We Are All Nerds Now

Anonymous Slob Nerd. writes "The Guardian has a good review of something close to all of our hearts. We are all nerds now discusses how the popularity of the internet, video gaming, comic-book movies (Spider-Man, Hulk), the sci-fi epics (The Matrix, Star Wars) and the wizard fantasy (Harry Potter), not to mention The Lord of the Rings has made nerds, and nerdish behaviour, cool."

Comments

Thank Dr. Seuss

[confusednoise]

Dr. Seuss first coined the word nerd is his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo".

From the book: "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It- Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!"

Yet more mastery from one of my favorite 20th century authors....(go read the Lorax now, dammit)

Peter Bagge

[akikage]

Peter Bagge has a funny comic on this theme.

official definitions

[rizzy]

cat and girl explain it all

Re:Preference for "geek" over "nerd"

[lars-o-matic]

Go to the classics, comrade: ESR's Jargon File.

Excerpts: nerd:

nerd n.
1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.

2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare geek.

[...]

And: geek

geek n. A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.

[...]

It seems (in slashdot, at least) that everyone has their own idea of what the differences are, but "geek" seems to be cooler than "nerd" in current usage.