

Rands in Repose: How nerds and geeks parse the world - filament
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2010/10/21/an_unexpected_connection.html

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wallflower
> This is why, when you’ve piqued my interest, I keep asking questions,
> incessantly, while staring you in the face… never blinking.

Personally, I'm interested in what makes a person push themselves. Normally,
in conversations with strangers or even friends about eating at X restaurant -
I'm bored. But every once in a while we'll have a fascinating discussion about
something important to me. It's a lot easier to do this one on one - perhaps
because it's easier to process one data stream. When I go to parties that
evolve into people telling stories, I usually sit back and soak it all in. I
usually get asked by someone if I am having a good time - and I truly am - but
the person thinks because I am not actively participating that I am wishing to
be somewhere else. Sure, I've had my share of aborted conversations that are
uncomfortable. But this article makes me think that true people persons are
truly interested in finding out who someone is - what they feel about things,
what their life is like. By limiting my relevancy filter to stuff that is
important to me - I am potentially funneling out a significant amount of
people that I meet. Interesting article - it makes me wonder if there is a
hack for consistently being able to engage people in real conversation.

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Mz
_Interesting article - it makes me wonder if there is a hack for consistently
being able to engage people in real conversation._

There probably is. But I would suggest this falls under the heading of "be
careful what you wish for". I seem to have this knack (or something akin to
it) and sometimes wish I could gnaw my left arm off and escape this trap.

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hasenj
Blue whales never interested me as a child.

Relevance is subjective, what seems important to me might seem unimportant to
someone else, and vice versa.

Not all nerds behave the same way, we have different personalities.

I for one didn't relate to most of what that article claimed. Actually I find
it rather offensive that someone makes assumptions about me based on his
observation about himself.

I find the MBTI to be a better tool to understand behavior than a general
stereotype like "nerd". Not all nerds share the same type.

Though I do think that most entrepreneurial types of people tend to be xNxP.
But nerds and entrepreneurs are not necessarily the same thing at all.

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hugh3
I really don't understand what the distinction he's making here between
"nerds" and "smart people who aren't nerds" is.

All smart people, nerdy or not-nerdy, have a vast collection of random trivia
stored away in their brains somewhere (dumb people have something similar but
smaller), and everybody enjoys saying funny things. What's the real
distinction here?

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Vivtek
I'm not even sure what _your_ distinction between nerds and smart non-nerds,
to be honest. I've always found them essentially equivalent (modulo the topics
they find interesting).

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hugh3
Well, I don't want to get into an argument about poorly-defined words, but I
see "nerds" as embodying a certain set of negative behavioural stereotypes.

You can define it so broadly as to include all smart people if you wish, but
then what label do you have for the fat smelly bearded 35-year-old virgin on
the bus writing Firefly/Dollhouse crossover fanfiction?

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coderdude
That's a pretty negative image. I'm sure most people would just call that
person a loser.

~~~
hugh3
Perhaps, but this particular form of loserdom seems to be a common enough trap
for smart people, so it's an interesting one to analyze.

~~~
noahth
Ah, but now we have to discuss the definition of smart: I think there's a
distinct type of intelligence involved in _not_ being a weird, smelly loser.
In fact, the vast majority of people are at least moderately smart in this
regard.

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bsaunder
Good post. I find there is a lot of potential economic value in connections of
information. Essentially this is innovation.

Find just a few useful concepts/tools/techniques not previously connected
together. Figure out if there are any new useful emergent features that
result. See if you can build a business model around the features. Implement.
Market. Prosper.

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alanthonyc
Nice post, but the phenomenon of being witty that he describes is not solely
the domain of being a nerd.

There exists a class of people, collectively known as "smartasses," who
exhibit these same tendencies. Being an engineer is not a prerequisite. I
personally know many smartasses, most of them are not engineers.

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metamemetics
> _blue whales_

> _Quaking Aspen grove in Utah_

> _Giant Sequoia named General Sherman._

He's too good, I've read the wikipedia article for each of those within the
past couple years :/

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anthuswilliams
At least now it's been diagnosed. As I was reading this article, I couldn't
resist the urge to wikipedia Quaking Aspen, General Sherman, and (from the
comments) the antimalarial effects of quinine.

~~~
hugh3
I have a different reaction. I figure that if other people already know about
quaking aspen, then that no longer interests me. I'd rather press the "Random
Article" button and find out about... Mount Grace Priory.

Did you know it was the last monastery established in Yorkshire? And the monks
were Carthusians, who basically live as a community of hermits, keeping to
their own rooms and only coming together on rare occasions?

