How do you feel about the term "geek"?

[big chopper]

How does the community feel about the term "Geek"?
Is "geek" a derogatory term?
Do you consider your self a geek, a professional or both?

[skroo]

I look at it the same way I look at the whole black hat / white hat thing: just another stupid label.

[TheCotMan]

How does the community feel about the term "Geek"?
Is "geek" a derogatory term?
Do you consider your self a geek, a professional or both?

Forum resources on this subject:
Geek vs. Nerd
How geeky are you?
Trekkies and nerds/geeks
Ck3k comment on nerd/geek/dork
Nerd vs. Geek from KeLvIN

My view:
The original defition of a geek was A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken. It was not positive.

1932 movie Freaks used real "Circus Geeks" in the story.

As for nerds, people often use Revenge of the Nerds to display what a nerd is.

I tend to think of a geek as a misfit, and a misfit as a person who does not fit into what is considered, "normal," and normal as just some sort of modal average of people in a poopulation.

Like other labels, I think it is not generally considered cruel when one geek calls another geek, a geek, but could be harful when a non-geek calls a geek a geek.

3.) Depends on what person is using the label.

[Chris]

I prefer to be labeled as "Lord and Master." If that isn't going to work...Geek is fine.

[astcell]

Anyone remember "Superfriends"? In one episode they fought a computer that did everything for everyone, it was named the G.E.E.C.

[Deviant Ollam]

Anyone remember "Superfriends"? In one episode they fought a computer that did everything for everyone, it was named the G.E.E.C.

holy crap... i saw that episode and remember it. it was some sort of "effort eliminating computer" if i recall the acronym. (with the letter "G" possibly relating to the creator's name... like "Gaberson's Effort Eliminating Computer")

hah... yeah, even at a very young age at the time i was pointing to the TV set and explaining to my parents how the whole concept was stupid. there was a scene in which kids were sitting on their bicycles which they didn't have to power with their legs... since the G.E.E.C. computer was "doing it for them" (aparently from across town and by the use of some hyper-spacial magneto rays or something. man, the amount of drugs consumed by cartoon creators in the 70's was just overwhelming. you look back on them now and these cartoons were just wonky. hence they make such good fodder for shows on Adult Swim)

and wasn't that episode's drama and termoil based around the fact that a mouse ran into the whole works due to the scientist / professor / whatever leaving a cheese sandwich around? the mouse chews through a wire or knocks out a vacuum tube and then things got really nutty. heh, yeah... and people today say our drugs are stronger than back then.

EDIT: more info...

Mister Google provided the details. i was right on most accounts. pah! take that all ye who claim drugs and alcohol can damage one's memory!

(summary here) A test pilot finds the plane he is about to test flies off and performs routines by itself. Machinery begins performing without anyone. The Superfriends, accompanied by a government representative, are escorted to Professor Goodfellow's headquarters. He shows a massive computer, the G.E.E.C (Goodfellow Effort Eliminating Computer), which will handle all tasks that human labor currently does. He offers it to the government, but the representative turns him down. So the professor offers it to the public, and soon most people (including Marvin) are using the service, and living sedentary lives. Wendy and the Super Friends remain skeptical about how safe the G.E.E.C is, and how healthy a lifestyle it encourages. The G.E.E.C seems foolproof, until a mouse slips into the system, causing a malfunction. While Superman is busy preventing automated disasters, the heroes warn the professor. To turn off the system requires Superman causing the control satellite to crash into the ocean where Aquaman can disable it, since Goodfellow had included kryptonite to stop Superman from interfering. To get the mouse, Plastic Man is called in, to stretch an arm through an access tube. Thus, the Professor and Marvin learn the risks of a fully automated life.

heh, always a lesson to be learned in 60's and 70's cartoons.

[astcell]

I knew it was Goodfellow.

Now if anyone can find the episode and get it to me I have a great piece of swag for you!!!

[valkyrie]

How does the community feel about the term "Geek"?
Is "geek" a derogatory term?
Do you consider your self a geek, a professional or both?

You lost me with the whole "feely" thing. However, if you want to know what I THINK about the term Geek, well, it's just a term. Whether it's derogatory or not I suppose is up to you and your personal sensibilities.

And I have no doubt that I am a "professional" My question to you is what kind of professional are you speaking of? I am not attempting to be difficult; we have professional law enforcement persons, we have professional .mil persons, we have professional security persons, we have professional students, we have all kinds of professionals hanging around here. So, humbly, I ask, what really is the question you are asking?

Yes, I am a professional geek. Now, do I get to be on the Bob and Tom Show? :-)

Stay shiny!

[[Syntax]]

I get a mental picture with "Nerd" that I dont get with "Geek". Nerd I think of the button down shirt & slacks look and people acting like they've never socialized with normal people in public before. Geek I think of a person who knows alot about particular topics.

Out of curiousity I went to Websters to look the terms up.. and the way I interpreted them was close to the dictionary deffinitions. They also mentioned unstylish and lack of social skills linked to the term "Nerd".

Websters Dictionary:

Nerd: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits.

Geek: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of.

[minihacker316]

So that makes me a geek.

Funny, when I looked up geek it said someone with unusually high computer skills, who often has average or less than average grades.

[astcell]

Funny, when I looked up geek it said someone with unusually high computer skills, who often has average or less than average grades.

Many of today's computer geniuses were avergae kids in school. michael Dell did not finish college, and the dude who invented the transistor did not finish high school.

[geekgurl]

better definition

The circus sideshow is the source of the word geek, “a performer who engaged in bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.” We also owe the word ballyhoo to the circus; its ultimate origin is unknown, but in the late 1800s it referred to a flamboyant free musical performance conducted outside a circus with the goal of luring customers to buy tickets to the inside shows.


here chicky, chicky, chicky....

gg

[astcell]

So many years ago "geek" meant something else.

So did "gay."

'nuf said.

[hackajar]

Geek is flattering to me, Nerd is offensive

[allentrace]

Do we really need someone labeling what we are or aren't I think we all pretty much know what group we fall into. Personally I think I am my own person and find questions like this pointlessly ignorant I would much rather argue whether or Clausewitz or Keegan is right.