There is a certain sadness that comes from watching or listening to 21st century Geeks. Just a few short years ago their predecessors, the late 20th century Geek, were the flavor of the millennium, not to mention the toast of the valley. Indeed for a brief sojourn it was fashionable, even for non-residents, to claim Geek status. Today, however, that publicly traded gene pool has undergone considerable shrinkage. If Geekdom was to point to one defining moment when its crystal clear water cooler turned waterloo yellow, Y2K would have to be the puss-filled acronym that burst the techies' cherry like a Zeppelin flying into in an electrical storm.

Never before have so many resident experts been proven at best, ex-pats, at worst, illegal aliens. Moreover, any self-indulgent attempt to spin out favorable log files after the non-existent cataclysmic fact is so utterly repugnant that it reminds me I have to email my cohorts and ask if they've quit beating their spouses. This complete about face, a pirouette from Geek gladiator to geek herminator, was so resounding so as to demonstrate once and for all why engineers have to be kept at arms length from the real world's cookie jar. But on a more personal note, a personal question, one of a longer-term perspective: ultimately, what really separates a faux geek's fur from a fully dyed in the wool Geek?

To my way of thinking a verifiable Geek is nothing more than someone - anyone, who has no 'applied' concept of economics. Admittedly this, in of itself, is a loaded assertion, for who amongst us dare cast the first dye: guns or butter? Nevertheless, by way of his or her actions, a true Geek practices a different kind of fate, one that concludes that supply is synonymous with 'features' and demand is synonymous with how much you really, REALLY want something, and a general equilibrium is the period between how soon you get it before everyone else seems to get it. But what really separates a dyed in the wool from a more random early adopter is the fallacious (economic) assumption that ultimately the head consumer wags all the laggards plus the suppliers' tail.

Case in point, a fax machine. Does the real Value of a fax come from the machine's ubiquity, or the actual content of the message sent between, a minimum of, two machines? If everyone knew the winning number to tomorrow's lottery, how much do you think the 'losing' tickets would sell for today? If there was only 12 oz of of water left on the entire planet, how much do you think that glass of water would be worth? Today many people see the proliferation of junk email as a potential threat to the Internet itself, but if you ask a real Geek, he or she will tell you that the problem is nothing more than finding the right filtering software - talk about NOT getting it!

My broader point is that there is absolutely nothing 'intelligent' about being disconnected from the full bell of human behavior. For a few too many years the masses in median have been fooled into believing that a few too many Geeks actually 'knew' what they were talking about (and why they were doing IT). Thus the bio-equilibrium that is a bonifide Geek is tantamount to that peron believing that only 'how' matters. This fact may be true in the so-called long run, only I've yet to find anyone who can objectively verify, let alone proxy, first-hand for the long run.

Perhaps a quote from Neal Stephenson is apropos:

"During the information revolution, it became possible for those with an engineering mentality to control large amounts of capital. So people who, if they'd been born a generation or two earlier, would've ended up sitting in a little office at IBM pushing a T-square around ended up becoming captains of industry. From that point of view, it seems like there's been this revolutionary change that's occurred within our lifetimes, but there are precedents. The power of engineers and scientists waxes and wanes. In the '90s, we went through a period when that influence became very large, but those times may be over, at least for a little while."

To surmise, a Geek is someone who stands at the bow of the Titanic yelling, I'm the king of world all the while the seeds are being sown to not just lose the ship, but to lose the girl. Oh the humanity - now that logic is completely faxed.