Bacon strips: fried till crisp
0.5 lb butter: at room temperature
0.5 lbs onions: ground to fine consistency
2 nos. matured socks: preferably fermented for 3 days
Preparation:
Preparation Time: 5 minutes.
Heat butter in pan until gently melting. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer till delicious smell begins to whaffle through kitchen. Cool to room temperature, drain and apply in generous proportion.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Now the guys who picked on me are geeks too?
They don't care about the GPS technology. But when it came out in a toy, they bought them.
They can't tell the difference between xDSL and a cable modem. But they buy whatever claims to give them the fastest access.
The toy-philes will be able to take a picture with their phone, email to their work account and print it on the colour printer there. But they won't know how to convert it to a different format or even that there are different formats.
Driver
Driver who takes advanced driving classes
Mechanic
Automotive engineer
When did wealth mean "big credit lines?"
Most geeks I meet have negative net equity due to outrageous debt loads. Maybe it's just Chicago? It seems that every geek here thinks they can live like Sergei Brin.
I wonder if all the common people see are (leased) BMW's, (interest-only mortgaged) 5-bedroom homes and (almost maxed out) platinum cards when they see supergeeks?
Talk about keeping up with the Joneses.
Excuse me mods.
mpitcavage is not a troll (not this post any way)
He is just doing as bored geeks do.
He is all we aim to be, the geek above all other geeks - the first poster.
To the youngsters watching, learn from this one, he is wise.
One day you too can aquire the essence of geek which oozes from his pores.
Hang on, on second thoughts, your all best off having a shower and going playing football or somethin
liqbase
Um...no. Owning an iPod and knowing how to use it doesn't make you a geek. Knowing how to use your Windows smartphone doesn't make you a geek. Discussing mobile phone design doesn't make you a geek, because from tfa, I don't think they were talking about protocols or other engineering aspects. Even knowing how to synchronize your email with your smartphone doesn't make you a geek. It makes you a slave, but not a geek.
Yeah, but some teen who wants to *fit-in* with the geeky kids, might buy these things thanking it helps. It's like when you were in high school, and saw that guy walking about with a tie dye Dead shirt on. He wasn't a hippy, and likly never found a Dead song that he liked, and never when to the show, but he did buy a tie dye shirt. Very trendy.
Now, I've got a cs degree, and I know I geek my friends out with blab that they don't care about, but I don't own an iPod because of the DRM issues. Some people might say that someone who won't buy an iPod because of the DRM issues is a bigger geek than someone who owns them. However, the article is making a point. It does't matter if these people have any geek-cred. It's obvious that they want that geek-cred, just like the dude with the tie dye shirt.
then came an article claiming that geekiness is actually "kewl", and people were actually yearning to be one. That marked the end of geekdom. Now every other person using ipod and knowing how to download firefox considers himself/herself a geek, making the existence of the actual geeks as minority. Maybe, the geeks would start yearning to be just normal, and then it would reverse..
No doubt the term "geek" has been coopted by the media to describe, basically, the digerati generation. But I have to agree with my fellow /.ers... using your ipod and knowing how to upload photos from your cell phone does not make you a geek.
Geek's don't just use technology, they understand how it is put together and desire to change or "hack" it for their own purposes. A geek molds technology to suit him, a regular schmoe makes do with what has been handed his way by 3com, intel, microsoft, etc, etc.
That is the difference.
CommentBot 0.7a running with args "-module irritate,disagree -target random"
I was so busy recompiling Debian for my Nintendo Gameboy (overclocked, of course, sitting in a vat of liquid N2) that I misread the headline and posted some gibberish about the Greek people...my bad ... naturally I saw "Greek" instead of "Geek" since I'm not familiar with the latter term.
Geeks don't use Windows. Geeks are about control. Windows does not give you any. You're at the mercy of the media corporations, the virus writers, the spammers, and most of all Micro$oft. The only person controlling a Windows computer is Bill Gates. All the *real* geeks have moved on to better things like Linux.
We are in the midst of the Glorius Geek Revolution. Sure, high school sucks for geeks. It sucked for me, and it still sucks for most geeks today, but the life after high school has dramtically changed for the geek, for the better.
A lot of the rags to riches stories involves geeks. South Park's creators, Family Guy's creator, Matt Groenig, Woz and Steve Jobs.
