I’m a self-confessed geek. My ex-wife is a creative – an actress. My daily life was once a kind of experiment in reconciling two very different ways of dealing with the world. In an experience-driven economy, the balance or choice ‘geek or creative’ may be the most important thing to get right.
Why is this important? Well, my job involves the same challenge. Writing is 50 percent technique (geek stuff) and 50 percent inspiration (creative stuff) and, according to my accountant, 10 percent arithmetic.
Geeks vs Creatives: finding balance
There’s a similar balance in programming and game design; two other areas of my life. And, perhaps, management.
I’ve written before about the difference between Looney Tunes people and Disney people and the difference between managers and entrepreneurs. And now, with love and respect to both communities and with a foot in both, here is how geeks compare to creatives.
Geeks | Creatives |
Introverted | Extroverted |
How? | Why? |
Peers | Audience |
Open source | Crowd source |
Deterministic | Opportunistic |
Data | Opinion |
Obsession | Passion |
Big Bang Theory | Louie |
History | Story |
Kraftwerk | Bowie |
The future | The moment |
Mashable | Co.Design |
Android | Apple |
Wired | New Yorker |
The release | The performance |
Implementation | Discovery |
Feedback | Praise |
Logic | Emotion |
Look at this | Look at me |
Linear | Circular |
Games | Real life |
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