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Geeks and “Idea People” Don’t Mix
Since a couple of you are wondering what went on last night, I’m going to blog it in a way that doesn’t single out one person. This is actually a disappointing trend that I’ve been noticing lately, and I want to capture it in a blog without really railroading a single person.
The #1 thing people like about me is my passion and energy. (Technically, those may be two things, but with me, they go together.) Although I do have my down moments (and sometimes days), in general, when you meet me you’ll meet one of the most enthusiastic, passionate people out there. I’m always excited about something. I’m blessed to be an idea person, which means that I will spontaneously throw new ideas into a conversation, and I’m able to see obvious gaps in a market that you or I can exploit to make money. This is what my friends love about me. Some of you really get into the energy that drives me every day and have committed to helping me see through my ideas. My favorite of you are the realists who know me well, but also know when to shoot down an idea. Here’s a great example:
This weekend, I went to IBI. Of course, IBI is full of idea people, so we toss around tons of stuff. One of my more recent ideas popped up there. What if I did a lunch club, with no more than 10 or 15 people, and we targeted small business owners and entrepreneurs? Have 2 people come in and pay $100 each to be speakers and be guaranteed personal connections and networking with the 10 other people, who get a free lunch. Cool, huh? I gave this idea to a couple people at IBI and everyone agreed this was a neat idea, but it wouldn’t be big enough for me to really explore. At most, I’d make $150 a week after paying for everyone’s lunch. This is a great example of the kind of stuff I go through on a daily basis. (I’ll try to blog more of these as I have them so some of you can pick up and explore ones that resonate with you.)
I love the energy I get from other idea people. I feed off it. Often, we end up at a whiteboard, furiously drawing circles to represent market segments and calculating how much money is involved. Of course, being around only idea people and generating ideas all the time is exhausting, and that’s where the team members come in… the execution will rest on their shoulders, and they’ll take an idea and run with it. The idea people and the execution people are totally different people; idea people often have a hard time focusing and we usually have 3 or 4 business ideas in various stages of execution at a time. The execution people are here to make sure the really good ideas do stick to the wall by actually forcing us to sit down and set goals instead of moving on to the Next Big Thing. C is a great example of an excellent execution team leader; he brings some reality back into my life by telling me to settle down and get on with it instead of bouncing around like crazy.
Hardcore geeks and idea people don’t always mix. Geeks tend to be very negative about anything new or changing, and they also tend to have a really tough time gauging the size of a market. Furthermore, they like to use rational analysis to shoot things down, as this proves how intelligent they are. (It doesn’t matter that sometimes they’re dead wrong about what they’re shooting down, or they have no personal experience in a specific area.) For instance, remember when the iPod came out? Slashdot was full of geeks saying “Lame!” Guess what… the iPod has been, unquestionably, one of the most successful MP3 players out there.
In a similar vein, there are a few people out there (I hesitate to call them “friends”) who seem intent on shooting down every idea I have with “That will never work”, “If it was so easy someone else would have done it already”, etc. Inevitably, every person I know like this also happens to be a hardcore computer geek — of the type that runs some variant of Linux on his home PC, thumbs his nose at major corporations, etc.
Realistically, I know not every idea I have will be a million-dollar money maker. A lot of my ideas aren’t even necessarily money-related; I like to evangelize things like my Treo, for instance. I’ve gotten a lot better recently about only evangelizing to people who would really benefit from my ideas. The next step I need to take is distancing my ideas from those who are overly negative about them, because all it does is throw me into a depression tailspin. Unfortunately, my predisposition to picking up energy from other people allows me to pick up negative energy as easily as positive energy. When I am around those with a negative disposition about something, or those who are skeptical about everything that isn’t already working for them, I become negative as well. This isn’t a healthy state.
Hardcore geeks and idea people, it seems, don’t mix. Perhaps I should state this as… hardcore geeks with an extremely skeptical persona (and we all know some people like that) don’t mix with idea people. Note to self: Hang out with entrepreneurs more and Linux geeks less. 
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12 Responses to “Geeks and “Idea People” Don’t Mix”
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That’s a bit of an unfair stereotype. I’m not a negative person (not that you called me one), but I’m a geek. I am definately in the ‘execution’ type of job. I like to work on ideas that seem to work, but shootdown those that seem frivolous. Does that mean that idea people and me can’t get along? No, I think its the opposite… idea people need execution type geeks to concentrate on the ideas that work vs the ideas that won’t. The problem with this pairing, however, is that most ideas (I’d say a good 80%) are usually shot down. Not that they aren’t good ideas, just usually not worth the effort of making a reality.
After rereading, I noticed:
hardcore geeks with an extremely skeptical persona (and we all know some people like that) don’t mix with idea people
I guess this would help explain things. These ‘extreme geeks’ are actually a rare breed. The reason you hear them on things like /. is because they are extremely vocal on their views, and have either no job or a job they hate, so they cruise the net all day giving out their opinions.
Having said that, I best get back to work!
I run multiple OSes on various hardware platforms (Linux and Win32 on x86), yet I love to see new ideas come around. There are plenty of idea-friendly Linux geeks out there, trust me. I for one, welcomed my new alien master, erm, the iPod, when it was introduced over 4 years ago.
