The Geek Class

While we can’t admit to having watched the show, we did find ourselves completely intrigued by a new reality show that stars three transgender women doing makeovers, not the least of the intrigue stemming from the fact that the very people who made fun of the them when young are now ogling them sans context. Transgender makeovers might not seem an obvious parallel to the world of high tech, but it mirrors quite closely a trans-cultural revolution taking place today, one that begins with pop culture and ends with billionaires.

For those who either lived through the 80’s or have at least seen some of its pop-stars, you know they could kick the crap out of today’s musicians. Their hair alone, while bizarrely feminine in length and style, had more muscle than the hipsterish frames that hold up today’s feminine framed rockers. Yet, it is the artist musician who dominates the non r&b charts. Who do they remind you of by chance? Perhaps, we are reading into the situation too much, but we can’t help but notice how today’s musician’s don’t look like iconic rockers. They don’t seem to have defined a style so much as their being a product of a particular culture. The musicians of today don’t just look like many coders; chances are many could have easily become coders had they not focused on music.

Thinking about some of the more popular musicians today brings up a question of semantics that previously didn’t exist. If they look as much like musicians as programmers, what exactly is a programmer? It turns out that question is not as easy to answer as it might seem. Were this the big hair 1980’s, the answer would be easy, as the world was black and white. If you weren’t in the in crowd, and you dressed along the lines of today’s hipsters, you would be a nerd. Thinking about today, there is something about the definition of a nerd that doesn’t quite fit. Many of today’s rockstars, and many of today’s future billionaires might not have had uproarious and riotous social lives, but they definitely weren’t nerds.

We were talking to someone the other day who helped shed light on the cultural transformation we are undergoing. There are still “nerds” today, but the new cool are geeks. While arguably similar to die hard followers of Motley Crue, the two have very different personalities. As it was explained to us, nerds tend to be more of the classic loner. It’s not that they don’t have friends, but they often prefer being alone and are more comfortable outside of more traditional social settings. Geeks can at times be equally socially inept, but they aren’t loners. They are geeks because their interests often involve more mechanical proclivities. They often like stuff – building it, breaking it, and understanding complex systems in a way that many others can’t. That, in and of itself, often separates them from others. They aren’t necessarily intimidated by others; their interests just don’t overlap and/or they don’t aspire to be like others.

The Geek Class is something we have been trying to wrap our heads around since deciding we weren’t “geeky” enough to join a 500 Startups Geeks on a Plane Event. In the context of not being geeky enough, we were in fact just not cool enough. We imagined being on a two week adventure with people that knew stuff, who could do more than drink, they could hack, people for whom the process of creating was more exciting than getting attention. We pictured ourselves on a plane with those who might be or would become famously wealthy for a late night idea they decided to put to code in a week. It is and perhaps always will be a culture we can admire but never be a part of. In the old paradigm of nerds, that was ok. Who wanted to relate? Not so in the new paradigm.

In the new paradigm, we see all we need to know by our rock and roll stars looking similar in appearance to the geek stars. It is now not only ok to be a geek, it is aspirational to be one. The popular biblical quote describes how the meek shall inherit the Earth. We are definitely not the first to realize the geeks shall inherit the Earth. We just understand the t-shirt now.