HT: I don't disagree with your summation of many in the IT field.

What follows is a broad generalization and will probably badly put..... read into it to understand what I am saying and if you match the characteristics.... Don't be offended..... Learn from it - you'll be a better "geek" in the end.....

Most of the people, especially those that have been around for a while, are not the most outgoing, well liked by their peers "college quarterback" types. For many computers were something that "evened their playing field". They were a place they could "excel", (compared with others), and competition was not something that was an issue. Many got their jobs on the fact that they were some of the few who could make the computers work. Many of them suffered from some misconceptions such as those that HT mentioned but since there was no-one around that knew what a Cisco router was the misconception could never be challenged. Having spent enough time in this "godlike" place it is easy to begin to begin to believe that you are special, always right and irreplacable.

Times have changed and while the times still generate similar kinds of people the industry is a lot more "open" than it was several years ago. The "old hacks" are still there, in more powerful positions, carrying the same bad information and having not learned a lot of the new stuff, (or not learned it well enough). Now they are confronted with the young "hotshots". Kids that grew up with computers from the time they could walk. A far greater proportion of these "young un's" are the antithesis of the "old hacks", they are outgoing, well liked by their peers, "quarterback" types. They aren't afraid, (like the "old hacks" were when they started), to challenge misconceptions and misinformation.

After many years in the "godlike" state, with their often errant ideas firmly in place these people are scared. After all these years of harboring the misinformation unchallenged the one thing they did learn is economics..... It's cheaper and more efficient to hire a young "hotshot" who knows his stuff than it is to pay the aging "hack" who has built a nice salary over his years of tenure that isn't necessarily getting the best out of the network. That's a bloody scarey thought for many. Couple that with the "normal" personality of the older "hacks" and you find that their only means of maintaining their position and "godlike" status is to protect it by keeping the "hotshots" at arms length. Don't grant them access to things they they know may be wrong, don't listen to what they have to say - do what you always did - issue an edict that doesn't really make sense but that protects your "godlike" status.

It's all quite understandable if you look at the personalities involved. It's not right, far from it, but it's one of those nasty little facts of life. "Godlike" status _must_ remain unchallenged because it always has. Any challenge to the "godlike" status must be quashed for fear of being proven a false 'god".

These people are the bain of our industry, but they are there, they are entrenched and there's no-one who's going to do anything to remove them because they have trusted them for years..... Therefore they must be right.