Fierce Nerds • Hacker News Board

Re: Fierce Nerds

#61

Post by johnthealy3 » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

miobrien wrote: post #36

It's weird to read an "essay" about "nerds" from a 56 year old. It's like he never got over the high school caste system of cliques.

To be fair, this man's job was to identify the type of person who is likely to succeed at startups, and by most accounts he was very successful at it.

Understanding personality traits and how they relate to the people you're looking for has felt critically important as I work on my startup. It has come up over and over again in hiring (including MANY more inbound, exploratory conversations than I would have expected) and in client management (identifying the best point of contact on their side, but also keeping clients on track and responsive during an onboard).

Re: Fierce Nerds

#62

Post by _jal » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

woeIsPG wrote: post #46

zozbot234 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul Graham himself muses in this post that the main contrast is between people who are "good at making deals" and those who are actually competent in some relevant domain. We can see this shift happening in politics as well.

A year ago he was musing how categorizing people into two groups was too basic. Xist versus Yist, and he showed us with some pretty basic math. Now two groups is all we need to understand the world?

Well, we could certainly speak to the difference between those whose emotional needs are served by sharing their advice with the world, and those for whom they aren't.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#63

Post by AbrahamParangi » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

woeIsPG wrote: post #46

zozbot234 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul Graham himself muses in this post that the main contrast is between people who are "good at making deals" and those who are actually competent in some relevant domain. We can see this shift happening in politics as well.

A year ago he was musing how categorizing people into two groups was too basic. Xist versus Yist, and he showed us with some pretty basic math. Now two groups is all we need to understand the world?

I am reminded of a fun idea:

The reason that 4 quadrant divisions of the world seem like they always work is because any two vectors chosen at random in a high dimensional space are nearly orthogonal with high probability.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#64

Post by mcguire » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

woeIsPG wrote: post #46

zozbot234 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul Graham himself muses in this post that the main contrast is between people who are "good at making deals" and those who are actually competent in some relevant domain. We can see this shift happening in politics as well.

A year ago he was musing how categorizing people into two groups was too basic. Xist versus Yist, and he showed us with some pretty basic math. Now two groups is all we need to understand the world?

If one were suitably cynical (and independent-minded, another of his bugaboos) one might suggest that it's always been "the kind Paul appeals to" and "the bad people".

Re: Fierce Nerds

#65

Post by bluetomcat » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:20 PM UTC

woeIsPG wrote: post #46

zozbot234 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul Graham himself muses in this post that the main contrast is between people who are "good at making deals" and those who are actually competent in some relevant domain. We can see this shift happening in politics as well.

A year ago he was musing how categorizing people into two groups was too basic. Xist versus Yist, and he showed us with some pretty basic math. Now two groups is all we need to understand the world?

The article is an attempt of classifying people into neat groups with certain characteristics, without acknowledging their true inner personality as a result of the cultural background and the particular individual qualities. "Nerd" is one such classification, "fierce" is a sub-classification. Semantic word-play with little empirical or anecdotal evidence.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#66

Post by NikolaeVarius » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:20 PM UTC

pattusk wrote: post #18

> Most people think of nerds as quiet, diffident people. [...] In fact some nerds are quite fierce. That someone would think nerds are not competitive is, to me, the strangest thing about this article. Perhaps because I'm one, but whether it's Magic the gathering, Demoparties, rubics cube solving, chess, Counterstrike LANs, academia, or any of my tech jobs, every "nerdy" activity I've ever engaged with has always bee…

I think its mostly due to the diffusion of what a "nerd" is. Being a "nerd" or a "geek" used to be a insult, now its trendy for some reason, and seems to mostly be a term for modern consumerist culture (buy lots of stuff in some sort of genre and be a nerd)

Re: Fierce Nerds

#67

Post by soheil » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:20 PM UTC

> 7 of the 8 richest people in America are now fierce nerds

I wonder if he's counting Warren Buffet as a fierce nerd, I would.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#68

Post by NikolaeVarius » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

miobrien wrote: post #36

It's weird to read an "essay" about "nerds" from a 56 year old. It's like he never got over the high school caste system of cliques.

I dont understand. He grew up as a teen during the age of D&D and core scifi/nerd culture. How is not qualified to speak of this stuff?

Re: Fierce Nerds

#69

Post by iafiaf » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

> The bad news is that if it's not exercised, your fierceness will turn to bitterness, and you will become an intellectual playground bully: the grumpy sysadmin, the forum troll, the hater, the shooter down of new ideas.

I like this.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#70

Post by paulpauper » Tue, May 18, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

This whole things feels autobiographical

I have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that your fierceness will be a great help in solving difficult problems. And not just the kind of scientific and technical problems that nerds have traditionally solved. As the world progresses, the number of things you can win at by getting the right answer increases. Recently getting rich became one of them: 7 of the 8 richest people in America are now fierce nerds.

starting one of the 10 most successful businesses of the past 2-4 decades business vs solving a problem are not the same thing though. Problem solvers on average do not make that much money. Look at all the problems solved everyday on stack overflow/exchange. How many of those ppl are making lots of money. Same for freelancing sites. The rates are pretty low. making money means a lot to PG, but it's a separate type of skill than solving problems. It is something that is probably harder in many respects because it requires not only solving problems but making money from it, which means competition and other aspects of business.