STUFF : TECHNOLOGY - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

They're a race apart - mysterious people who rarely talk, except in a language that few understand. Ask them about food, football and the meaning of life and you won't get much of a conversation. They might not even know what the company they work for does.

They're geeks and nerds: brilliant at what they do but hopeless at articulating it. Yet they cast envious glances at the people they report to - IT's non-nerds earning perhaps double their pay because they can walk the walk and speak the geek.