Geo Genius and Perl Wizard, Rich Gibson, gave me an amusing explanation of the difference between Alpha Geeks and the rest of us geeks (Beta Geeks). At least I found it amusing. It also happens to sum up the difference between the type of person I want to talk to at a Conference and the type I want to hire.

Imagine you have ten tasks of equal importance. You could complete all of the first nine tasks in under an hour. The tenth is so complicated it’s going to take you a full month. Do you tackle the nine quick tasks or the one hard task?

There’s only one right answer, as far as I’m concerned, if you are getting paid to do software development. Still, I recognize that a lot of people don’t come by this answer easily. If you can’t help but investigate that tenth hard problem and push the rote work off to tomorrow, then you’re a born Alpha Geek. There’s a good chance you’re going to change the world and be involved in some very cool inventions.

I wonder, as a Beta Geek, how to best work with Alpha Geeks. You can’t just hand them a list of function points and expect them to be implemented. But you need them around because they’re pushing the envelope and opening up opportunities.

Are Beta Geeks doomed to rote work, never ending quests for efficiency, and eventually (ack) management? Or is there a way to work harmoniously with the Alpha Geeks?

I think so. At the O’Reilly conferences Alpha Geeks are pushing their Alpha geekery, but the Beta geeks are right there pushing their ideas, picking out important new ideas, and translating everything into something that the rest of the world can pick up on. I suppose you could just say that diversity of ideas is important.

Rich, btw, was kind enough to sign two copies of his new book Mapping Hacks (written with my former coworker Schuyler Erle and the famous Jo Walsh). He keeps a lot of his crazy ideas on TestingRange and on the Mapping Hacks Blog. I think he’s an Alpha Geek who’s going to do very cool things.