The Nerd Handbook

http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html

by a_magical_me • 15 years ago

8 7 15 years ago

The writer is dead-on with his analysis.

Nothing bothers me more than small talk. “I have no system for understanding this messy person in front of me”. Hilarious. That pretty much nails my thought process when I meet someone new.

wlesieutre• 15 years ago

I think the biggest error is the insinuation that all nerds are computer nerds. While it fits me just fine, I know plenty of nerds of other varieties.

Regarding small talk, I don't think it's a lack of a system of understanding so much as a side effect of the relevancy filter. All that stuff people are saying to me? It frequently sounds like "Nice weather outside blah blah blah blah." Small talk about something I find interesting is another matter entirely.

gabebw2• 15 years ago

This idealizes some not-very-nerdy habits. Yes, sometimes nerds are messy - my desk is just messy. The package of gum on my desk doesn't mean I have an efficient system, it means I made room for my laptop.

And who watches 3 TV shows at one time? Serious question - if a lot of HN does stuff like this, that's a fairly fascinating discovery for me.

Zev• 15 years ago

And who watches 3 TV shows at one time?

I do. I'll start one, and than pause it to go do something else (write code, grab a snack, etc) and come back and start watching a different show. Eventually, I'll get distracted and pause the show I'm watching and talk on IRC or read Twitter for a bit, at which point I'll read about another show that I've been meaning to watch. So, I'll start watching it. Only to remember the first show that I started two hours ago and never finished. Its worse when I catch a reference to another show that I'm watching but can't quite remember what its referencing or its baseball season and I have a Mets game to watch..

This works really well with Quicktime, where it opens a new window for every video file I tell it to play. Not so much with VLC or Movist (mplayer UI) on OS X, that use a single window for all videos.

gabebw2• 15 years ago

Oh, absolutely. I do the whole "pause and do something else" thing too, which the OP calls Nerd ADD [1]. Netflix + tabbed browsing is especially conducive to it. My point is that flipping through channels every 5 seconds makes us sound like nerd robots from the future, which I at least am not.

On re-reading, this article comes off as more measured and less apologist, but the "nerd robot from the future" aspect still comes through.

[1] http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2003/07/10/nadd.html

genbattle• 15 years ago

I think this is more like a superset of features which describe many different types of nerd; some nerds implement all features, some only satisfy a subset of these interfaces. Each one is different depending on the level of nerd, and the activity the nerd centralizes their life on.

Definitely passing this along to my partner.

zengr• 15 years ago

He is dead-on with "Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy engine in his head.". Brilliant!!

The Nerd Handbook

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