Knowledge Economy and Geeks

I find it interesting that the geeks of the world are becoming fully functioning, even overfunctioning people. I went to my ultimate game this week (a game played with a disc, or "frisbee"), and realised I was surrounded by all the slightly socially odd kids who have become the well paid behind the scenes people who run what William Atkinson called the Knowledge Economy (Protoype, 2001). These are the people who keep our systems running, the engineers who design electronics and games, the geeks. Stereotypically social outcasts and just a bit odd, these are the people who have focused on the excercise of the mind and solving easily compartmentalized problems as a method of making up for their social short comings or incomprehension.