Over rashers of corned beef and sauerkraut, a platter of green chipped nachos and a few delightful banana creme cupcakes (All in honor of Paddy's Day. Which Pat they meant is up for great discussion itself, but was pretty much irrelevant at the time), some folks were discussing the differences between Nerd and Geek.
Mind you, to some, this is a bit like discussing which locker is the most comfortable to be stuffed into (i'm a big fan of the classic Penco Vanguard), for others, it's more about the sort of nerdly pondering that geeks are wont. Kent does a fairly good job of outlining the general phases of Nerd, classifying to the popular spazz, dork, and geek level. i prefer a somewhat more nuanced description.
For me, there's a direct correlation between the generic brainy dweeb and what is often considered the ultimate form of the brainy dweeb. Folks that are so geeky and nerdy that they've managed to completely wrap the scale back to cool again. Folks that can hold us raptured with things we have absolutely no clue what the hell they're talking about, as well as folks that can and do find amazingly expensive and highly ingenious ways to blow stuff up. i speak of Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Plank and Hawking. i speak of the physicist.
See, to me, theoretical physicists are the epitome of nerd. They think completely unlike those they may happen to share a preponderance of DNA with and instead come up with insane ideas and concepts that are only proven accurate. Their counterparts are the experimental physicists who contrive experiments of near unimaginable detail and scope to test the untestable, prove the impossible and otherwise make things go BOOM.
To me, Nerds are thinkers, Geeks are tinkers. Nerds need whiteboards like Geeks need fire extinguishers.
This doesn't mean that a Nerd can't be a Geek and vice versa, in fact, there's often quite a deal of mixing between the two. It also means that nerds and geeks are useful counterparts as nerds dream up the insane and let the geek go about realizing it. Nearly everything has it's nerds and geeks, it's just that some areas tend to lend themselves toward more one aspect than the other.
As for me? i feel that my category is quite easy to identify. i'm an idiot.
And thus, we all tended to agree. Some nodded sagely, while others tried to see if they could use the cooling cheese and green corn chips to weld a memorial to Patrick Stewart. And to be honest, by the third round we'd all pretty much forgotten the point anyway.
When i discovered that Wikipedia has an article on "Geek Chic" I wanted to hermetically seal my apartment and hide under my bed from the rest of the world.
Oh who am I kidding, everything these days makes me want to do that.
A geek was the guy who bit the heads off chickens in the carnival. Which is exactly why I always preferred that label.
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Revenge of the Nerds was really the beginning of the "coolification" of Nerds. We were the twerps in high school that were into computers and D&D. We had bad skin, poor hygiene, and an awkward perception of what was funny (mostly puns and math jokes). The 80's was not a good time to be a nerd. I know because I was one.
In college, I made a conscious effort to not associate with the Computer Science types in my major. They were WAY to into Star Trek. I wanted to meet girls. I wanted to go to parties and drink. I still loved computers, programming, math, and all that, but people interested me a lot to.
The 90s was when the nerds became rich. That newfound wealth translated into social status, popularity, and most importantly, CHICKS. Look no further than Artie Ziff on The Simpsons. The fact that I can site that should be proof enough that I am a nerd.
Triumph of the Nerds. Revenge of the Nerds. Call it what you will.
To quote a different childhood favorite, "Its great to learn because knowledge is power." Tru dat.