We live better lives than our geek forefathers. A smart, industrious geek these days often earns a better living and lifestyle than our jock counterpart.
Society is getting geekier. Take cops shows. They used to be buddy films, the cool guys with street smarts driving cool cars in chase scenes. Now the top cop show is CSI. Geeks with badges, walking around with black lights, analyzing semen. NCIS, Law and Order, The West Wing, Adult Swim... culture has definately taken a turn for the geekier end of the spectrum.
Nerd girls are doing well as well. I read somewhere that SNL producers were worried about Tina Fey in glasses, but it turns out it totally works, and she has tremendous appeal and talent.
Of course, as we start having kids and they grow up, maybe they'll be jocks, and maybe they'll be teased unmercifully by the geeks.
When i first read that I thought they were reporting on a new perfume/aftershave by calvin Klein.
I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
(eom)
I'll tell you what essence of Geek is. My friend, a sys admin, ate dinner at The Stinking Rose (they season your garlic with food) in San Francisco one night. The next day he had some serious gas. A co-worker, another IT person, went into his office said they smelled pizza and that it smelled good. He did not dissuade from that notion.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
A real geek knows that ERS is Eric Raymond.
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
Is it just me, or is anyone else annoyed by IBM's seemingly endless marketing campaign that aims to be more "IT hip" with each commercial? I think IBM tries to play to this rising coolness with the computing industry (if there is one) by trying to be hip, but it just comes off as contrived and weak to me. annoying.
-Santoro
Damn geek-bro, that made for a laugh riot.
A geek isn't someone who knows how to use an iPod. A geek is someone who has all their Ogg Vorbis's on their bluetooth enabled PDA along with playlists, and he can walk from his house to his car to his cubicle without a skip in the beat because it seamlessly transfers between his home stereo, built in speakers in the PDA, his car stereo, and his computer's speakers at the office.
Extra points for writing a new compression algorithm to store more songs on the PDA. Bonus if you have neon lights under your car that are synchronised to the music.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Isn't that like when a cat sprays in the corner?? 8)
http://www.users.bigpond.com/adriansbruce/cartoons /nerd!.jpg
"After inventing fire, the wheel and Art, Trevor (Modern man) is introduced to a new word... NERD!" (by a Nethanderal)
It has been those that have changed the world, advanced it, that have been called Nerds or Geeks by the great unwashed that couldn't rub two sticks together to make fire, or program their VCR. NOT everyone is a geek.
The essence of geek has nothing to do with what you use, but with what you know about it; people break down into three groups:
Group A: people who know only what they need to know to get along. This is actually a fairly small group; most people have a beyond-necessary level of interest/knowledge regarding something.
Group B: people who have some (or quite a bit of) in-depth knowledge of one or two areas because they're interested, and are perfectly content with a "necessity" level of knowledge in everything else. This is most everyone.
Group C: people who are interested in having in-depth knowledge for its own sake, and will always (given the opportunity) choose to know more about any given subject.
"Geeks," as far as I can tell, are pretty much a subset of Group B, where the one or two areas of interest are math-, science-, or computer-related, and the level of knowledge is above some ill-defined, but relatively high, point. Linus is a geek. Da Vinci was not.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
never bitten the head off of a chicken, live or dead. Has anyone looked up the traditional meaning of "geek"? please... I'd rather be the CD (computer dude) BC (big cheese, I work at a school), TG (tech guy) one 9 yr. old said "I want to be a wizard when I grow up too." but please, Geek^2, "A carnival performer who does wild or disgusting acts." Which had always been number one, until the Tech Era is not what I what to be associated with! Sorry case closed, end of story, hatchet buried, loose ends tied up, etc, etc...
yeah, yeah, I graduated (HS) in the early 80's, and I do realize that language is a virus... Thanks Laurie Anderson...
but a geek still bites the heads off of chickens in side shows for a buck.... I haven't bitten the head off a chicken ever! (L)users, ahh... we all know that story.
Sig Hansen?
From the article: "Eric Reynolds, author of the influential open source manifesto The Cathedral and the Bazaar ."
Um, what? Sloppy research or just a typo? These mainstream "Look how geek everyone is becoming! Even your has an iPod and is therefore a geek." articles really irritate me.
