Where the cool kids are
I don’t know when exactly the “tech support” dudes became the cool kids, and, yes, I’m aware of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs and their legions of admirers. But I got to see the new frontier up close last week at DCWeek, which stands for Digital Capital Week, and was held, whodathunk!, in DC.
So the weeklong program, presented by Ford, was sort of like the TED talks meet your college campus — a sensibility underscored by the atmosphere in Artisphere, a supercool sculptural space filled with offbeat artwork and a lounge serving up drinks, grub, wifi (duh?) and, last Thursday, DCWeek’s “core conference.” It’s arguably the coolest space in DC, even though it’s in Arlington. So you’ve got folks in their funky sneakers and disheveled clothes hanging out there, looking like the 2012 version of the kids on Saved by the Bell. Actually, didn’t the nerdy guy end up doing porn? You see how nerd pressure leads to overcompensation? Some labels die hard. So, back to DCWeek, where all the nerds are saved by themselves if not the bell and looking like millionaires under 30. You do this by being as insouciant and irreverent as possible. Cue the “fireside chat” that closed the core conference. In his interview of Ben Milne, the founder of the online payment portal, Dwolla, Andrew Warner brilliantly notes that despite Milne’s success, he dresses like one of the rabble rousers in “Occupy Wall Street.”
And so you’ll forgive my taking some latitude as I blog about attitude. It’s not far from the M.O. prescribed by Justin Timberlake in the movie, “Social Network.” I freaking love that movie. Milne, incidentally, uses the real curse words. A lot. We get it. You don’t play by the rules cuz you’re making your own. And, you know what? I think that’s great. Whether you like it or not, the economy is moving toward entrepreneurship, and that gives you and me the freedom to hustle and live by the thrill and risk of our own charted courses. But we don’t all have to be high-tech priests and priestesses.
Sorry, this is starting to sound like a commencement address. I just would hate for the nerd kingdom to be the next bastion of snobville. DCWeek was definitely the place to be if you were remotely plugged in. But with everyone so wired in high-tech hipdom, man — I haven’t felt that uncool since middle school.
