My point is, I think a geek has more to it. If that was your definition, what would a supreme expert at following and writing a blog be?

The measuring scale should have been lowered on that term a while ago already. Geek is too close to the pinnacle of your field and everyone is calling themselfs by that title and it looses all meaning.

You live for watching the Simpsons and you took the time to write this.. and research the topic. Face it dude, you are a geek.

As the only person here that probably wouldn’t call himself a geek and know only the basics of computers, I feel I would like to comment on the loose use of the term ‘geek’. I’ve read some definitions of the word on this blog and looked it up on the nets’ dictionary, etc and I feel I want to share my thoughts on it and get your feedback.

I think the word was probably started some years ago as an alternative to the word nerd as it might be taken as derogatory. It seems by definition a nerd is higher on the scale of computer knowledge than a geek, only coupled with bad social skills The word ‘nerd’ was probably started, in my view, by people refering to a person who was sitting in front of the pc all day and being an absolute expert in his field, and thus creating groundbreaking work. I doubt he was sitting there and suddenly got an opitemy and thought “hell, theres no word for what I’m doing” so decided to call himself a nerd! It was most probably given to him by people around him.

Which brings me to my point. I think a word like geek and nerd is something given to someone by the man on the street, not by oneself. I’ve heard someone the other day call himself a geek that I know for sure knows less about computers than I do! It seems that anyone who knows where the ‘on’ button is for a pc or sells software or even only assembles a computer thinks he’s a geek. Not to me you’re not! The term seems to be thrown around in your industry as if it’s a title- you move from techie (or similar), to geek to nerd.

In my opinion, save it for the people who deserve it. If you are doing groundbreaking work, developed a new operating system, cured computer cancer,… something that defines you from the guy next to you and people are hanging on your every word and following your every move to see what you’ll come up with next, thats a geek. Just because I use mathematical formulas every day as an mechanical design engineer, does not make me a ‘math-geek’ or a ‘design-geek’. If I was to do that, what would you call Niels Bohr or Albert Einstein (to name a few)- super-duper-uber-math-nerd? Few people feature on a scale with them in math terms. Compare yourself to those people before sitting back and calling yourself an expert in your field.

That’s my definition of a ‘geek’.

I agree that there should be pricing on the first page – especially when premium-rated USSD surfaces!

hmm..

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Black_Hawk_Down

Mr.Atto: Don’t make the mistake of thinking because I grew up without running water I am simple General. I do know something about history. See all this? It’s simply shaping tomorrow. A tomorrow without a lot of Arkansas white-boys’ ideas in it.

It would be very interesting where a bit of competitiveness takes the geekdinner idea..

Mike: yes, geeks have balls.

Mr. Atto said – “All this is simply shipping tomorrow”, not shaping…

@angus: yes I’m aware that USSD is taking off and has huge potential. I’ve played with various USSD applications over the years but the one issue I have with it is that (a) people who use premium rated USSD fail to mention that it’s R 1.20/minute on their first screen and (b) sessions timeout after two-three minutes, before you finish typing in your email address into a reply box you are disconnected.

Quick 1 in correction ‘cos Dave & Conrad did the BarCamp together – I was a total slacker on that one, but geekspin & marketinggeek made it happen.

The drama from the geekdinner/27 thing was supposed to be a quiet disagreement btwn Mike & I that got out of hand and spawned a beast with two heads.

Best if the one siamese twin gets on with the other, because we’re sharing the same body!

If you’ve ever developed software you’ll know what I mean. Having your marketing & dev not getting on means the project suffers & we all end up looking like idiots.

We’ll just have to get more competitive about creating better & more exciting events than the other.. and keep inviting each other. (and heaven knows geeks can be competitive!)
Classic co-opetition for the greater good >> I don’t want to bloody well leave SA:
I want the brilliant people I know to do so well that we become a global tech hotspot & every1 wins.

Make it so >>

PS.. thanks to Dave for staying the course on organising this dinner – I know that a lot of the original plans he had for the eve didn’t go as expected (longwinded talks wasn’t on the bill – tighter discipline on the speakers for the next pleeeeeeease!) I know Tertia & I toddled outside & I would’ve LOVED to have chatted more to the brilliant people who came. He’s a marketer though & if there’s one thing any decent marketer does – it’s listen to feedback – and he got a lot, I know the next will be cooking!