It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
"Einstein, who had a wardrobe full of identical clothing and saw nothing wrong with smoking cigarette butts collected off the street.
Is that true? Somehow i cant see Einstein doing that. I guess if he was REALLY cheap, but most people that i know who smoke would never pick butts off the ground, even if they were broke. (they'd just bum one but thats not really the point)
Anyways thats the first i ever heard of this. Anyone can confirm this very interesing anecdote?
Well i just decided to google for it and it aparently is true.
"Bernhard Caesar Einstein said in the letter written in 1998 that his grandfather collected the cigarette butts to circumvent his doctor's orders to stop smoking, reported the Sunday Telegraph."
and thats the end of that mystery.*dusts hands*
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
The show features this particularly noxious character called Clippy. Each week the other characters ask "Who killed Clippy?," but the bastard keeps showing up the next week.
Many geeks died to bring us this information...
If a baby duck is a "duckling," why would anyone want to eat "dumplings?"
Really...this is EXCELLENT...it looks gross, but tastes great
1 Cup Root Beer, 1 Cup Orange Juice (with pulp preferably)
Pour over partially melted Ice Cream in a bowl
Stick salt&vinegar chips into the whole mess
I'm not joking. It looks really gross, but it tastes fantastic
You know, I feel blessed that I maintain the social graces and ability to interface with women on a fairly regular basis.... well my wife anyway :) I don't know that as a whole you all aren't grabbing at straws to justify your own position as a geek.
Truth be told, I'm called a geek, nerd, technogod, and addict by various people. Quite frankly the way I see it is if you are you know you are and it's not worth arguing about. It's more socially acceptable now for us to be infatuated with our technology and our abilities are becoming more appreciated (figured you would be happy not offended that you aren't the only one). I guess we are geeks for even arguing about what a geek is, constantly having a who's logical line is bigger over inconsiquential nonsense like this.
The first time I went off rambling about the latest linux kernel source structure (back when I was 16) and how clean it was with such enthusiasim as to make the listening party look at me with the look of "please god don't hurt me" I knew I was a geek.
For that matter, if you find you are consitently speaking with fellow nerds and it suddenly becomes very apparent they have no clue what you are talking about... you might be a geek.... neck?... sorry jeff foxworthy flashback
sweet god, I'm talking about nothing... damned coffee
Ziff Davis? Ziff freaking Davis? Isn't this the company that couldn't afford to keep a cable tv network about computers going, so they sold it to some other company, who couldn't afford to keep it on either so then THEY sold it to Comcast, who merged it with a channel about video games?
... aw heck, I don't even know what that show's about anymore, other than pumping it's own ego. I'm speaking of the Canadian produced Call For Help. Leo Laporte still freakin' rules, as far as I'm concerned. (remember when blasted was called frosted? yeah, now that I'm reaching 40, my hair's getting a little blasted)
And isn't that same cable channel, the one that only has one show left still about computers*, replacing shows about videogames with the Man Show, Star Trek TNG, and some stupid A-Team show with Bill Bellamy?
And now ZD is talking about how geeks are hot?
Sure the economy's getting a little better, but WE ARE NOT LIVING IN THE YEAR 1997 ANYMORE! The bubble burst a freaking long time ago! Sorry, but this kind of nostalgic ignorance really boils me.
jordi NYC
* PS: Attack Of The Show DOES NOT COUNT! AOTS is NOT the Screen Savers "blasted" with marketing ooze (self-censored). It's
"Essense of Geek"... is that a new cologne by Calvin Klien? Or perhaps it's related to Pimp Juice?
Hmmm?
I kill harmless processes for sport
Warner Brothers, in US, is doing a reality show too. Hot women vs. geeks. You can watch its season 2 on Thursday nights at 9:00 PM (assuming Los Angeles, CA).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I wish all these geeks/nerds would stop copying eachother, and get a personality of their own. They are uniform wearers, just as the suits.
Personally, having been into technology and computers from when I was a child, I hate being labelled just because of my field. I don't see a difference with people who have their 'thing' in other fields, be it sports, music, journalism, etc., and we aren't calling Jordan a sports geek and Madonna a music nerd. But when I know how to succesfully trigger an emacs vs vi flame war, I must start wearing cheap t-shirts, smelly sneakers (the uniform) and attach the well documented personality to it. No thank you.
