The Nerd Handbook
The ever-entertaining Rands has just posted his Nerd Handbook.
Your nerd might come off as not liking people. Small talk. Those first awkward five minutes when two people are forced to interact. 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.
Go read it and let me know what you think. Agree? Disagree? Insightful, or insulting?
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That paragraph you quoted is roughly right when it comes to me, but I find a number of minor and major faults in it. Generally I enjoyed the article, but I substituted “Rands” for “Nerd” in the title. He generalises broadly and leans way too heavily on stereotypes.
He says that nerds would like to think they’re less messy than other people. Then he tries to neatly decompose “the nerd persona” (because, of course, all nerds have the same one) in terms of a single unifying principle anyway! It really makes you wonder.
I think this sort of personality analysis is to nerds what one of those trash romance novels is to other people.
I sent this to my wife, thinking it described me (and her) perfectly …
But somehow I think the part about “you were the project … but then he’ll move on” didn’t fly too well. ;-)
Oh well, chalk it up to typical nerd cluelessness. And hey, one good valentine’s dinner (ahi & artichokes) seems to have made it all better.