geek

[kelley]

At 12:11 AM 9/13/00 -0500, Kendall Clark wrote:
> >>>>> "Peter" == Peter K <peterk at enteract.com> writes:
>
>
>     Peter> For me, the defining characteristic of computer geeks or
>     Peter> nerds is their propensity to condescend towards those who
>     Peter> lack their expertise.
>
>I think this is largely a stereotype; after all, what's more
>condescending? Microsoft's Talking Paperclip, and the attitude that
>ordinary people are too stupid to really understand anything about
>their computers; or giving away your code to the world at
>large to read, study, and learn from, and then assembling that code
>into operating systems that are challenging but give users a
>tremendous amount of power.

giving away code, as far as i can tell, is all about showing everyone how 
big your dick is.  it is a competition, one upmanship.  not much about 
sharing and caring in that practice, if you ask me.  it's about how big  a 
MAN you are for sharing. with the emphasis on "voluntary giving" and being 
in position to be able to do so w/o much reflexivity on how one got 
there.  who's the 3133+ H4x0R d00d???!! :)

what else explains the why open source isn't really open source?  eh?


>Just my 2 sociological cents.
>
>Kendall Clark
>
>PS--I'm still a bit puzzled that the word 'geek' is what people found
>interesting from my essay; I was sure I'd be jeered at for the talk of
>not wanting to cooperate with evil institutions. Go figure. :>

didn't have time.  :)

kelley