The Unspoken Truth About Managing Geeks (2009)

computerworld.com

17 pointslegacy20134 comments

I call it "herding cats".

Definitely an uncommon skill, and the top 1% are not even good enough.

I find "managing geeks" to be about as offensive as an 1850 book about "managing niggers".

"geek" is a term that is used to suggest that technical people are somewhat subhuman and of course inferior to managers.

I do not see the negative connotations that you do with the word "geek". I describe myself as a geek or geeky.

That aside, the article is a good one and I have read it several times before and feel that it gets much right.

The term has evolved over time, but it definitively had negative connotations, at least at the beginning.

From the Wikipedia article> This word comes from English dialect geek or geck (meaning a "fool" or "freak"; from Middle Low German Geck)... In 19th century North America, the term geek referred to a performer in a geek show in a circus, traveling carnival or travelling funfair sideshows (see also freak show).

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