

In praise of nerds - maurycy
http://economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10493332

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marvin
This is how I discovered Paul Graham's essays:

In a particularly painful period of my high-schoolness, I sat staring into an
empty browser window, and typed "why" into Google. The essay "Why Nerds are
Unpopular" happened to be the second result. That's a pretty awesome use of a
search engine, if you ask me.

This was one of the most memorable moments that year.

~~~
eru
My first result is for a swinger-club named 'why not?'.

~~~
eru
But I agree - your result was probably more meaningful.

------
eru
"Eventually, most of us work out that nerdiness tends to go hand-in-hand with
higher-than-average levels of curiosity, creativity and enthusiasm. As such,
nerds are not merely admirable but attractive. Nerds are cool."

Nerds make more money.

------
aswanson
Question: Would you give up your nerd abilities for pro-athlete level
abilities (and hence pro athlete $)?

~~~
maurycy
No. Odds to success as a pro-athlete are little, the best pro-athlete money is
way smaller than nerd's money (Gates), and you can't be a successful pro-
athlete in your 40s.

~~~
geebee
Yeah... but ever see Andy Roddick play in front of a crowd? The girls are out
there, in force. Sergey may have more money, but I suspect that Andy is having
more fun.

~~~
maurycy
Who gives a whatever about stupid girls?

But, seriously, it is a phantasmatic desire. You always overestimate things
you don't have (Andy Roddick's social capital), and underestimate ones you do.

Given this it is not possible to fully and responsibly address the initial
question. And when it comes to emotions, there is no unbiased answer. If you
want valuable discussion, you have to use some rational framework. I chose the
odds of success, which are in case of athletics too small to bother.

~~~
geebee
I was assuming you have the talent to be a top 10 player. You're completely
right in your response, though. I was looking through prize money for the top
100 players, and it drops off fast. The bottom half of the list often have
prize money in the 200-300K range. Endorsements might be more lucrative, but
it drops off quick once you're not in the tiny upper slice of the sport.

This is why parents get nervous when their kids to go into (sports, film
acting, rock music). If you miss being one of the top 100 surgeons in the
world, and only make the top thousand, well, hardly a problem. If you software
startup fails to become the next microsoft, there are still thousands of other
good outcomes.

~~~
cridal
In tennis you can't make a living if you are outside of top 100 or 150. That
is you don't eat if you don't have other sources of income.

Even if you are a very good amateur player and you easily beat most fellow
amateurs, you would get destroyed (6-0, 6-0) by an aspiring pro (top 1000 in
the world) playing minor leagues (satellite tour), spending his own or other
people's money to stay afloat.

I've met many mediocre programmers making a nice, corporate paycheck, driving
Audi TTs.