You guys with the 'proud to be a nerd' thing have a serious lack of identity. I feel sorry for you.
Whatever else you might think of Bill Gates, you gotta admire a geek that becomes a billionaire. That is a large part of why geek is no longer stigmatized.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
Being a "geek" seemed to become the "cool" thing to be after people started finding out they could get stuff for ""free" ie. games, software, music, movies, etc... This obviously does not define what a geek is. Just the misinformed trying to think they are.
I'm the only one who gets talk, that's nice freaks.
A young man I was and an old man I am...
8 00.gif from there: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/comp/cmoll/cmoll.htm l
Or to put it another way: Being clevva isn't doing clevvah.
As for example, being a geek would get you here: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/comp/cmoll/20040151
But how many of you can work out what to do with it?
Actually, there is a misnomer involved; as the ancient empire got its greatness from war and only learned what was well known to other empires by conquest (very ungeek.)
Seeing as Alexander died in his thirties and his generals spent the remaining generations to Rome fighting each other, it isn't suprising that the Roman empire lasted so much longer....
Never mind about all that crap. I'll tell you what, if you really are a geek, I will give you the answer for the above if you can find out how to ask me for it. Clue:
It's Greek to me. But it is more your North African, in reality.
funny it seems.. with the posting of that article /. has just given birth to the "geek snob" trying to
justify thier geekiness by saying that everyone else is not one, funny, a few years ago no one
wanted to be one..
remember, you read it on /. first :P
PS. let the flaming of me commence.. bring it on geeks!!!
http://www.ps3grill.com/
Proof that the *geek* is going mainstream - all the old-school geeks complaining that the term is being used too broadly, and these aren't real geeks.
Think of someone with average intelligence. Now think 1/2 the world is dumber than that guy.
But a *real* geek wouldn't have an endianness bug in his initial routine.
Watch it here.
Open Source Alternatives
To quote Jack Nickolson and Tom Cruise...
_
I want the Geeks, The whole Geek and nothing but the Geeks!
YOU CANT HANDLE THE GEEKS!
_________________________________________________
Will the real slim-shadey.. err.. reeel-geeks please stand up, please stand up...
This has been another valuable and informative opinion from:
Catahoula!
It's a new fragrance by Ralph Lorien.
In some ways I used to be the antithesis of geek. For example, my college experience- joining a frat and "Fear and Loathing in..." Berkeley, California. If people really knew what things I did earlier in life... haha. Considering how much work I now do with computers I am wondering if I have changed into a geek. That would seem to be the opposite of how many people evolve.
Around where I work, this "Essence of Geek" of which you speak is BO.
I not the geekiest guy, but I am pretty damn close. I have been writing software since i was 10 years old, and doing evertyhing from assembler to basic. I can talk protocols, architecture, and best practices. I always have some kind of book with me related to software and computers. However, this does not impress anyone. Nobody cares if you know how a computer works, or what registers and opcodes are - unless there computer breaks.
However, geeks have definitely come into the spotlight in the past 6 or 7 years. Geeks are getting attention in TV shows, as another poster already pointed out, like in CSI, House, and Mythbusters (not so sure how many non-geeks watch Mythbusters though). Geeks do seem to get a certain amount of respect though - but usually from co-workers and other more intelligent people. Have you noticed the number of people that claim to be hackers, and brag to their friends about how they secretly downloaded movies by hacking through mainframes and evading the man (read "used Kazaa")? These people want the respect and admiration that is given to those that truely *can do*.
Being a geek does not mean that you have to be socially inept, pale, and skinny (or way overweight). I go out frequently, date lots of beautiful women, and hit the gym 3-4 times a week. Being a geek is about capability and interest. The capability to solve complex problems and the interest to discover them in the first place. The capability to discuss intricate systems with a high level of comprehension and understanding.
Being a geek is most definitely *not* owning toys (iPods, Media Center PCs, etc), pocket protectors, bad hygiene, or even caffeine. And many people like to throw in that gamers are geeks. While gamers can be geeks, many gamers can't even begin to tell you about the inner workings of a PC, or even their beloved PS2/XBox/Gamecube.
