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I often read stuff like that. "Now you couldn't do it like they did it before". "You wouldn't be able to get away with the same jokes today." Or "You wouldn'

I often read stuff like that. "Now you couldn't do it like they did it before". "You wouldn't be able to get away with the same jokes today." Or "You wouldn't be able to publish the same story today." I agree that time changes, but this is discarding the merits of those who did it then. Believe it or not, at that time it was not easy either. The people that did it had huge balls. Geeks were considered less that nothing by society. The working world didn't trust them, believe in them or value them. They were basically rejected, as something annoying you had to have somewhere in your closet. My father actually told me in 2003 that he was disappointed I choose to work in such a boring field. Technology didn't exist. You couldn't google your way out of anything like today (now if you google, SO answer everything!). Networks and computer where slow and expensive (we now got unmetered VPS for 3€/month, come on!). Less libraries, less frameworks, no crazy powerful API (can you believe making uber before google map ?) and no proof whatsoever that what you wanted to do was achievable. The market was unproven (the 2000 bubble killed so much). We had no experience in it. Not tools to recruit, sell, build... It's was not easier to do anything. The constraints were just different. The constraints of tomorrow will be also different. Let's not use the change as an excuse. Doing something that matters is ALWAYS HARD.

marvin 10y ago
I don't think that you and nikcub necessarily disagree. I read his comment more as "technologists today tend to/are forced to conform more to the expectations of society/powerful instutitions" than a comment about everything being easier before.
watwut 10y ago
"Geeks were considered less that nothing by society. The working world didn't trust them, believe in them or value them. They were basically rejected, as something annoying you had to have somewhere in your closet. My father actually told me in 2003 that he was disappointed I choose to work in such a boring field." Exaggerating a bit? By a bit I mean a lot? I know that some geeks had hard childhood and were bullied, but way more others were not. Plenty of fathers were disappointed over children choosing various professions. The way you people talk about it makes it sound as if all people who ever went into tech were bullied outcasts and that is simply not true.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Seems to me he is mixing geeks and nerds. The impression i have is that the geek label came into effect during the dot-com era as a way to be a web guy without the "no social graces" stigma. These days you get geeks appropriating nerd elements as a element of their self promotion, resulting in hipsters...
  - sametmax 10y ago
    Nerds is what we call today the people we called geeks yesterday.
    - Sir_Substance 10y ago
      To be honest, the difference between geeks and nerds is so regional that it's hardly ever worth trying to explain the distinction. I always found it interesting that the difference between the two words could change so radically depending on where you are, considering most of the west got the same movies and TV shows.
- sametmax 10y ago
  I'm not exaggerating by one bit. At best you had an "ok" situation. Nothing like the "rock star" attitude you get today. Not only geeks where the less popular in school, but the media mocked them. And this snowballed into the workplace where the only people threated like the IT department was the accounting one. The pay was not nearly in the same area. Nobody would consider buying a dual screen for their IT dev a minimum requirement. I can recall people dreading to call the sysadmin to deal with anything. Talking to them was considered a chore. The best way to defend this is that before the ipod existed, noone would ever say "I'm such a geek". Today somebody playing too much on iphone would say that. We call girls with cute glasses "geeks".
  - Roritharr 10y ago
    This is an interesting tidbit regarding pay. I have a feeling (no data) that the compensation for lots of professions mostly gravitate around some value that is connected to the perceived social status of said profession. Supply and Demand often really doesn't factor in as much as it should. But maybe it's just because compensation in Germany is weird in general.
1_2__3 10y ago
And yet back then we built the entire infrastructure of the internet and connected the world. Now we use it for Snapchat. I'm not just being nostalgic. Before quick money ruled over all a lot more actually beneficial innovation took place. Now that the Balkanization is in full swing and the battle lines are drawn we've regressed: realtime chat is fragmented, non-corporate online entities are sidelined everywhere and any attempt at widespread integration and change goes crashing headlong into shortsighted gold rushes. Why do something that works for everyone? You can't monetize that. You can't fight Facebook with that. You can't impress your financial suitors with that. We could do so much more than we're doing today - and we did. The most painful part of being embedded in Silicon Valley this long is seeing so much potential and momentum sacrificed on the altar of shit like G+.
- nsgi 10y ago
  How is Snapchat not something that connects the world?
  - rglullis 10y ago
    Saying that Snapchat connects the world in the sense of GPwould be the same that saying that "AOL discs connect the world", or that "MSN is already web portal that connects the world". You really don't see the difference?
bitwize 10y ago
> Geeks were considered less that nothing by society. Please shitcan the hyperbole and grow some perspective. Until geeks are systematically denied fundamental civil rights, until their very lives are routinely under threat because of who they are, they have nothing on the average gay person, let alone the average Muslim, black, or transsexual person. By the standards of society, most geeks enjoy very privileged lives indeed. They just lack the social wherewithal to play by society's rules.