I’m a geek with a negative personality, but I don’t go around shooting other peoples ideas down, my negativity tends to focus on myself… not on others. If someone else didnt beat me to the punch I would have been one of the people posting “I, for one, welcome our new apple overlords” in the discussion about the ipods
I had been waiting and waiting for a hard drive based mp3 player to ‘break into’ the mainstream market and all the hardcore geek design ones failed to impress the ‘mass market’ consumer the way the ipod did/does..
Any good idea can be ruined by a lack of proper execution, it’s not just narrowing down the good ideas, so much as narrowing down the good ideas that you can actually implement… I really don’t like ‘dragging’ people down with me, It’s not fun nor is it enjoyable to see other people becoming miserable because you’re around. Some highly negative geeks like to make other people suffer, that’s why they’re called trolls
They are a rare breed, but unfortunately, not rare enough…
Also, I think most of the worst trolls out there don’t even run linux
they pirate windows instead.. So maybe you over estimate the geek population that runs linux/*bsd etc etal.
I was slightly put off by the blanket categorization… Although I know that many people on both sides do fit into these categories, and I can certainly understand your particular situation!
My own experience is that I considera myself an idea person who cannot resist self-teaching myself all kinds of technical skills and digging deep into specific research. In my current employment it is a constant challenge to be accepted both as an engineer and invited to the table where product and business ideas are discussed.
I am a strong idea person, with technical skills, who might not be the most natural people-manager. I know there’s room for people like this in the world, but it can sometimes be difficult to break free of stereotypes in the corporate world. Consulting practice is a more natural fit.
So.. just to summarize a bit more, there are “hardware linux geeks” who are passionate, energetic, and optimisitic.
“No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.”
Ahh… brings back memories… I ordered my 5GB iPod the day it was announced and have loved it ever since. Particularly because it has the awesome spinning wheel.
So ideas do matter!
“No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.”
Ahh… brings back memories… (see http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=22940&cid=2467264 ) I ordered my 5GB iPod the day it was announced and have loved it ever since. Particularly because it has the awesome spinning wheel.
So ideas do matter!
Just to go against the comment stream here a bit, I have to agree with the original post. It’s not just “geeks,” though — there are lots of people in ALL walks of life who seem to exist just to shoot down ideas. I’m sorry to disagree with the other commenters here, but geeks are among the worst for this. I know Slashdot’s not the best barometer for geek behavior (because the more “sane” geeks either just lurk, post rarely, or don’t even visit the site) but look at ANY “Ask Slashdot” article. Any question asked there gets three types of responses, listed here in decreasing order of likelihood: 1) “That’s a stupid idea, it won’t work.” 2) “Why would you want to do THAT? Are you stupid?” 3) “Oh, I’ve done that, here’s how you do it …”
I.e. lots of nay-saying and the occasional helpful answer.
Geeks are good at what they do for the most part, but they’re just as guilty as any other “segment” of humanity of thinking inside the box. Some folks are jealous they didn’t think of an idea first, so they shoot down anything that’s clever they didn’t come up with. Others are just afraid to get into anything they can’t morph to fit their view of the universe.
I haven’t figured out whether I’m more a geek or an idea person. It could be that I’m both. I’ve experienced plenty of “that’s a stupid idea” with my software project CORE; the first people I talked to at IBI about it in December were both geeks who thought it was a stillborn idea with no potential. Even my partner who’s developing it with me thinks it’s a great idea but has no concept how it could ever be used to make money(!), so in a way, he’s shooting it in the head before it leaves the gate too.
People are just afraid of good ideas sometimes. It’s threatening to see other people coming up with brilliant stuff when you don’t have anything of your own, or even when you do but don’t know how to get it off the ground.
The real successful people out there *don’t* automatically say “no” to every clever idea. Instead, they figure out which ones are worth the effort, and they dive in, leaving the other ideas alone for someone else to pick up and run with.
“Idea” People
Erica rants a little bit about the disconnect between “idea people” and geeks. Umm… Word. No kidding. Entrepreneurship is tough. There are plenty of nay-sayers. But this isn’t a bad thing. Those of us with ideas (and I haven’t had a good one in a…
The world certainly has its share of negative nay-sayers. My own rule for working with people is, if I must shoot down ideas, provide alternatives. Provide constructive criticism, not just criticism. I hold myself and my colleagues to that.
Another problem is that geeks and engineers are too often managed by people who have plenty of ideas but no judgement. Judgement comes from years of education and experience, and is what allows you to accurately evaluate which ideas are worth spending valuable time and resources on. It’s the Pointy-Haired-Boss syndrome. There’s nothing better than working for a boss who was first a good techie, or working for a boss who hires good techies and then listens to and trusts their judgement. That’s just not very common these days, apparently.
I would agree with some of the other comments that there are those people everywhere, to a point. I will, however, also agree with you in that lot of the vocal “hardcore geeks” will shoot down a lot of ideas, altho I propose thats because they are embittered because they have had their own ideas shot down, after allt he best bullies are the ones that were bullied themselves :). I agree tho about J. Random geek being mostly unable to define what a market segment even is :p