And for those of you who identify yourselves as geeks, this does not mean that you can't shower everyday, have to drink so much caffeine that you have a heart murmor, or hang out in computer stores. I mean for crying out loud, take a shower!!
Aa
I sacrificed a chicken and chanted a bit to get a server restarted once, does that count as being a geek ?
of geeks baring .gifs
This article and thread is just so much E! T.V. drivel. I can't believe that this entire thread has been about defining two (until now apparently) slanderous names (among hundreds) given to the socially inept by immature children in order to boost their own egos back in fucking high school (for those of you still in high/middle/elementary school, you are hereby exempt from my rant). Geek and nerd are/were derogatory terms. Made up names. Childish one-upmanship transmogrified here into personal ego-boosting. Anyone who buys into the 'Nerds and geeks are two different things' bs is a fucking tard for giving it a second thought in the first place. It's just name calling. Weather main-stream culture shifts their meanings from the negative to the positive is irrelevant. They're made up words and you're all juvenile for entertaining this discussion in the first place. Get over yourselves.
for having a small wang or else just a low sense of self-esteem. Real men don't need BMW's, McMansions, and other superficial crap to get laid and more importantly be happy. I see this all the time in my profession and the sad thing is these guys would be a lot more happy if they saved their money and didn't live beyond their means and invested that money in some weights to lift at home (geeks tend to be introverts which means they are gym averse), maybe a decent multivitamin, and some good healthy food.
A lot of geeks spend zero time on taking care of themselves and either look like Skeletor at one extreme or else Chris Farley at the other extreme, yet they parade their money around like women should be attracted to them like flies are to a dung heap. The sad thing is women are attracted to their money, and when they get suckered into marrying and find out a year or two later that their wife now has a bad boy boyfriend on the side, while the divorce papers are in the mail, they scratch their heads and wonder how it could happen to them.
Just because you are involved in technology, does not give you license to be a weakling because you think the size of your brain is the only thing that counts. In reality, it helps to cover all the bases which means not being lazy with your health or your social skills. Too many geeks spend zero time in their 20's improving their social skills with both men and women, and then when they finally get enough money, they wonder why everyone is still laughing at them.
Most of these "geeks" are good guys and they mistakenly follow the celebrity culture like many superficial women do and think that they need to be "ghetto fabulous" or "metrosexual" for people, and especially women to take interest in them or at the very least respect them. Maybe these "geeks" had shitty male role models when they were growing up, or maybe their dad was a helpless geek, but when I talk to a lot of my peers about how the world really works, they just seem dumbfounded and immune to change.
If god could take Chuck Norris and cut him up into little pieces and put a little piece of him in every geek guy out there, then the world would be a much better place. Until that happens, you are going to have geeks earning 100K a year and spending the money like they are millionaires, and then when their job gets outsourced and they are broke they will come here on Slashdot and whine about how bad their life sucks, when they should of just been a little more frugal and conservative with their money when the going was good.
In my mind, a geek is someone who plays with technology (exluding gaming console and the like). Someone who given a gadget can figure out what it does and how it works and have fun in the process. Basically, if you need the manual, you're not a geek.
Now nerd, that is someone who argues about linux vs windows and the like.
As a student on a non-tech course (Latin American studies), I've noticed that my comrades jump at any opportunity to call themselves geeks. It's not usually related to computers - for example, "I'm such a geek!" after explaining the library's archive system. Aside from this, they profess no technical knowledge, and despite being students, and therefore pro-being-clever, are still doing the fashionably computer-illiterate act.
Away from university, this is even more extreme. People are still openly hostile to technology, and most have some whine story about being forced into some tech upgrade at work and the terrible consequences, which they eagerly repeat at all opportunities.
So, an affinity for computers is no longer social suicide. And Apple did a good job of marketting the iPod by not playing up its tech side, instead focussing as usual on "lifestyle" and silhouettes of dancers.
I see articles like this as the start of an avalanche of mass-media attempts to market people like us as a cool subculture. Apple and IBM are analagous to the waters receding (yes, this is some sort of avalanche-tsunami combo. Eat it bitches).
I Love and use Linux/Unix as being an admin a fairly decent company. And I do user Microsoft Windows. I dont know why people one way or the other tend to hate Microsoft and Bill Gates. Its by Virtue of Microsft and Bill Gates that people who know nothing about computers are using computers. I dont know why people here on slashdot tend to divert from topic and start bashing MS/Bill Gates.
