Hehe - but it's the very definition of geeks/nerds to lack "social skills", they have a hard time doing small talk, they feel chatting about irrelevant things is a waste of time. Hence the word has a negative taste in these circles. And the percentage of them among computer professional is higher than average.
Heh, that may also be true, but I wasn't talking about those people. :) And I'm not saying that striking up a conversation with people about superficial things isn't an important skill, I'm saying that most people, geeks or otherwise, find it annoying and would prefer to engage in meaningful discussion. Surely the geeks here can find plenty of URLs to support this. :)
But apparently we disagree, probably best to leave it there. :) I've spoken my peace: "Smalltalk" is an awful name.
-C
-- Craig Latta improvisational musical informaticist www.netjam.org Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]