(or rather respect and stimulating work...)

While we were in Dijon testing our new system I read most of the last IEEE Computer issue - which I often do not, but reading magazines filled out the cab rides. In it you find this article. Nicholas Carr blogged and a pretty nice discussion followed. I certainly disagree with the conclusion Nick comes up with, and I think that the article is more nuanced but many statements are made without proper underpinning. Regardless, the discussion inspired this pretty funny cartoon, too. One commenter (Tony Healy) drew the parallell to geeks great nerd needs: I think that the need for respect and the awesome feeling of being able to help others is magnified in most geeks. Some thrive on the "I am smart" feeling. Like most, I have transformed mine into, "see, you can do it this way!", after which I often get a "oh, great, thanks!", which gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

That - and feelings like it - are what I live for. Sure, this can be taken advantage of, and is taken advantage of, I'm sure. But, at the end of the day, as long as I keep getting what I live for... it's pretty much ok. Soon, I will cultivate the business person in me, or something... Right now, I gotta go on doing some demos this lovely sunday afternoon.