Richard Stallman
Bill Gates
Linus Torvalds
are one of the most respectable hackers of their time. If Bill Gates has a different attitude towards money or business that doesnt puts him in a situation where we can call him technically challenged or some one who doesnt deserver respect in IT/Computer Science by any means. I totlaly believe "Those who don;t understand unix/linux are condemned to rewrite it poorly" but my mother wont be emailing me if there were no windows. There are issues with Microsft business model and sofware security but come on this post wasnt about it!
and yes Geek is a person who uses technolody in a way it wasnt intended to be used and nerd thinks in they ways that are unconvetional but elegant and itroduce break throughs in science. So nerds are closer to science(theory) while geeks are closer to technology(application).
I am a CS student and will admit to being a bit geeky. What you will notice is that most groups of like people in society (well when growing up anyway) seem to define themselves/ be defined by what they listen to. Can geeks be defined in this way?
A recent survey by the Sci-Fi channel discovered that an increasing number of women could be included in the ranks of a new demographic it nick-named "New Geek". The research revealed that a third of the UK's total 6.9 million geeks were actually female. "Whereas once geeks were seen as solitary, embarrassing and uncool, the statistics show that New Geek is chic, popular and hugely influential," the researchers claimed.
So, it's now more common and more cool to be a geek simply because there are more *women* getting into technology.... As a woman, I find that characterization stupid.
Q: How do you tell if a Russian computer geek likes you?
i d=6647090
A: His shoes look at you while he is talking.
http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=71358&c
As many of you have already said, material wealth has nothing to do with being a "geek", unless you're a banking geek, a la fictional TV personality Alex Keaton. The author is getting pop culture confused with the real thing. It happens all the time. The entertainment industry is built up this. The clothes, the attitude, the gadgets... it's all an act to emulate a particular style, but it's shallow. The fashion and entertainment industries are built on the practices of making people uncomfortable with their appearance and unhappy with what they own. These "New Geeks" are no more geeks than...
...shaggy-haired, earth-tone-colored, worn-out-clothes-wearing middle-class kids were grunge rockers in the 90s...
...baggy-pantsed, boat-shoe wearing preppies were R&B rappers in the late 80s...
...bearded, long-haired, and stoned-out rich college-kids were hippies in the 60s...
Every generations got 'em: Trend whores. Sorry, but I didn't choose to be a geek, and I'm not emulating anyone. This is the way I am. I felt the pressure to conform when I was younger, but I was too geeky to do it right, and that just made me more of an outsider. Now I'm older and I don't care. I conduct myself and dress the way I feel comfortable. I don't care how anyone else styles their hair, chooses to dress, or what gadgets they buy.
I've been tinkering with electronics and computers since I was eight or so. That doesn't automatically make me like every computerized gadget out there, so I dislike that stereo-type. I have to stand there and make a forced smile when people ask me about these worthless trinkets, many of which I hate:
"Home theater" and associated gadgetry - I'm starting to hate DVD players because they've been turned into MPAA nag-ware devices. I had an expensive home-theater set-up, but I sold off all the components because it was impractical, and the 5 remotes with 50,000 molecule-sized buttons apparently weren't my cup of tea. I realized that building speaker enclosures using "exotic" designs was the more enjoyable activity. Then there was a feature war that ruined the quality and usability of the equipment in much the same way it ruined PDAs, mobile phones and digital cameras. That was the final nail in the coffin for me. PC "home theater" is even worse. I don't see the point of owning a 7-channel sound card. If I ever get into it again, I'll start by building my own single-channel amps and speaker enclosures.
PDAs and other hand-held gadgets - I can't stand PDAs because they're worthless; I've memorized all the important telephone numbers and people I need to know, and I can recall immediately the couple-dozen passwords I need to get things done. My notepad doesn't need batteries, and always records what I write, correctly, and on the first try. I hate mobile phones, because they're overly-complicated, noise-y and unreliable. It may take 22 hours for an important voice-mail message to get to me, but hey, those games work every time. As you can imagine, I'm personally offended by the existence of combination PDA-phone-camera devices.
