A Blog About Making Culture
Geeks and Promotion
October 2, 2003
So the other day I posted my interview with PB, which was fun to do because he's a super smart guy with lots of good ideas, but I thought it might make sense to talk a little more about the reasons that I wanted to do this interview, and others like it, in the first place.
There are many kinds of geeks in the world, and I think I tend to know at least one of each variety. But a common personality trait among a lot of the smartest, most creative people I know is that they're not inclined to do a lot of self-promotion. I touched on that in the introduction to the interview with PB, but in general, I find that some of the most valuable contributions come from some of the people who are least likely to trumpet their own work.
As I've gotten further from the techie side of things (I don't do any scripting or programming these days, even as a hobby) and have focused more on connecting people, networking, and developing relationships, I find that most of my friends and acquaintances who create truly visionary works aren't really against promotion, it's just not a skill that they cultivate for themselves.
I think part of the reason is cultural, as programmers have always had a mistrust and even a contempt for the suits, for the marketers who just want to pimp a product, developmental realities be damned. There's a justifiable distaste for that kind of arrogance and hubris.
But sometimes a program or product or web site doesn't reach its full potential without a concerted effort to promote it, or to make human connections with others who could use it or benefit from it. We've got infinite numbers of mailing lists for people asking technical questions, but very few that are designed to help technical people promote themselves or their efforts.
So, since I'm not involved hands-on in building tools and tech anymore, I wanted to help build an outlet for those who are. It's a good way to share new ideas, but it's also hopefully a good way to remind the other geniuses out there that others are interested in the great ideas behind their unassuming demeanors.
There's other kinds of geeks, of course. There's combatative, angry testosterone-powered geeks, and there's artsy geeks and a thousand other kinds. But the ones who are busy spending their free time building new things on the Internet and connecting them together should do justice to their work by helping others to connect with them as individuals.
Enough rambling. Who's an unsung geek genius with an unfairly low profile?
Previously: making connections
Next: The Trott takes CNN
anon
me.
Dinah
Seth Golub of aigeek.com.
Jesse James Garrett, of Adaptive Path, though perhaps now his status is more well-deservedly sung than unsung.
Elizabeth Castro, whose reliable work I consult every day (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321130073/)
Ed Vielmetti (http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/)
Kevin Fox of fury.com
(I’m sorry to say I’m not familiar enough with the results of C.J. Silverio and Brig Eaton’s geek labors to know if they should also be on my list, but I tend to suspect there’s some seriously cool stuff happening around them).
Ben
Robert Kaye? Erik Benson? Josh On?
Ben
Damion
Mike Kershaw. Creator of Kismet. A geek that truly does it for the love of it. However I don’t know about his profile out there in the world.
thomas
Torrez is God.
John Wehr
This is a little silly.
Anonymous
Aw, sorry you’re not getting picked…
Anil
Silly to promote your friends? How is it any different than pimping that great unknown band that you love?
Jay Allen
Brad Choate, David Raynes, Kevin Shay, Tim Appnel and Brent Simmons just to name a few off the top of my head.
A decidedly Movable Type bunch, but you know, that’s a little world near and dead to my heart..
Jay Allen
That SHOULD have said near and DEAR. The previous was a Freudian slip describing my state of mind right now… :-)
jake
Buffington has that sort of “master everything” genius. Never met him in person, but he’s done some impressive stuff without saying much.
Vishi
Everyone in my blogroll.
sixfoot6
I am a genius in every sense of the word, and I, too, am not inclined to do a lot of self promotion. View my site, and I think you’ll see what I mean. Seriously.
Anonymous
donald knuth!? and just cuz it rhmes, alan guth :D
Dirk
Bobby Jindal, but no for long!
Lucian
I’ve also had the privilege of spending time with Mike Buffington. I’ll second the vote. :)
anon
Chris Wetherell can be farely genius at times
Mike
Most of the people who have been mentioned are actually doing quite well at promoting themselves. They have websites after all, and have convinced others to view them as geniuses, haven’t they?
chris w.
Why, thanks, anon. (2 comments up.) But people may get confused and think that since it was my URL you placed in the form field, that I actually posted myself as an example here. For anyone wondering, I really didn’t! - promoting myself in that fashion would leave me mortified. I’d just seen this thread through my referrers. Additionally (my apologies for an off-topic tangent), I’d like to say - “Hey, Anil. I shaved it into an Amish beard.” Really.
Ryan
pb’s real genius is that he spent some time relaxing in oregon with a cup of tea and his digital camera while Anil busted his own preppie-sweatered ass doing all of the promotion! The true self-promoting genius never lifts a finger. Ha!
Lawrence Krubner
Who’s the most outside person mentioned on this list? I mean, away from the MT and TypePad world?
brian donovan
I’d love to read an interview with Alexander Johannesen (of Shelter.nu) bearing on topic maps and xSiteable.
brian donovan
slaps forhead … Shelter.nu
brian hess
Brad Choate, Adam Kalsey, Brent Simmons and my dark-horse candidate, Justin Wood.
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