ThinkGeek: The nerd company at a crossroads | Hacker News Reader

ThinkGeek: The nerd company at a crossroads

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67 pointsjamessun45 comments

Thinkgeek has always been really cool. Unfortunately, some time ago they really wound down their Linux-centric products. I really miss that, as I am not really into pop culture, even geeky pop culture. A stuffed Tux mascot is no longer available from ThinkGeek (or, as far as I can tell circa the last time I looked, the general internet).

I hope ThinkGeek does well, but it's refocused its efforts away from my buying interests.

Agreed. I've watched in dismay as their focus has shifted over the years from "#include <beer.h>" mugs and t-shirts with Larry Wall quotes on them to almost exclusively TV and movie merchandise. From my vantage point, it's not that geek culture has gone mainstream and brought Thinkgeek with it, it's that Thinkgeek has shifted to a more mainstream focus and away from geek culture. Not surprisingly, it's been years since I've ordered anything from them.

Thinkgeek was always kind've pricey. Places like DealExtreme have replaced them for me, at a tenth the price. Sure, I won't have access to NameBrand(tm) branded things... but I look at the hundreds of dollars of stuff I bought at Thinkgeek... and it's all throwaway garbage anyway. The mug that faded on its first trip through the dishwasher; the heat-sensitive coloured putty that lasted all of a couple of days before failing; the usb single-can cooling fridge that doesn't work because there's no insulation and the contact point with the can is miniscule; the list of stuff that looks better on the website than in your hands just goes on and on.

IMO, there has been a merging of marketable elements of geek culture into the mainstream. Merchendise is, above all, sellable, and if you can do it, sellable to a broad audience. In one perspective on the matter, it was inevitable: fans are people highly predisposed to purchase merch; business has a vested interest in boosting sales of branded merch and executing on a spinoff and toy tie-in model.

Popular culture is, quite bluntly, popular, and things like movies have a broad appeal - certainly the drama of life played out on the big screen is more broadly attractive than #include <beer.h>.

All that going to say that it's no real wonder that ThinkGeek "sold out" to double down on profitable merch. I just wish I could still get an 11" Tux to terrify the non-Linux users of my workplace & home.

I'm drinking a beer from that exact mug right now

I completely agree (and I'll avoid starting out by writing 'This.', cause I hate that.)

I've got 15k "geek points" and I'm hard pressed to know what I'd redeem them for...

So, can we get a list of alternatives for nerd (rather than pop-culture geek) shopping? For self and family? (The worst gift I gave my wife was a Micro-Vax one year... But she did like the vintage spectrometer.)

http://shop.momath.org http://adafruit.com http://www.sciplus.com

> The worst gift I gave my wife was a Micro-Vax

You have done a service to mankind. "Well it's not like I gave you a MicroVAX" will be the first line of defense at many a geek's house come Christmas morning.

Was it an actual vintage microvax or are people reproducing FPGA microvaxes now? If it's an FPGA one I'd like to know where to get one so I can play around a bit.

I'm partial to sparkfun.com, makershed.com is also good (less of a focus on embedded electronics than the former).

Wow, I hadn't been on the site in a few years. Kind of sad to see what it's become. Does the world really need another place to buy Big Bang Theory memorabilia?

What's the difference with Star Wars memorabilia?

Was just providing an example. Didn't find it necessary to enumerate all of their products.

I agree; as far as I could tell from shopping for Christmas presents for my wife, ThinkGeek is largely a Dr. Who fan kiosk.

In pursuing a broader audience, surely they're facing more competition?

Nitpicking on the title : ThinkGeek isn't a nerd company, it's a geek company, hence the name. Relevant XKCD : http://xkcd.com/747/

The story from a couple of acquaintances that work there is that it's very much like a tech startup: doesn't pay very well, expects constant overtime without pay, and not very welcoming to female employees.

> and not very welcoming to female employees.

Even with a female co-founder? You would think that this kind of behavior would be less common with one.

(Though it might not be entirely surprising)

In general: people's attitudes towards the type of work and competency of women in certain roles entirely culturally engrained, not sexually engrained. Just because a particular company's boss is a woman doesn't mean she wouldn't see other women as not suited to particular jobs, or men more suited, etc.

In this particular case: The people I have met and talked to were on the web programming side, not product development. Between their stories and my own experiences at other companies, companies that focus on Area Of Business X tend to be founded by experts in X, and have no clue what Y or Z are even there for. So if ThinkGeek were, say, founded by product developers, then IT would get the short end of the stick all the same as if it were founded by sales people.

