Quote of the Day

[andrewducker]

Small talk is the bane of the nerd’s existence because small talk is a combination of aspects of the world that your nerd hates. When your nerd is staring at a stranger, all he’s thinking is, “I have no system for understanding this messy person in front of me”. This is where the shy comes from. This is why nerds hate presenting to crowds.

The skills to interact with other people are there. They just lack a well-defined system.

From The Nerds Handbook
Which seems to be more of a handbook for dealing with nerds than one for nerds to read.

Comments

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Sounds less like a manual for nerds and more like an excuse to propagate the idea that being a nerd means being introverted and socially inept. For those nerds among us that are extroverted and socially capable, that's getting to be a really really tired old stereotype.

[andrewducker]

Sounds to me like you aren't a nerd, you're a geek.

To me "Nerd" means "someone who is introverted and socially inept", whereas "Geek" means "Someone who is incredibly fascinated by a particular subject"

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

It's that whole 'to me' thing that's also an irritation to me. Define what as you want however you want, it just comes down to stereotyping people, which is the root of my problem. A person is socially inept and introverted. People aren't.

[andrewducker]

Stereotyping introverted socially awkward people as being introverted and socially awkward is fine by me.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

"Nerd" doesn't have a universally accepted definition, and more than "geek" or "dork" has. *Any* honest definition of any of the above words is going to include the "to me" modifier, since they're all subjective terms.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I concur, and that's part of what I was trying to get at.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK, I misunderstood your point, but I get it on the re-read.