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.

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.