The word "techie" gets tossed around these days as if it were a proper designation. It's not. I think it's a derogatory term which indicates that the person is ignorant of what their programmer, web developer, or IT professional actually does for a living.
Wikipedia, in part, defines techie as:
"Techie is a term, derivative of the word technology, for a person who displays a great, sometimes even obsessive, interest in technology, high-tech devices, and particularly computers. Some techies express a disregard for any technology that could possibly be considered obsolete, even if the technology or process in question might only be considered obsolete within the techie community."
I read that definition and understand that "techies" are condescending, narrow-minded technocrats obsessively interested in technology. Not a pretty picture. Certainly not one that describes most of the so-called "techies" that I know.
It's a label chosen because you know that your deskside support guy, Jim, knows how to make your e-mail start flowing again by doing things you don't understand. You don't want to call him a nerd or because you've heard they don't like being called that, so you just call him a "techie". Techie fits the bill nicely. It almost sounds cute. A word of advice: Jim doesn't like techie either, he thinks you're being condescending, and most likely, he thinks your foolish for having called him that.
Your "techie" is a professional. They probably went to university for their training, spending many late hours studying, just like you did for your MBA. Or spent a lot of time in the trenches over many years gaining experience to do what they do today. Some of us are computer scientists -- yeah, you know, a scientist like this guy -- or even software engineers. These people do incredibly complex things with software, logic, math, and more.
I recently read an article in Canadian Business magazine that, in my mind, made egregous use of the term "Techie".
"Cormack hopes TREC Legal Track’s research will lead to a more precise search protocol.This year, the workshop’s dozen or so academics, lawyers and techies will perform mock discovery requests using Enron litigation. Participants will search nearly 500,000 e-mail messages and 800,000 online documents for topics such as “stock transactions.” These digital findings are submitted to TREC, which then measures the percentage of relevant documents found using varying search methodologies."
Do you see the problem? Here: "the workshop's dozen or so academics, lawyers, and techies". I guarantee you the individuals programming this system are computer scientists, likely with Doctorates in their field. The author of the article doesn't understand what it is that these people do and in their ignorance have put these highly skilled individuals on the same level as the computer technician who works at Best Buy. It's a shame really.
So the next time you think to call someone a techie, give another thought to what you're really trying to say. I'm certain most people don't mean anything bad by the term. Some people who work in technical fields do take offence to it, though.
/rant