Yes. There's a good study where the same resume was given to science faculty to rate, sometimes with a male name, sometimes female. When the resume had a female name, it was rated as less competent and deserving of a lower salary and less mentoring. Male and female professors displayed the same bias against the female resumes: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/14/1211286109

Studies like this have been repeated over and over again. This bias is well ingrained in culture. Another good one was a study where people where given a story about a successful person then asked to give adjectives to describe these people. When the person has a male name the adjectives were positive. Female names got negative adjectives.

The other interesting thing is since the 1970s orchestras have used blind auditions where the person auditioning is out of view. Since then females in orchestras have increased dramatically.

http://m.nber.org//papers/w5903

A swirl of other high-level staffing switch-ups also occurred, including a handful of layoffs. Two of the people let go were the remaining co-founders: Vadnais, who essentially invented ThinkGeek, and Frazier, who coined the ThinkGeek slogan: “Stuff for smart masses.”

The idea of being a founder doesn't seem to mean much to them, so I think the scales tip towards the "not entirely surprising" side.

ThinkGeek's female co-founder here... It's true, I'm a founder and was let go. We sold the company early on and though I had a lot of input on hires, it wasn't all up to me, especially as we grew. I can't comment on how women were or are treated by management, but I always did my best to create an awesome culture for everybody regardless of sex, background or geek/nerd affiliation.

I very fondly remember ThinkGeek's early days, if you start a new venture, let the HN community know! I'll definitely be in line as a customer and I'm sure many others here would be too.

Thanks for your reply.

It's good to hear that you did your best to create a good atmosphere there for everyone, and I wish you all the best in your other endeavors.

If they're in California, their over-time without pay is illegal and I've seen more than one company get reamed by the Department of Labor over it.

How do most companies in California avoid getting caught Under federal law most salaried jobs are exempt from paying overtime, I didn't know that California had changed that.

What sort of overtime pay do programmers at Google and Apple get these days?

Hmm WaPo, Fairfax, I think you may be onto something here...

Programmer is an exempt job.

Not always.

The only time I've seen where it wouldn't be exempt is if you paid them hourly.

It isn't that simple. For a software developer to be exempt their salary must be above 83K a year[1]. That is why EA ran a foul of it even though their devs were salaried.

[1]http://www.gotovertime.com/computer_pro.html

"Salary" jobs are exempt, but certain jobs are non-exempt by law, because the work is considered so hourly-like and non-independent that the "salary" is considered a sham.

(Example: You can't be a "exempt, salaried" clerk at a store if you are required to be at the store from 8am to 6pm and are required to do a specific set of tasks in a prescribed way.)

That doesn't say anything about the situation where programmers would ever be non-exempt unless you paid them hourly instead of a salary.

It's been illegal in every state I've ever lived in, but every employer I've ever had has expected it.

Then keep notes of your hours. When you leave, you can get paid for them.

Good to know as a recruiter contacted me a week ago re: a position there.

Not sure why I hear disdain about recruiters. I find it flattering people want to find me a better gig.

I guess you haven't gotten enough annoying attention from them.

Recruiters' incentives are just enough out of line with your own as a job seeker to make them jarring.

it is about as flattering as getting hit on by the sleezy guy wearing a leather shirt in a bar (who might actually work as a recruiter during the day). they attack anything that moves.

Unless you have capped out your salary I say use them to get the best deal. Though is there salary cap in our field?

There is more to a job than just salary. It would also be nice to not have an asshole for a boss.

A potential employer's use of recruiters is a black-mark in my book. To me, it says they couldn't find anyone through their current employees' networks to fill the job. So either their employees have no friends outside of the company, or they are being honest about the company to their friends and their friends are staying away. Neither scenario is any good.

That, and I have never had a good experience with an employer that I came to through recruiters, while having had nothing but good experiences from working my network of friends.

I remember a time when ThinkGeek sold a lot of cool truly nerdy products like Linux mugs and Tux mascots. I'm not a big fan of Star Wars, so the licenced Star Wars products don't appeal to me. I respect ThinkGeek as a company, but I think they need to go back to their roots a little bit if they want to move forward.

"Move forward"? Don't you think their sales figures demonstrate better forward motion than they'd manage by "going back" (your words) to selling stuff for people who materially care about operating systems?

(There's no better way to stay solvent than to chase tiny niches occupied by hypercritical people who'll drop your stuff for reasons nobody else cares about, right?)

The problem is that you can move "forward" right through your optimal balance and not realize until it's too late that you've become just like everyone else, and are therefore commoditized, replaceable. You might still be making a bunch of money, but you're well on your way to burning out, replaced by someone who still has a mission.

I agree with ThinkGeek needing to go back to their roots.

Purchased many things over the years from them but nothing recently. I have always been on their mailing list but now in the last two months get an email from them it seems like almost everyday. About to unsubscribe...

ThinkGeek slowly becoming the Spencer's gifts of the internet. Shame since I used to love the shit they'd come out with. Remember the 8bit tie? The 1up mushroom?

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