A work colleague pointed me out to this fascinating article called, “The unspoken truth about managing geeks” that I think anyone working in IT needs to know about.

There are some great bites of information in there that I picked up including:

  • Avoid laying blame on stereotypes and look at the system that drives out certain behaviours (such as those factors amplifying stereotypical behaviour)
  • Geeks trust people who help get the job done. Geeks find ways to work around people who don’t.
  • Unlike in almost every other area, it’s often not how you say something that matters, it’s what you say. Maybe it’s because of logic but geeks detect when things don’t quite add up.

I suggest you read everything in the article. I don’t necessarily think all of it is accurate at all of the same time but it’s well written and gives people insight into why geeks often behave as they do.