Nerd Quote

[andrewducker]

Clothing is only the most visible battleground in the war against formality. Nerds tend to eschew formality of any sort. They're not impressed by one's job title, for example, or any of the other appurtenances of authority.

Indeed, that's practically the definition of a nerd. I found myself talking recently to someone from Hollywood who was planning a show about nerds. I thought it would be useful if I explained what a nerd was. What I came up with was: someone who doesn't expend any effort on marketing himself.

A nerd, in other words, is someone who concentrates on substance. So what's the connection between nerds and technology? Roughly that you can't fool mother nature. In technical matters, you have to get the right answers. If your software miscalculates the path of a space probe, you can't finesse your way out of trouble by saying that your code is patriotic, or avant-garde, or any of the other dodges people use in nontechnical fields.

From a discussion of what _good_ came out of the dotcom bubble.

Comments

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, I went to that talk. Paul Graham sucks so much. Yeah, he made some good points, but it was overshadowed by the parts about how labor unions are bad, nerds are all male, and Indians can't program.

[andrewducker]

Hmm, none of which seems to have made it into the article.

Well, yes, if he said all that other stuff then you're right, he sucks.

Indians can't program???

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

"Labor unions" was part of the talk as such. I didn't read his transcript, but basically was making some sort of statement on how nerds are superior because they don't "hold people hostage" by forming unions. The nerds being male stuff was pretty implicit -- always using "he" or "him" to refer to a generic nerd, talking about how women ask how they can meet nerds. The part about Indians was in response to an audience question about what he thought about outsourcing. He said basically, "outsourcing isn't something to worry about, because when people outsource things to India, they usually find they need real programmers to do the job right."

The talk was such a disaster... everyone clearly was aware that it was intellectually bankrupt but didn't want to say so. There was a totally different title for his talk listed in the proceedings (something about programming as debugging, which would actually have been *relevant* to a conference on functional programming languages), and the talk he actually gave seemed to have been pulled out of his ass.

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

Certainly the quality of code outsourced to the Indian subcontinent is extremely variable. I think it's fair to say that you get what you pay for. This is a long way from saying "Indians can't program."

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

That would have been fine if he said that. But he didn't say "you get what you pay for". He suggested that, invariably, when people outsource projects to India, they find that they really need -- and I quote -- "real programmers", suggesting that real programmers can't be found in India.

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it was me that said "you get what you pay for".

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

In technical matters, you have to get the right answers. If your software miscalculates the path of a space probe, you can't finesse your way out of trouble by saying that your code is patriotic, or avant-garde, or any of the other dodges people use in nontechnical fields.

It's been a long time since I've read anything quite so patronising about non-technical work.

[blackmanxy.livejournal.com]

Really? It hasn't been long at all for me. In fact, I read and hear stuff like that often enough that all it elicits from me anymore is a brief, weary sigh.

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

Possibly because I avoid articles which are entirely subjective pieces delivered from a nerd's point of view.

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

A nerd, in other words, is someone who concentrates on substance.

No, the opposite is true. A nerd is someone who concentrates on wispy, substance-less abstractions, e.g. software.

[odheirre.livejournal.com]

So what's the connection between nerds and technology? Roughly that you can't fool mother nature. In technical matters, you have to get the right answers.

To add my $0.02, I believe this statement is wrong in many, many situations. In technical matters, you can fudge the right answers. Hell, I've seen it done all the time with hacks like this:

//Not sure what's going on, but this fixes it 
if (resultType == 16)
     resultType = 18;

And that's because it's fallible humans that are asking the questions and making the answer sheet. I can create a program that calculates pi to 100 digits, and it will be correct. But that doesn't mean it's a good program, or I'm a good programmer.

I think I'm repeating myself, but I'd rather modify a program that is well-architectured and doesn't work than a program that works but is spaghetti code. The former can be fixed, while in the latter case, I'm going to have to either spend hours on hours to modify the code once the situation changes, or trash the whole thing.

To give him the benefit of the doubt, he could be talking about "mother nature" as, well, merely something greater than people. A nerd is someone who cares about results, about craftsmanship. A nerd is someone who cares about creating elegant objects that are, for a lack of a better word, "right". But if this is the case, then aren't artists and writers and carpenters nerds? Isn't anyone who cares about something higher than "the self" a nerd? I don't think that's what he means.

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

The excerpt reads like special pleading for nerd-dom. And I'm sure he just means "computer programmers".

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so much of the talk was just patting himself on the head and saying "aren't nerds great?", clearly meaning only computer nerds. That kind of talk has its place, but not at a freakin' serious academic conference, which is what ICFP is.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Some nerds don't expend any effort on marketing themselves.

Many do.

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

I don't wear nice clothes (just, or even mainly) to market myself. I wear them because I like them and I like the way they make me look and I like being able to play with how I look. In a very minor way, it's a form of everyday art that's available to all of us.

And I don't even wear stompy boots..