By Paul Boutin, 8:38 AM on Mon Dec 10 2007, 1,648 views (Edit, to draft, un-top, Slurp)

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When Inc. posted a 1,279-word "Field Guide to Your Tech Staff," I couldn't shake the suspicion the piece's real intent was hey Slashdotters! Everybody click here! For those of us unable to spend 10 minutes looking busy by reading the printer-friendly version, I've boiled it down to a PowerPoint stack of bullet points. Because they hate that.

Habitat

• Dark room — allows focus, rests eyes
  
• Headphones — get deeper into the zone
  
• Desk organization — pristine or cluttered, it's intentional. Touch nothing.

• Perfectionism — "good enough" isn't good enough
  
• Gadget lust — latest gizmo is badget of honor
  
• Intellectual curiosity — figure out how things work, absorb info from multiple channels at once
  
• Systematic thinking — nothing is magic, it just needs to be problem-solved
  
• Wrong? Never! — hoo boy, no kidding. Wrong = failure
  
• Competitive nature — being smartest is important

• Recognition — take them to lunch and let them talk about latest accomplishment
  
• Playtime — Google's "20% Time" policy leads to huge R&D breakthroughs

• Try to gain basic understanding of technology
  
• Provide context — Not "will it work?" but "will it work by June for 1,000,00 hits per day?"
  
• Cross-pollinate IT with other departments

• Wait until you need their help to befriend IT people
  
• Add a tiny last-minute request without bumping deadlines
  
• Let non-tech employees bypass proper channels for IT requests

(Photo of Not Yours Pony courtesy of dev.splunk.com)