[Red_Tarsius]

The culture has changed a lot. Geek originally described loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle. It's the Big Bang Theory crowd that turned consumerism and brand loyalty into a point of pride: I wonder what Nietzsche would say about that.

[benzofuran]

I'd almost argue that we need to find a new word for it but at this point there's not much to it. I've had the discussion a few times about how Big Bang Theory is basically a minstrel show about smart people instead of your choice of minority group and while some folks get the comparison, most just glaze over.

[scottlocklin]

"Yeast life" works for me. Mass consumerization of everything from neck tattoos and facial piercings to "geek culture" is covered by the phrase.

[DanBC]

My favourite sketch show did something about this and he's spot on.

John Finnemore: You are not a geek - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thsRk9fuIdU

[gitgud]

> loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle.

Reminds of open-source contributors doing it for the passion. People never made open-source software to make money back in the day...

[pen2l]

Just curious: these... people, who made open-source not for money but for something else, what was typically their means for livelihood? They were software engineers in their day jobs?

Man, some discipline these guys had, to juggle it all so well.