Mobile phones - The CB of 21st century. Obnoxious little devices that suck the money out of people's wallets, while doing their supposed primary function worse than the previous generation of devices. I can never figure out how these people can afford 7000-minute plans for everyone in the family and a new phone every six months. Give me a simple device that does SIP so I can hack it to talk to my PBX, and then I'll be interested.
Cheap digital cameras, PC cameras - Remember this fad? Yeah, those are all in a landfill now. What a waste, but sorry, the definition of "New Geek" has changed, and you need an iPod now. Like anyone wants to see my ugly mug.
Modern amateur radio equipment - The hobby mainly consists of buying outrageously expensive, feature-packed, Japanese-built equipment and yakking 'til you drop on the maximum legal PEP level over a pre-fab antenna. Hams are much w
Kids are still punished for their desire to learn in school
Jocks are still lauded throughout society, not just high school
BUT as we age, those things that were derided early on (book l'arnin', etc) allow "us geeks" to rise up much farther than the fat-head jock wrestlers who had their moments of glory in high school.
Geeks peak later.
And for grins, I'm posting the lyrics to Friends Forever by the Old 97s because it's a fantastic nod to the outcasts in high school. (of which, by geek definition, 95% of us were such)
Friends Forever
I was a debater
Was not a stoner nor an inline skater
Was not a player nor a player hater
I was just a bookworm on a respirator
Who's to say that's wrong
I was in the chess club
Didn't have a swimming pool much less a true love
Didn't have a dalliance much less a hot tub
I was just a brain whose brain never let up
Who's to say that's wrong
The twelve years after five
Are years we're lucky to survive
Hang in there friends forever
In memory far away
Hang in there friends forever
In memory far away
Went out for the football team
Found out the hard way that you can't live your Dad's dream
Had pretty thin skin to be in the machine
Then I found a guitar and the rest's a fanzine
Who's to say that's wrong
The moral of the song
Is that the high school kids are wrong
You know they have been all along
Come graduation day you'll be gone
Hang in there friends forever
In memory far away
(end)
Cheers, bitches. :)
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
...then why can't most male geeks get dates?
*watches iron-clad karma melt into hot slag*
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
Isn't the true metric of geekiness in direct correlation to you're slashdot user reID Number? Not once in that article did they mention that! If you ever want to judge a nerd, ask them for thier slahdot number. Posers Beware! (and no, I am NOT as geeky as you are)
It always feels good to see the bastard that made your life so difficult for months in a row because you are a "geek" having to serve you your salmonfilet in your favorite fancy restaurant.
Or the "cool guys of the class" that apparently got addicted to amphetamines and are now walking zombies without a job or any prospects of finding one soon.
Sorry if this sounds sadistic, but sometimes...
int main(void) {while(1) fork(); return 0;}
Newsflash, Eric Raymond wrote "The Cathedral and the bazaar"
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/G/geek.html I cant belive no one have mentioned the Jargon files.
My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
The funny thing is, I didn't even read the article. Slashdot is my homepage one one of my browsers, and when it came up, I noticed the latest story had no "Read More" line following the article (which means it was posted only seconds before). So after 10 years of reading Slashdot, I thought A new article, and nobody noticed yet! This may be my best chance ever!.
The beautiful irony that resulted from my positive karma is that I pulled the ultimate geek stunt on this particular article.
I'll tell you, the cosmic and real 100 karma points of my first and probably only successful first post far outweighs the slashdot negative karma of "troll"
I also learned that you have to wait between clicking "reply" and clicking "submit", when that happened, my hopes were almost dashed.
Now all I have to do is post every article I see on slashdot back to Slashdot so Zonk can post my first article.
"ZDNet has a feature on The Essence of Geek,..."
What? Is this some kind of new cologne by Richard Stallman, as he shakes his hippy hair/beard from side to side in the commercial as it mimicks those herbial essense ones for women's shampoo? Seriously!
"Did someone say...purge?"
I write sig's like I know what I'm talking about.
It seems to me that the terms "geek", "whitehat" and "hacker" are used to describe the new trends, eg. using techonology and so on, but they seem to lack the skills and knowledge. Being a true geek and/or a hacker means you can think outside the box and reverse engineer things + you don't brag about your real skills and you walk in the shadows.
Per Aspera Ad Astra.