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."

Comments

Everyone is a Geek.

[Shadow Wrought]

Everyone. Everyone has that one area of passion in which they excel and have a knowledge of minutae. Be it Red Sox stats dating to 1903, the best ways to obtain and smoke drugs, or how to make a rocket- everyone is a Geek in one way shape or form. Now we're just finally realizing it.

After all, how different is dressing up for a Star Trek Convention and a Football game? Not much...

Re:Everyone is a Geek.

[tommers]

Well one big difference is that the number of people in American society who dress up for Star Trek Conventions is smaller by many orders of magnitudes than the number of people who dress up for Fotoball games.

Not everyone has passion, but more importantly the level of passion for traditional interests like baseball still has much more breadth and depth than baseball.

I agree the geek is "more" chic, especially in certain tech-conscious areas like the valley, but I think the article and this post perceive it to be a much more significant trend than is justified by the info provided.

And to look at it from another perspective, I think modern politics have reflected an increase in anti-intellectualism. This was most apparent in the success of the the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign and an antagonism towards science the Intelligent Design issue seems to have espoused/surfaced. And while geeks might not value the "cultured" aspect of intellectualism, they still seem to be pro-intellectual.

Re:Everyone is a Geek.

[tsaler]

I don't have any problem with the majority of what you said in your post. The only thing I take issue with is the claim about anti-intellectualism. I'll try to clarify.

Anti-intellectualism is, to me, a belief that those who are academics or intellectually-inclined are bad. You'll find this sometimes, I hate to say it, in a lot of blue collar communities across the country. I come from one such community, though I didn't find the sentiment to be as strong as I have seen it elsewhere.

What I think you see from time to time, though I won't be so bold as to attach it to the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign, is a similar philosophy that says academics aren't any better than mechanics or any other group of people. This is more along the lines of what I subscribe to, and what I think people from where I grew up tend to subscribe to.

Intellectualism is held on a pedestal by some people. If somebody says that intellectuals and academics are no better than the rest of us, that is sometimes construed as "anti-intellectualism" I think.

To use your Intelligent Design example, some folks out there believe that evolution just isn't so. That doesn't mean that teachers can't teach it in schools, but you would be missing the other half of the story if you didn't see the heavy disdain heaped upon the religious community by the so-called intellectuals for belieiving in creationism in the first place. I'm fairly certain most Intelligent Design advocates have no problem co-existing with evolution. I believe they would argue that it's the intellectuals who refuse to co-exist with their beliefs. Whether any of that is actually true I won't begin to address here.

I've heard people complain that they suffer from anti-intellectualism, and I've heard people make what I think you would consider "anti-intellectual" statements of their own. So I'm not coming at this from one side or the other.

I'm more educated than the average American based on the statistics, but I dislike the superiority complex of some academics/intellectuals as much as the next guy. I don't think I'm anti-intellectual; I just think academics and intellectuals are in the same boat as the rest of us. I'm seriously opposed to the idea of philosopher-kings, and it bugs the heck out of me when professors in particular get their heads in the clouds like that from time to time.

If you are thinking of a more specific example of anti-intellectualism within the Bush-Cheney campaign I'd be happy to address it, but I think you might be projecting general criticisms of conservatives in American politics onto a specific campaign when maybe it's not the most accurate thing in the world.

Just my two cents.

Geek = wealth?

[dada21]

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.

Glorious Geek Revolution

[tokki]

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.

Re:I don't know about rockstar

[Lord_Dweomer]

While I got the tone of your post, I'd like to point out that there is a distinction with the current trend of geekiness from before.

Before, in the tech boom, people thought it was cool to be a geek because if you were good with computers, you must make a lot of money, and people don't want to work, so they want to be married to someone who makes a lot.

Nowadays people are actually interested in what we geeks are as opposed to just our earning potential (however misinformed they may be about that).