3. Geeks are creative even if they don't know it. Give them a chance.
One thing I've seen is that most geeks don't see themselves as very creative. Give them the task of creating a GUI tool of some sort and they'll butcher it up and say "get someone with art talent on the job; I just know how to make it work". Now this may be true as far as what's appealing to the eye, but geeks have creativity inside them somewhere.

When you give them a requirement for a component that's just out of reach with the normal cookie-cutter solutions, who's jumping at the chance to dig on the Web for solutions that could work? Who's rattling off a dozen ideas for things to try that might work with the newfound constraints? That's right, it's management. ;) (Just kidding, though everyone has their moment...who knows? Some managers are geeks too.)

Even if none of the solutions the geeks come up with will work, it's a vast pool of creative ideas to feed from. Though they see themselves as equation-solvers with little creativity, I see it as opportunity. Let them apply their creativity. They love to be in the brainstorm process instead of pushed to the wayside as a later-used resource.

4. Geeks need tools, good ones. Give them more than they need.
I've seen way too many people get frustrated over their hardware's inability to keep up with them. There's nothing worse than having a machine that you have to wait on. Bill Gates based his entire company idea on the fact that hardware was going to be unlimited and it allowed him to grow an empire. Had the PC not been able to gain ground as fast as it did in the marketplace, Microsoft may have had a different story.

With geeks it's not much different. Give them unlimited hardware (hell, just give them just a little more than they think they need) and their productivity and creativity will definitely increase. Best of all, it'll motivate them. Geeks can't wait to see what they can do with the ultimate environment. Give a geek the latest-released workstation with maxed hardware and you'll most likely get a little more than you bargained for from them just because they're motivated enough to push the system to its limits.

5. Private, yet collaborative. Geeks need to be left alone, but not too alone.
I'm really on the fence with this one depending on the project. I've seen the case for both putting geeks in offices with doors, and I've seen the case for putting everyone in a big non-walled room with the extreme environment at its best. Personally, I like a combination of both. Geeks want to be left alone when they know what their assignment is. Give geeks a problem to solve, and first thing they'll want to do is run off and come back with something that fits.

Isolation is great for getting things done when you know what's there, but collaboration is ideal for environments where people can feed off of each other. I think geeks are motivated by the idea of a collaborative environment with their team where they can retreat to a hole-in-the-wall somewhere and not be disturbed while they get into "the zone" and crunch out their tasks.