

On being a nerd - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2010/09/on-being-nerd.html

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jacquesm
I think we 'code writing nerds' are to some extent influenced by the machines
that we interact with on a daily basis, we learn to spot the 'bugs' before
they bite us by mental emulation.

Computers have the uncanny ability to do literally what you told them to do,
but rarely what you meant. So when someone says something (even in poetry) we
tend to temporarily suspend our humanity and we read it in this exact literal
sense, out of sheer habit, and respond just like the machine would respond to
us to any inconsistencies or ambiguities.

"Tea or coffee? Yes, please."

Little children sometimes go through phases of this kind of behavior too, and
as a programmer I can usually have a lot of fun with them by playing the game
right back and watching their responses.

~~~
gjm11
I once offered a (computer scientist) friend of mine some chocolate. He said
"I'll have one or two squares, please". I gave him three.

~~~
jacquesm
Hehe, that's funny. That's what you get for not specifying if you mean a
binary or a logical or.

~~~
shawndumas
In binary the logical 'or' _would_ give you three. Take'em one bit at a time
from least significant to most:

    
    
      2 | 1 
      -----
      0 | 1 = 1
      1 | 0 = 2
    
      1 or 0 => 1
      0 or 1 => 1
    
      2 | 1 
      -----
      1 | 1 = 3

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tome
Ironically the true literal interpretation of "Every moment dies a man, Every
moment one is born" is more correct than Babbage gives credit for.

If one and 1/16th is born, then certainly one is born!

~~~
tjr
So maybe, "Every sixteen moments die sixteen men, every sixteen moments
seventeen are born" ?

~~~
RyanMcGreal
Plays havoc with the poem's meter, though.

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pmjoyce
You mention that anyone who deals with computers _"ends up training themselves
to spot minute details that are incorrect or out of place"_. I agree, but
would also come at it from the other direction; people who are inclined to
spot minute details are good at dealing with computers.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Mathematicians. Musicians.

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hasenj
> persons of great computational ability (which I shall refer to as nerds)

I consider myself a nerd (obsessed with computers, technology, programming),
but I'm not of "great computational ability", in fact, I hate crunching
numbers, and I hated highschool math. The value of PI never fascinated me, I
never tried to memorize any portion of it (other than 3.14).

I'm an 'INFP'[1] so I tend to look at the big picture and ignore the details.
I only dive into a detail temporarily, on an as-needed basis, to fix a bug or
improve performance, or something like that.

Point is, not all computer nerds are math geeks.

The only math I loved was elementary math, first degree equations, and from
university: discrete math.

[1] <http://personalitytype.com/career_quiz_2>

~~~
jodrellblank
_Point is, not all computer nerds are math geeks._

He didn't say they are, he merely said math geeks are nerds.

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astrofinch
Precision makes me happy. :-)

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darkop
If poetry is about reality, then there's no such thing as poetry.

