If You Define a Geek, You Negate Him

I doubt the philosopher Kierkegaard was thinking about IT professionals when he (supposedly) said, "If you define me, you negate me," back in the 19th century. But the point of the observation has some relevance to IT pros today, especially as they define themselves. For as columnist Rob England posits over at our newest site, IT Career Planet, "As you get older, you get slower, uglier and more expensive. As your work rate goes down and your cost goes up, you must compensate by expanding your skills and adding more value to the organization." England briefly lays out a number of career options for geeks, most of which require them to define (or redefine) themselves as more than technologists. He also cautions those technologists to drop some behaviors that, while serving them well in geekland, likely will cause problems in the real world. They include a penchant for negativity (good, however, for journalism careers!), perfectionism and tinkering (screwing around on the web or incessantly playing with gadgets). There's a lot of good advice in the piece.