vicious attack on nerds

[Angel Tarragon]

Why, those impetous buggers! I am a nerd, and quite proud of it!

 

[megamania]

To quote Ogre and the football team-

"nerd nerd nerd NERD NERD" and thus charges to do unspeakable things to you and your pocket protector.

 

[fusangite]

Here's my response to the terminological issues raised:

Nerd: A person who, on top of any latent inability, has decided that their social incapacity is just fine because social relations with the other human beings just aren't that important. A nerd will consciously choose to do what they consider very fulfilling non-social things, sometimes making a lot of money, sometimes none at all in place of the social things they have decided are not a priority. People who spend a lot of time programming fit well into the nerd definition. For nerds, the world outside of their interests is not only hard to cope with but boring.
Geek: A person who has difficulty multi-tasking and geeks-out about various things. Socially, this often results in inappropriate volume and intensity in conversation because the conversation, not the individual or the party are what really matters. A geek can move or refocus his tunnel vision but cannot actually turn it off. Geeks are notoriously socially inept because they have a choice of concentrating on the other person's verbal communication or non-verbal communication but not both. For geeks, the world is fully of interesting things to drop what you're doing and go get obsessed with.
Spaz: A spaz is someone who understands that they're out of their depth in a social situation, even when they're not. The result of this realization is to immediately become totally out of their depth. Essentially, being a spaz is a kind of social drowning man syndrome where, as it becomes more evident that one is drowning, one thrashes about more and more violently.

I'm proud of having progressed from being a nerd to a geek. And my anxiety management is getting better so I'm only sometimes a spaz.

 

[Pbartender]

As a non-native English speaker I have to ask what is the difference between nerds, geeks and dorks? I just assumed they were all the same.

According to good old Uncle Webster, in alphabetical order, mind you...


Main Entry: dork
Pronunciation: 'dork
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps alteration of dick
slang : NERD; also : JERK (4 : an annoyingly stupid or foolish person)


Main Entry: geek
Pronunciation: 'gEk
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from English dialect geek, geck fool, from Low German geck, from Middle Low German
1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of
- geeky /'gE-kE/ adjective


Main Entry: nerd
Pronunciation: 'n&rd
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps from nerd, a creature in the children's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950) by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)
: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits <computer nerds>
- nerd·ish /'n&r-dish/ adjective
- nerdy /-dE/ adjective


Main Entry: spaz
Pronunciation: 'spaz
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural spaz·zes
Etymology: by shortening & alteration from spastic
slang : one who is inept : KLUTZ

 

[megamania]

...and now we know.

But there is still-

Weirdo
and
Dweeb

 

[Mark]

"No Nerds Needed"?


Piffle! As if!

 

[megamania]

no respect

 

[Goblyn]

"No Nerds Needed"?


Piffle! As if!

Exactly. I loved those candies. The little multicoloured globs of sugar that only intermingled if YOU wanted them to, because each box was actually TWO separate boxes. It was crazy.

 

[diaglo]

since i don't wear my wooden teeth all the time anymore i've stopped biting the heads off chickens.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

since i don't wear my wooden teeth all the time anymore i've stopped biting the heads off chickens.

So you're the guy who actually buys those "redneck buckteeth" you can find at souvenir shops.....