I have found the community at Geekhack much more friendly and laid back compared to Deskthority...
That's very nice of you... We think you're swell too!
For what it's worth, Deskthority's based in Europe, where people generally tend to be more reserved, while Americans tend to be gregarious. I don't think anyone's
trying to be one way or the other; it's just the cultures we've found ourselves in.
So why
are we 'Muricans so giddy-yup, rootin'-tootin', in-your-face types compared to most Europeans? I'm no sociologist, but here's my theory (and yes, I admit it, this is largely an excuse to make a bulleted list):
- Europe is much, much older than the U.S. It has thousands of years of history; the U.S., a few hundred. For all its high-profile attention-getting, the U.S. is just a baby among civilizations. As people age—as as a people, as well as individuals—they tend to mellow out, to like themselves, to not be so concerned about what others think of them. Thus it becomes less important for them to continually jump up and down, waving flags, shooting off fireworks and shouting "Hey, look how great we are!" and so on.
- Americans started out with the restraint and sophistication of British people, because they were British people. But then they decided to go rogue and form their own country, basically ripping off the huge exploratory and developmental investments England had made in their (England's) American colonies. To do this, it was necessary for the rebel government—criminals, technically—to convince these new Americans that they were tough, powerful types who could do anything (e.g. face down the world's biggest military power by sniping at them from hidden places, rather than marching formally into battle as "civilized" armies had done for centuries). This also instilled in them the roots of the "I deserve everything, and I want it now" mentality we see today, and which has drowned us in debt and silly, unwanted possessions.
- Cowboys. We decided we should have the whole continent, not just the part we really needed, and that it didn't matter who else was already there (see "I deserve everything..." above). To facilitate this, the colorful image of the righteous, gun-slingin' frontier adventurer (i.e. cowboy) was created and sold to us, with which we continue to identify—a mindset recently and tragically reflected when we allowed a belligerent, ignorant, intolerant, egomaniacal, self-described Master of All He Surveys to grab the reins of our country's wagon, a decision that has only begun to damage our relationships with people around the world, steer the Titanic of our species back toward the iceberg of climate change, and create other irreversible, far-reaching consequences.
So what I'm saying is, it's all relative. I don't think DT's full of snobs; they're just not yahoos like us.
That said, I
like you, my fellow yahoos—even though most of you, especially here, are highly technical, detail-focused types who wouldn't know an example of
artistic license if it was right on your screen in front of you.
