About Geek Boss and Matthew Stibbe
My name is Matthew Stibbe. I’m an entrepreneur, manager, marketer, writer, pilot, wine lover and geek. But not necessarily in that order.
I have been a geek all my life and a boss for the last 30 years. This blog is trying to make sense of it all. In public. One article at a time.
This blog is about refactoring management from a humane, geeky perspective.
The media portrayal of ‘bosses’ gives the wrong impression of what leaders and managers do. The bullying ego-maniac is not a good role-model. Empathy and respect are as important as decisiveness. Skilful means and intelligent analysis are more important than self-confidence.
Geek culture offers a better alternative. Or at least one that works for me. It emphasises playfulness, experimentation, curiosity and meritocracy.
I’m CEO at Articulate Marketing and Turbine and long ago at Intelligent Games. I write about wine at Vincarta and (occasionally) about aviation at Golf Hotel Whiskey and Forbes.
‘Me and this robot, that’s who!’
Roger, wilco: when communications need to be crystal clear
I have worked on a couple of projects where my clients and I shared detailed conversations about the work, and I wrote a detailed brief....
Azrael’s Tear: the best adventure game you’ve never heard of
In 1996, my old company Intelligent Games released a game called Azrael’s Tear. There was much to love about the game: the story, the...
John Boyd: Patterns of Conflict presentation and biography
I had heard about John Boyd’s legendary Patterns of Conflict before I read his biography. But I had never seen it so I went on a quest to...
21 sure signs that you’re a geek
Are you a geek? If you’re asking the question, you probably are – curiosity is the defining characteristic of geeks. But here are 21 more...
How to Start a Computer Games Company
This article is about the hard reality of starting and running a computer games company. I started Intelligent Games (IG) in 1988 because I...
Mission control: 100 rules for NASA project management
NASA is undergoing some big changes and some some soul-searching right now. But it is an organisation that has achieved some of humanity’s...
How to write like a hacker
The world of the computer hacker can seem as alien as Sanskrit or quantum physics. But it’s worth trying to understand the geniuses behind...
Geeks: how to write for a non-technical audience
Two peoples divided by a common language. George Bernard Shaw said this about the British and the Americans, but the same can be said of...
5 leadership lessons from the captains of Star Trek
Few science fiction franchises can claim to be as inspirational as the philosophical heavyweight that is Star Trek. Far from being a quaint...
How I trained myself to get up earlier
I am not what you would call a morning person. At heart, I’m a writer, for heaven’s sake! But getting up early has become really important...