marvin 10y ago

I don't think that you and nikcub necessarily disagree. I read his comment more as "technologists today tend to/are forced to conform more to the expectations of society/powerful instutitions" than a comment about everything being easier before.

watwut 10y ago

"Geeks were considered less that nothing by society. The working world didn't trust them, believe in them or value them. They were basically rejected, as something annoying you had to have somewhere in your closet. My father actually told me in 2003 that he was disappointed I choose to work in such a boring field." Exaggerating a bit? By a bit I mean a lot? I know that some geeks had hard childhood and were bullied, but way more others were not. Plenty of fathers were disappointed over children choosing various professions. The way you people talk about it makes it sound as if all people who ever went into tech were bullied outcasts and that is simply not true.

digi_owl 10y ago
Seems to me he is mixing geeks and nerds. The impression i have is that the geek label came into effect during the dot-com era as a way to be a web guy without the "no social graces" stigma. These days you get geeks appropriating nerd elements as a element of their self promotion, resulting in hipsters...
- sametmax 10y ago
  Nerds is what we call today the people we called geeks yesterday.
  - Sir_Substance 10y ago
    To be honest, the difference between geeks and nerds is so regional that it's hardly ever worth trying to explain the distinction. I always found it interesting that the difference between the two words could change so radically depending on where you are, considering most of the west got the same movies and TV shows.
sametmax 10y ago
I'm not exaggerating by one bit. At best you had an "ok" situation. Nothing like the "rock star" attitude you get today. Not only geeks where the less popular in school, but the media mocked them. And this snowballed into the workplace where the only people threated like the IT department was the accounting one. The pay was not nearly in the same area. Nobody would consider buying a dual screen for their IT dev a minimum requirement. I can recall people dreading to call the sysadmin to deal with anything. Talking to them was considered a chore. The best way to defend this is that before the ipod existed, noone would ever say "I'm such a geek". Today somebody playing too much on iphone would say that. We call girls with cute glasses "geeks".
- Roritharr 10y ago
  This is an interesting tidbit regarding pay. I have a feeling (no data) that the compensation for lots of professions mostly gravitate around some value that is connected to the perceived social status of said profession. Supply and Demand often really doesn't factor in as much as it should. But maybe it's just because compensation in Germany is weird in general.

1_2__3 10y ago

And yet back then we built the entire infrastructure of the internet and connected the world. Now we use it for Snapchat. I'm not just being nostalgic. Before quick money ruled over all a lot more actually beneficial innovation took place. Now that the Balkanization is in full swing and the battle lines are drawn we've regressed: realtime chat is fragmented, non-corporate online entities are sidelined everywhere and any attempt at widespread integration and change goes crashing headlong into shortsighted gold rushes. Why do something that works for everyone? You can't monetize that. You can't fight Facebook with that. You can't impress your financial suitors with that. We could do so much more than we're doing today - and we did. The most painful part of being embedded in Silicon Valley this long is seeing so much potential and momentum sacrificed on the altar of shit like G+.

nsgi 10y ago
How is Snapchat not something that connects the world?
- rglullis 10y ago
  Saying that Snapchat connects the world in the sense of GPwould be the same that saying that "AOL discs connect the world", or that "MSN is already web portal that connects the world". You really don't see the difference?

bitwize 10y ago

> Geeks were considered less that nothing by society. Please shitcan the hyperbole and grow some perspective. Until geeks are systematically denied fundamental civil rights, until their very lives are routinely under threat because of who they are, they have nothing on the average gay person, let alone the average Muslim, black, or transsexual person. By the standards of society, most geeks enjoy very privileged lives indeed. They just lack the social wherewithal to play by society's rules.