June 26th, 2009
Weekend stuff: geeks who love to help
Earlier today I was speaking with an Adobe Flex geek. I needed some help with a wee project and he’s an Adobe rockstar. It was a real pleasure to have someone solve a problem in 10 seconds flat with which I’d been scratching my head for several hours. That’s what geeks do - solve problems.
Three years ago, Craig Cmehil invited me to RIA Hacker night at SAP TechEd. I knew nothing about RIA, didn’t want to know and secretly thought I’d be bored. But he said the magic words: ‘There’s free beer.’ I’m eternally grateful to Craig because that night was an ah-ha experience.
While I spend a lot of time talking to marketing types I’d never really spent any deep time with geeks. Some might say: ‘To your eternal shame,’ but this was a genuine learning experience from which I have benefited many times over in the years that have followed. This is what I discovered:
- Smart geeks may argue about such trivialities as the install routine but they know how to solve problems in ways that mere mortals would find mind numbing.
- If you have half a clue what you need to get done, geeks will sit with you until the other half is resolved. How many others do you know who have that patience?
- Geeks are rarely patronizing when you show yourself to be an idiot.
- Really smart geeks can think about three or more things at the same time and not get confused. Watching how they process problems is an experience you rarely forget.
- Given half a chance, geeks are eager to help. I sense that’s because few people ask them, often relegating them to the status of plumber.
- Geeks may at times appear to be strange but they can be intensely social when given the opportunity.
All of the above applies equally to both men and women. I guess it’s the way geeks are cast. Perhaps I’ve been privileged, maybe I’ve been lucky. All I can say is that today I prefer a geek event over a tech marketing event. Who’d have thunk that of an enterprisey businessy type?
What’s your experience? Am I looking at the world through rose colored spectacles?
Dennis Howlett has been providing comment and analysis on enterprise software since 1991. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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