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Our world is actually being run by geeks. They devise the machinery that civilization has become wholly dependent upon; they understand and know how to operate and "tweak" that machinery (or to commandeer it, re-purpose it, jam it, and other things that I, as a non-geek, cannot even imagine) too.
We have hackers who are criminally prosecuted for the damage that they have done to some important process in some country, and of course we have hackers who are retained by law enforcement for the purpose of damaging or invading some important process in either their own country, or someone else's.
While many of somnolent souls are content just to morph in order to accommodate whatever technology becomes popularized, I am slightly resistant. It's not merely geekophobia [a Lingovation] -- it is that every time I become dependent upon some new device or application, I feel like I am surrendering a piece of my self-governance to some nameless, faceless geeks.
A recent article which appears here courtesy of Yahoo! Finance demonstrates the prominence and influence of geekery [another Lingovation] over more and more of our lives. And it doesn't matter what your political party is, your presidential pick is, your favorite football team is... geeks are basically apolitical. They just love to tinker, regardless of the implications of the tinkering. Maybe I'm jealous. Anyway, enjoy the article, and come back to us. Remember: This is not about political preference -- no...it is about the rise to power, influence and respectability of Geekdom [yet another Lingovation, albeit unoriginal... more of a neologism,as were the two previous ones -- you could probably find it in a Scrabble dictionary. Here's the article:
Tax Policy Center in Spotlight for Its Romney Study
By ANNIE LOWREY | New York Times – Thu, Oct 25, 2012 1:36 PM EDTWASHINGTON — A small nonpartisan research center operated by professed “geeks” has found itself at the center of a rancorous $5 trillion debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney.
No white paper or policy manifesto put out during the presidential campaign has proved more controversial than an August study by the Washington-based Tax Policy Center, a respected nonprofit that issues studiously detailed tax analyses.
That study found, in short, that Mr. Romney could not keep all of the promises he had made on individual tax reform: including cutting marginal tax rates by 20 percent, keeping protections for investment income, not widening the deficit and not increasing the tax burden on the poor or middle class. It concluded that Mr. Romney’s plan, on its face, would cut taxes for rich families and raise them for everyone else.
The detailed paper proved kindling for a political firestorm. Mr. Romney criticized the center as performing a “garbage-in, garbage-out” analysis and his campaign accused it of partisan bias. The Obama campaign used the center’s numbers to argue that Mr. Romney had proposed a $5 trillion tax cut. Economists jumped on the bandwagon too, flinging analyses back and forth and picking apart the projections and assumptions in the report.
At the Tax Policy Center itself, responses ranged from irritation at the partisan nature of some attacks to incredulity over the political hysteria. “There was this résumé-hunting, White-House-visitor-log” searching feel to the response, said the center’s director, Donald Marron, a former Bush administration economist. “That was unanticipated,” he added dryly.
In many ways the report did just what the center was created to do: inject some solid numbers into a shifty, accusatory, raucous political debate. The decade-old center — a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, two nonpartisan grandes dames of the Washington world — was founded precisely to “fill that niche,” Mr. Marron said. [read entire article]
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My take on all of this is that geeks, while outwardly reviled and laughed at by many, are secretly our modern-day superheroes, advisors and consiglieres (that's Italian!). We increasingly trust in their ideas, analyses, answers and advice. With apologies to the late Frank Herbert (author of the highly notable science fiction series Dune), these people have become our mentats.
Ask yourself (but not out loud, especially on a crowded subway car) this question:
Who would you rather have as your partner in a new business venture? A geeky, hacker-type nerd, or a seasoned general manager who has run businesses?
Don't raise your hands, but how many of you reading The Paranoid In The Techno World Blog today would have chosen the geek?
See what I mean?
Douglas E Castle for The Paranoid In The Techno World Blog, The Daily Dose Of Brilliance Blog, The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog and The CrowdFunding Incubator Blog.
No white paper or policy manifesto put out during the presidential campaign has proved more controversial than an August study by the Washington-based Tax Policy Center, a respected nonprofit that issues studiously detailed tax analyses.
That study found, in short, that Mr. Romney could not keep all of the promises he had made on individual tax reform: including cutting marginal tax rates by 20 percent, keeping protections for investment income, not widening the deficit and not increasing the tax burden on the poor or middle class. It concluded that Mr. Romney’s plan, on its face, would cut taxes for rich families and raise them for everyone else.
The detailed paper proved kindling for a political firestorm. Mr. Romney criticized the center as performing a “garbage-in, garbage-out” analysis and his campaign accused it of partisan bias. The Obama campaign used the center’s numbers to argue that Mr. Romney had proposed a $5 trillion tax cut. Economists jumped on the bandwagon too, flinging analyses back and forth and picking apart the projections and assumptions in the report.
At the Tax Policy Center itself, responses ranged from irritation at the partisan nature of some attacks to incredulity over the political hysteria. “There was this résumé-hunting, White-House-visitor-log” searching feel to the response, said the center’s director, Donald Marron, a former Bush administration economist. “That was unanticipated,” he added dryly.
In many ways the report did just what the center was created to do: inject some solid numbers into a shifty, accusatory, raucous political debate. The decade-old center — a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, two nonpartisan grandes dames of the Washington world — was founded precisely to “fill that niche,” Mr. Marron said. [read entire article]
---------------
My take on all of this is that geeks, while outwardly reviled and laughed at by many, are secretly our modern-day superheroes, advisors and consiglieres (that's Italian!). We increasingly trust in their ideas, analyses, answers and advice. With apologies to the late Frank Herbert (author of the highly notable science fiction series Dune), these people have become our mentats.
Ask yourself (but not out loud, especially on a crowded subway car) this question:
Who would you rather have as your partner in a new business venture? A geeky, hacker-type nerd, or a seasoned general manager who has run businesses?
Don't raise your hands, but how many of you reading The Paranoid In The Techno World Blog today would have chosen the geek?
See what I mean?
Douglas E Castle for The Paranoid In The Techno World Blog, The Daily Dose Of Brilliance Blog, The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog and The CrowdFunding Incubator Blog.
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