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Why Nerds Are Unpopular

Name: Anonymous 2011-06-01 19:50

I'm posting this here first hoping that /prog/rammers are the most mature of the textboard audiences. Please take time to read it till the end. It will make a lot of things click, and will make life start to seem way less gloomy.

http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

Name: Anonymous 2011-06-02 4:40

>>14
I didn't read it till the end, I stopped some paragraphs after ``if they're so smart, why can't they be popular? They don't want to be popular to begin with?'' and him whining about how miserable was his nerd life.
They are not smart, if they were, they would've know how to hide their powerlevel and being cultured (which is very different than having high grades, here), and how to socialize with people. If they didn't care, they wouldn't whine about being unpopular. The so-called nerds just lack social skills, and they are aware of that, but they still want to socialize, and completely fail at it.


You should have read it. The beginning sounded like whining, but there's a profound analysis towards the end.

Also, people are confusing what the word "nerd" means.
Geek: intense interest in something unpopular (e.g., an anime fan)
Nerd: studious, usually teachers' pet; only socialize with other nerds for the most part
Dork: someone who looks/dresses/acts ugly and weird

The categories are not mutually exclusive. But the point is that he was talking about nerds in that sense of the word, not the popularized one.

Name: Anonymous 2011-06-02 4:42

>>20
Adding to that, he did address popular nerds. And he did address non-popular non-nerds. The essay is an analysis of the dynamics of the closed society that is the school. Stopping to read at any point means missing out a lot.

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