Thinking about where I fit into the PodCamp London event on Saturday and the social media sphere in general (or even more general than that…)
Judging by the registrations planned attendance has grown from a smallish group of bloggers and podcasters — let’s be honest, geeks — to include a somewhat wider cross-section of professionals. In other words the balance has gradually shifted away from the geek element, towards the business element.
Which is — either way — fantastic for the event and great for London Ontario.
But it got me thinking about the “two cultures”: people who think technology-first and people who think relationship-first. In other words: nerds vs and networkers.
What I mean is that a specific type of person will go to a conference mentally prepared for the stuff that’s there. Let’s call this person Glen. On his way there he’ll be thinking things like, “I want to learn more about XYZ,” or conversely, “I want to show everyone ABC and all the stuff I know about it.” The contacts and conversations are mostly just a means to the end of nerding it up.
Meanwhile another type of person — let’s call this person Gail – goes to conferences mentally prepared for the people that are there. On her way there she’ll be thinking things like, “I want to meet so-and-so… I want so-and-so (and so-and-so’s boss) to meet me.” The products, presentations, and displays are mostly just content that can be used as a means to the end of networking.
Unfortunately I’m never prepared for either — or I’m assuming so because these things are usually non-starters for me, I don’t even go so far as to put myself to the test… but I’ll address this deficiency in a moment…
There aren’t really any pure Glens or Gails — everyone is a bit of both — but Glen and Gail have a lot of cousins who lean one way or another. In fact I’d say almost everyone leans one way — though maybe a few rarities are brilliant nerds and prolific networkers… but I suspect even those people would be happiest focusing on one or the other.
I’d guess (very roughly) that maybe 10% are very near cousins to Glen and 10% are very near cousins to Gail: either nerds or networkers by nature, who need experiences to lean heavily to their respective orientation or they’ll be miserable. Then the other 80% is spread over a big gradient-grey area, evenly distributed between extremes but flexible enough to gravitate one way or the other via nurture or chance, and able to adapt the other way fairly comfortably.
That 80% is the most important. It’s possible they can all shift one way or the other — maybe even expanding either extreme from 10% representation all the way to 50% or higher — or they can find an even yet-dynamic balance…
It probably wouldn’t have occurred to me to write about this if I hadn’t read this today in What Would Google Do? about Mark Zuckerberg:
Some assume his laconicism is a sign of arrogance — that and his habit of wearing sandals at big business conferences. But it’s not. He’s shy. He’s direct. He’s a geek, and this is how geeks are. Better get used to it…
Until now nerds and networkers maybe couldn’t understand each other, and that caused a lot of imbalance and tension.
Social media (largely through gatherings like PodCamp, etc) is bringing them closer together, helping people appreciate different values and assumptions, making nerds more social and networkers more geekified.
Social media is generating a kind of “third culture” (see below*) that combines the best of both worlds to create an even better one.
[Actually, after reflecting on this a little, the term "geek" implies nerdiness and socialness are already well on the way to being reconciled: you can be a lonely nerd but geeks run in packs, start companies, etc.]
I couldn’t be happier with this emerging fusion.
Despite my attraction to both cultures, I’m out of my element with both geeks and business types. I tend to see things from both perspectives but can’t find any reason to give one priority over the other, so I’ve never developed a repertoire of technical geexptertise [but I am definitely a nerd in the broader sense] nor the soft skills needed to navigate a room full of people.
I expect I’ll be right at home in a year or two when social media matures. In the mean time, I hope you’ll put up with me! (And hope to see you Saturday.)
* Note: the “two cultures” concept was coined in 1956 by the novelist C.P Snow (who was educated as a scientist):
the breakdown of communication between the “two cultures” of modern society — the sciences and the humanities — was a major hindrance to solving the world’s problems. [Wikipedia]
It comes up a lot — but nowhere more than in the broad community of science writers loosely organized by John Brockman at edge.org – a self-described “third culture“.
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Nice seeing you yesterday. I’ve always been a bit confused by the pure Gails…I’ve heard of conferences that have no content. It’s just rooms and hallways booked for people to attend and chat. But then it’s just making connections for the sake of connections, and conversations about making conversation. Fine to some extent, but at some point it’s gotta be about something.
So I guess I’m more related to Glen, then. But it was nice that yesterday seemed like mostly down-to-earth third-culture type of people.
It was great getting to know you and others better in-person. Glad I went to the after-party. Definitely a Glen-leaning affair all day, which was great: shop-talk was the norm and even at night nobody was like, “aren’t you getting tired of talking about the web?”
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