sounds a lot like libraryland: "Geeks are smart and creative, but they are also egocentric, antisocial, managerially and business-challenged, victim-prone, bullheaded and credit-whoring. To overcome these intractable behavioral deficits you must do X, Y and Z" - jambina

I resemble that remark! (and so do many of my friends) - Aaron the Librarian

yeah, the whole article looks a lot like me - D0r0th34

Same here. I forwarded it around to our tech staff. - Peter Murray

I have been very lucky to work for good IT bosses. - DJF

But I *am* always right! Wait. . . um. . . - laura x

One of my previous bosses described his main responsibility as "protecting the team" from the rest of the company. - DJF

strikes me that whether the author explicitly meant IT pros or not, it speaks to my tribe. This is who we are and how we operate, regardless of profession... - Jenica

This isn't resonating for me. Sounds like no librarian I have ever worked with. In fact this: "If you need someone to keep track of where projects are, file paperwork, produce reports and do customer relations, hire some assistants for a lot less money," actually sounds like the core competencies of most librarians I know, rather than work to be farmed out to assistants. - Steve Shreds

DJF: The reason the article resonated with me is I recognized my good IT bosses when reading the article. - Peter Murray

Resonated for me because it captures perfectly a lot of the impedance mismatch between myself and some elements of my current workplace. - D0r0th34

Steve, that's interesting, because it's not the core competencies of most of the librarians I work with... it's specifically the work we wish we had more assistants to take off our hands. (Except customer relations; the service-fu here is strong.) - Jenica

Ah, I may just be cranky again today. [WITHDRAWN] - Steve Shreds

Sorry, I must be suffering drama withdrawal after yesterday. See you guys later. - Steve Shreds

::yawn:: Quite a few good points but quite stereotypical in the opposite direction. Contains an awful lot of universalisms about "IT pros." I guess there's always the out that if an IT worker doesn't fit his rosy picture then they aren't really a "pro." Oh, wait. I think it sounds a lot like librarianship too now. - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

Mark, of *course* it's a generalization. It's also an opinion piece discussing stereotypes and management -- it's going to fail on some level, automatically, because there is no one answer to any such scenario. The world is too individualized for that. But in my eyes that doesn't negate the interesting things it does say about a segment of people - IT pros or not. Which is a segment I've experienced, and relate to. (And, also, your bitterness is showing.) - Jenica

Not trying to say it doesn't speak to folks. Heck, parts of it spoke to me. But I had to read past his prose because while he didn't say any such thing, to me, it sounded like I couldn't be/value those things because I'm not an "IT pro." And I have run into plenty of IT folks who are utterly good at promulgating the stupid. But, yes, my bitterness is showing. No doubt abut that. I shall retire to find some moody music & leave the cheerful alone. - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

Huh, that's an exclusionary reading that I didn't see at all. I tend to read articles that are about "someone else's" niche as though they *might* apply to mine -- that's the whole point, for me, of reading outside of my own profession's literature. He wasn't trying to be inclusionary -- think about who the audience is for computerworld! *That's* who he's writing to. And so I read it, knowing I wasn't his primary audience, to see what i might learn from someone else's experience and area of expertise that I could then apply to my own. It wouldn't occur to me to read it and say, "Well, I'm not an IT pro, so clearly he's not speaking to or about me." - Jenica

It's occurring to me that the followup to this article might be "what respect looks like among geeks." Saying "management is about respect" is kind of a no-brainer that's always true, but I'm interested in the possibility that respect among techies doesn't look the same as respect among a sales team or management or, oh, say, public services librarians. - Joe Murphy

Also, perhaps, what geeks want to be respected *for*? One of the ultimate insults to geeks I know is disrespect for/disbelief of their honest, well-informed opinion. This can be another source of geekly credit-whoring -- not so much "look at me, I am awesome!" as "look at me, I know my stuff and I want to use that knowledge for your benefit." - D0r0th34

Well, not for nothing, but the article does talk about what respect looks like for geeks: Doing Stuff. - Jason Griffey

Jason - I think the article says that geeks want to be respected _for_ Doing Stuff. I'm asking what actions show Geek Respect. Just as an example, for some people, nothing shows respect like singling people out for recognition, or better still, having people who contributed to an effort stand up and talk about what they did. In a team-focused environment, singling people out can fail, and among achievement-focused groups, exercises in reporting can seem like (disrespectful) busywork. So I'm still looking for Part 2: How to Show Respect To Geeks. - Joe Murphy