[.ca] Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho (ISBN 0767906993)

From Amazon.com:
Teenage hackers Jesse Dailey and Eric Twilegar are the heroes of Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho, a thoughtful, affecting pop ethnography--and heroes is exactly what Jon Katz wants you to see them as. To the rest of the world, themselves included, they are geeks, which is a complicated thing to be these days. With the rise of the networked economy, the world and its wealth have become increasingly dependent on the expertise of Star Wars-loving, cola-swilling propellerheads everywhere. Yet at the same time, the typical geek--especially the typical adolescent geek--remains a consummate outsider, with passions for technological arcana that are both alienating and empowering. Katz, a writer for both Rolling Stone and the profoundly geeky Web site Slashdot.org, does a fine job of mapping this ambiguous new state of affairs (the Geek Ascendancy, he calls it). But the book's heart and soul is the well-told tale of Jesse and Eric's adventurous flight from lonely, dead-end lives in Idaho Mormon country to brighter possibilities in Chicago. Katz argues that this great escape couldn't have happened without the networks (both social and technological) that are the lifeblood of '90s geekdom, but he doesn't let his celebratory argument get in the way of the story. Although he's a tireless advocate for geeks (the last chapters retrace his impassioned advocacy for brooding teenage weirdos in the face of post-Columbine media attacks), he presents their culture warts and all, with its tendencies toward social awkwardness and arrogance recognizably intact. He doesn't demand your sympathy for his heroes and their world--but he wins it anyway, by bringing them vividly and honestly to life. --Julian Dibbell

If you are bored... read somethings else!:
Tbe blunt truth about this book is that it is a poor read. Among the many flaws that this book had was there was no "real" story to tell.

Great read for geeks everywhere:
As soon as you finish reading this book, you will want to be a geek. Or at least, you'll want to learn more about the world of geeks. This book follows the journey of Jesse and Eric, two self-proclaimed geeks from Idaho who are stuck in dead-end jobs and spend their lives on the computer, playing games, surfing the net, and chatting with friends. When Jesse writes to Jon Katz, a journalist who writes and article on geeks, their world begins to change. Katz visits the boys in their town and sees what their world is like. He mentions that with computer skills like theirs they could get jobs anywhere, and the games begin. This book starts off a little slow with the introduction of how Katz meets the 'geeks' from the title, but as soon as Jesse and Eric begin their journey, you are sucked in completely. I had a difficult time putting down the book at night, even when it was 2 am, and I had to be up early the next morning. You become so engrossed in how their lives turn out. It is not hard to care for the boys, because even though they are geeks, you find that you have a little bit of geek in you too. Might be a little advanced for children younger than 13 or 14, but if they are in to computers, this could be a great tool to let them know what their opportunities are in life.

Geek:
I absolutely loved the book and identified with the problems faced by Jesse and Eric.

Dated:
Now that the Internet boom is over, and the Internet jobs profiled in this book have gone from most desirable to least desirable, it would be interesting if Katz would add an update - are Josh and Eric still working? Have they moved on to other things (such as Katz himself, who's now writing about dogs)? Or have they returned broke and unemployed to convenience store jobs in Idaho?

"The Net is their only net.":
Jon Katz's latest book goes a long way to explain the recently-emerged member of society known as the geek by following two recent high school graduates, Jesse and Eric, out of the hinterlands of Idaho and into the corporate world of Chicago. Through the trials of the two boys, Katz inadvertently finds himself in the middle of the geeks' story. The recent rise and rise of the Geek has been documented in several different ways. Witness "Pirates of Silicon Valley," Robert X. Cringely's columns and shows, the success of Wired (and Slashdot, for that matter) and - lest we forget - the reign of Bill Gates, to name a few examples. No one has delved so deep thus far into the Geek realm as Slashdot's own resident journailst/author Jon Katz. Straight outta Idaho, Geeks tells the story of Jesse Dailey and Eric Twilegar, two textbook examples of the modern geek. They both work in small retail outlets in nearby microtowns (one in a computer repair shop the other in an Office Max - the closest thing to geek-friendly jobs in the area), are ostracized by the local Mormon moral majority, spend most of their time online and are complete outcasts for the most part. If it wasn't for one hip teacher who sees the obvious unharnessed potential of these two and their few friends and starts a Geek Club, Jesse and Eric might end up like so many other geeks: completely overlooked and unrecognized for their talents. By putting added emphasis on this aspect of the story, Katz brings to light the gaping hole in our education system through which most geeks fall. And as he showed in spades with his "Hellmouth" columns, lately that hole has been of the 'black hole' variety (see also the countless email messages from the Hellmouth included in Geeks). On the flipside, Jesse and Eric are (like most other geeks) multitasking geniuses. They read, listen to music, chat with friends online, talk on the phone, download files, trade MP3s, as well as eat and drink, all while sitting in front of their computers. A dizzying deluge of information screaming hither and thither on the screen, over the phone lines, through the modem and through the air. Extreme concentration and juggling skills as such are typically rewarded highly when they are known about. So, post-Hellmouth, Jesse and Eric realize that they can go anywhere and that anywhere else would probably be better. With minor guidance from Katz, the boys end up in Chicago. Jon Katz draws lines and crosses them throughout the book. He wants to document the story, but at the same time he identifies very strongly with Jesse and Eric. He doesn't want to see them fail despite their high hopes and thin ropes, and as he says, "the Net is their only net." In addition to their tribulations at school, Jesse and Eric have minimal home lives and suffer a severe lack of family involvement in their decisions. As he documents their move from small town to big city, Katz struggles to stay out of the story. But he flies into Chicago to be there the day of Jesse's first job interview and he goes to bat for both boys when it comes to their aspirations for college. Making sure there were two less geeks lost in the cracks of America became more important to Katz than the integrity of his report. A fact he openly admits repeatedly in the book. During his following of the story of these two geeks, Katz finds that he fits the description of "geek" himself as much as either of them do. Now if only more older geeks would step up for the new generation of geeks instead of ostracizing them. The book Geeks is both good read and a good example. Good job, Jon Katz. Twice.