

The Nerd Handbook - a_magical_me
http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html

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GeoffreyHull
The writer is dead-on with his analysis.

Nothing bothers me more than small talk. “I have no system for understanding
this messy person in front of me”. Hilarious. That pretty much nails my
thought process when I meet someone new.

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wlesieutre
I think the biggest error is the insinuation that all nerds are computer
nerds. While it fits me just fine, I know plenty of nerds of other varieties.

Regarding small talk, I don't think it's a lack of a system of understanding
so much as a side effect of the relevancy filter. All that stuff people are
saying to me? It frequently sounds like "Nice weather outside blah blah blah
blah." Small talk about something I find interesting is another matter
entirely.

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gabebw
This idealizes some not-very-nerdy habits. Yes, sometimes nerds are messy - my
desk is just messy. The package of gum on my desk doesn't mean I have an
efficient system, it means I made room for my laptop.

And who watches 3 TV shows at one time? Serious question - if a lot of HN does
stuff like this, that's a fairly fascinating discovery for me.

~~~
Zev
_And who watches 3 TV shows at one time?_

I do. I'll start one, and than pause it to go do something else (write code,
grab a snack, etc) and come back and start watching a different show.
Eventually, I'll get distracted and pause the show I'm watching and talk on
IRC or read Twitter for a bit, at which point I'll read about another show
that I've been meaning to watch. So, I'll start watching it. Only to remember
the first show that I started two hours ago and never finished. Its worse when
I catch a reference to another show that I'm watching but can't quite remember
what its referencing or its baseball season and I have a Mets game to watch..

This works _really_ well with Quicktime, where it opens a new window for every
video file I tell it to play. Not so much with VLC or Movist (mplayer UI) on
OS X, that use a single window for all videos.

~~~
gabebw
Oh, absolutely. I do the whole "pause and do something else" thing too, which
the OP calls Nerd ADD [1]. Netflix + tabbed browsing is especially conducive
to it. My point is that flipping through channels every 5 seconds makes us
sound like nerd robots from the future, which I at least am not.

On re-reading, this article comes off as more measured and less apologist, but
the "nerd robot from the future" aspect still comes through.

[1] <http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2003/07/10/nadd.html>

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genbattle
I think this is more like a superset of features which describe many different
types of nerd; some nerds implement all features, some only satisfy a subset
of these interfaces. Each one is different depending on the level of nerd, and
the activity the nerd centralizes their life on.

Definitely passing this along to my partner.

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zengr
He is dead-on with "Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy
engine in his head.". Brilliant!!

