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"Geeks were considered less that nothing by society. The working world didn't trust them, believe in them or value them. They were basically rejected, as something annoying you had to have somewhere in your closet. My father actually told me in 2003 that he was disappointed I choose to work in such a boring field."

Exaggerating a bit? By a bit I mean a lot? I know that some geeks had hard childhood and were bullied, but way more others were not. Plenty of fathers were disappointed over children choosing various professions.

The way you people talk about it makes it sound as if all people who ever went into tech were bullied outcasts and that is simply not true.

Seems to me he is mixing geeks and nerds.

The impression i have is that the geek label came into effect during the dot-com era as a way to be a web guy without the "no social graces" stigma.

These days you get geeks appropriating nerd elements as a element of their self promotion, resulting in hipsters...

Nerds is what we call today the people we called geeks yesterday.

To be honest, the difference between geeks and nerds is so regional that it's hardly ever worth trying to explain the distinction. I always found it interesting that the difference between the two words could change so radically depending on where you are, considering most of the west got the same movies and TV shows.

I'm not exaggerating by one bit.

At best you had an "ok" situation. Nothing like the "rock star" attitude you get today.

Not only geeks where the less popular in school, but the media mocked them. And this snowballed into the workplace where the only people threated like the IT department was the accounting one.

The pay was not nearly in the same area. Nobody would consider buying a dual screen for their IT dev a minimum requirement.

I can recall people dreading to call the sysadmin to deal with anything. Talking to them was considered a chore.

The best way to defend this is that before the ipod existed, noone would ever say "I'm such a geek". Today somebody playing too much on iphone would say that. We call girls with cute glasses "geeks".

This is an interesting tidbit regarding pay. I have a feeling (no data) that the compensation for lots of professions mostly gravitate around some value that is connected to the perceived social status of said profession. Supply and Demand often really doesn't factor in as much as it should. But maybe it's just because compensation in Germany is weird in general.

it's because salaries aren't public. if you had public salaries you'd see a huge quick readjustment.

> The pay was not nearly in the same area.

Because the dot-com bubble had recently burst...

"At best you had an "ok" situation. Nothing like the "rock star" attitude you get today."

Not being rock star is not an oppression. The ok treatment is what majority of people have. I mean, not being treated as something super special is not "considered less that nothing by society". It is being considered normal.

"And this snowballed into the workplace where the only people threated like the IT department was the accounting one."

There is nothing wrong with the accounting department. In pretty much all workplaces I have been at, they have been treated with respect. In any case, if that workplace treated accountants badly too, the workplace was shitty for more then one group.

"I can recall people dreading to call the sysadmin to deal with anything. Talking to them was considered a chore."

I have seen such behavior towards admin, but then again I did not liked talking with that particular admin either. I dont doubt that there were groups of great admins that were not treated fairly despite acting all polite and all that. Bad workplaces happen.

However, admin I considered chore to talk with was condescending too often and it was hard to get what I needed from him. He was good in tech, but talking with him was a chore.

"The best way to defend this is that before the ipod existed, noone would ever say "I'm such a geek"."

Yeah, I find everybody is a geek culture annoying too.

"We call girls with cute glasses "geeks"."

Guys with pretty much zero technical skills used to be called geeks just for liking a tv show or play videogame.

Regarding the IT department thing:

From my first job to my current one, I always made sure I was in good stead with the IT department (whatever its size) - it was where I could get cast-off hardware for my computer junk pile!

And yet back then we built the entire infrastructure of the internet and connected the world. Now we use it for Snapchat.

I'm not just being nostalgic. Before quick money ruled over all a lot more actually beneficial innovation took place. Now that the Balkanization is in full swing and the battle lines are drawn we've regressed: realtime chat is fragmented, non-corporate online entities are sidelined everywhere and any attempt at widespread integration and change goes crashing headlong into shortsighted gold rushes. Why do something that works for everyone? You can't monetize that. You can't fight Facebook with that. You can't impress your financial suitors with that.

We could do so much more than we're doing today - and we did. The most painful part of being embedded in Silicon Valley this long is seeing so much potential and momentum sacrificed on the altar of shit like G+.

How is Snapchat not something that connects the world?

Saying that Snapchat connects the world in the sense of GPwould be the same that saying that "AOL discs connect the world", or that "MSN is already web portal that connects the world". You really don't see the difference?

I don't think that you and nikcub necessarily disagree. I read his comment more as "technologists today tend to/are forced to conform more to the expectations of society/powerful instutitions" than a comment about everything being easier before.

> Geeks were considered less that nothing by society.

Please shitcan the hyperbole and grow some perspective. Until geeks are systematically denied fundamental civil rights, until their very lives are routinely under threat because of who they are, they have nothing on the average gay person, let alone the average Muslim, black, or transsexual person.

By the standards of society, most geeks enjoy very privileged lives indeed. They just lack the social wherewithal to play by society's rules.