Cool Beans

The clue is right there in the name itself, technical people. The word technical finds its roots in the same soil as the word technique. These are people who are more captivated by technique than by application. Their attention is more engaged by how a system works rather than what a system does.
– Paul Glen, Leading Geeks .

This is an interesting take on geek mindset. I am sometimes amazed at how some geeks I know can spend dozens of free-time hours figuring out and understanding a particular technology only to not have any real deliverable produced from it. But for the most part, my peers, coworkers, and colleagues would much rather see something "just work" and curse the heavens when stuff breaks and they have to dig deep to figure it out.

Rare is the person who just pumps out personal techie projects; is both fascinated by the technical learning, but also just keeps applying the technology's potential. It's one thing to know a lot about a subject, but it's entirely another to be creative about it– that is, creating consistently. Technical people will have high regard for those who can bridge the gap of deep knowledge and applied pursuits. This is partly why there exists the startup stereotype of "the techie guy" partnering up with "the business guy".

One immediate parallel that comes to mind is the realm of amateur (wannabe professional) photography. Especially now with the advent of consumer digital photography, you will find lots of people who love to scour forums and pick apart technique and gear. Then you'll have those who just love to produce. They learn, but don't get caught up in the eliteness of certain technologies or methods. They constantly produce new work; and in doing so gain more expertise.

I'm not saying one or the other is better even though my admiration of producers is leaking through. I'm just pointing out that the disparity will always cause conflict between "just works" and "do it correctly" people. This blog itself was an exercise in my own attempt at "doing it right"at the cost of "what can it do". I chose Java on BSD with Tomcat and PostgreSQL when a much simpler LAMP (linux, apache, mysql, PHP) setup would been quicker and would have worked almost right out of the box. And now, after looking at Wordpress's newest versions (a popular free content-management software), I am wondering how much I am constrained by this [fascinating] technique I've implemented at Caffeinated Code;  Wordpress features and plugins are simply astounding. There are so many features available even though the Wordpress community's choices of implementation are somewhat contentious.

Continues Paul Glen,

This is not to say that geeks don't care about business, but it does run a strong second to technique.

I guess what we're all looking for is a kind of tech holy grail. Despite the many ideas of what technology should do, and despite the many arguments and attempts of how it should be done, we wish to create things that are both architecturally a masterpiece, and highly useful and usable.