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.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.

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!

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!

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.

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.