Strollerderby

When I saw 'Obedience' as the first item, I thought this was a joke.  Obedience is hardly a geeky trait.  Every real geek I know is extremely skeptical of authority.  

Nothing kills creativity like being told not to play with fire.

I agree with paanta, every geek I know question authority from a very early age.  That is what got my oldest kicked out of preschool - twice!  You cant train a child to have a high IQ and an introverted personality.  I was quite geeky, straight A's with little effort, Honor Society, greasy hair, ill fitting clothes.  But me and the other "groove wads" as we called ourselves still drank, smoked and made out.  We may have been smart but we still had a need for fun. Every one of us went to good colleges and got advanced degrees in geeky subjects too.

A respect for authority doesn't have to mean a totalitarian regime.  My parents word was law, and as long as I lived under their roof, I followed their rules.  However, I was involved in every decision.  If I didn't like what they did, I was given time and attention to present my ideas and the reasoning behind them.  As a result, though I didn't always get my way, I always knew I was being treated fairly and that I had a say in the direction of my life.  It also meant that on occasions when my parents couldn't explain and I just had to go with what they said, I believed that they would explain later and did what I was told.  I always trusted that they had my best interests in mind and that if I objected later, things would change.  They never abused my trust in them, and in return I never abused their trust in me.

This approach did get me into some trouble at school, though, since I often questioned my teachers and expected explanations for things.  I was pretty stubborn, so if they couldn't or wouldn't convince me that their way was better, I just did it my way.

For the record, though I didn't drink or smoke, I also made out and did a few other things my parents wouldn't have loved.  A few things I never did, though, were pretend to be less than I was for a boy, or let one treat me that way, or doubt my own self worth.  Don't get me wrong; I hated my hair, thought I was fat, and wished I were prettier.  But I never doubted that I was good and smart and worthy of love and respect.

So it is possible to raise someone to both respect and question authority.

S

I think you are describing in the OP what I would call a smart "dork" - someone pretty uncool and a bit of a do-gooder.  The critical posters are describing what I would call a "geek" someone really smart, has a small group of similar friends, techie/enginneery, has their own interests and doesn't really care about the others (at least by college).  

Seriously? That's the dumbest acronym. Geek already means something, as exhibited by the posters on this thread, and it don't mean what Marybeth Hicks is trying to make it mean. Can't she come up with her own cutesy marketing term?