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Triumph of the Nerd


The Pezman
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http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992912064227409&ShowArticle_ID=11010907083805273

This is the front-page article from the most recent issue of Free Times, Columbia's free weekly newspaper. Don't know whether they brought it over there first on purpose or it was just a humorous coincidence, but I found a copy while outside the Engineering Center where I work.

The article explains how nerds have gone from social outcast to... maybe not the top of the social food chain. But much better than before. Nerds made computers, the Internet, video games, and pretty much all technology which our society relies on so much today.

However, the article goes on to say that true nerds still don't have the best time of it: these are the people who like the nerdy stuff but also have the introverted, awkward personality. The article mentions Seth Cohen, who likes nerdy things but doesn't display the characteristics of one. He, according to the article, would be called a geek. A Hollywood geek, too, who is carefully portrayed to be likable.

So read the article and offer up your thoughts? Are you a true nerd, or simply a pseudo-assimilation who expresses very high interest in nerdy things?

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I can definetly relate to the "people obsessed with certain topics," part. I actually enjoy conversations quite a bit (favorite activity is to go out with a group of friends to dinner and talk for a couple of hours), but I completely lack the ability to talk very long to people who aren't familiar with the video games, books, anime, or movies that I like. It's like I'm speaking a different language because my mental frame of reference is constructed on the ideas I've acquired since I've been capable of consuming those mediums of entertainment and thinking about them. I've had my interests called "narrow", but books are about EVERYTHING. The only reason that is considered narrow is because there aren't a lot of people who probably read quite as much as I do and constantly think about books. It's like you are a nerd if you are really really passionate about something and want to talk about it more than the typical boring ass shit people talk about (kids, wife, house, car, failed relationships, sports team they aren't on, drinking, etc.).

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