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Fierce Nerds
171–180 of 482 posts
Re: Fierce Nerds
#172I enjoy reading Paul Graham's musings on nerds / nerdiness, but I can't help but have difficulty relating. Maybe it's a generational thing (born in '92), but Graham often seems to paint a picture of nerds similar to what you might see in movies and TV shows depicting the 80s, like the kids in Stranger Things. Even this article, while I can certainly conjure which of my friends growing up were the "fierce nerd", it st…
Same, born in 92 and his characterization of being nerdy and young seems super antiquated. “Nerdy” interests don’t make you a social pariah, they transcend groupings all together; the star quarterback plays dnd, the head cheerleader builds robots in her basement, the stigma on having unique or “nerdy” hobbies and interests is mostly gone. When I think of what PG is describing, it’s characterized by poor social skills…
You're a bit young then. I'm a decade older, and see very clear similarities in my age cohort to what he's describing, particularly when I was in my early 20s and teens. Which is interesting, because a good theory of behavior is not limited that tightly in time.
Re: Fierce Nerds
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
After reading some of his books, essays and hearing people talking about him, I think Graham is first and foremost a nerd and hacker, the other stuff is secondary. At least that's how it looked before the last couple of years, his view on things seems to have slightly changed recently, so not sure anymore actually.
He certainly started that way; his Common Lisp stuff is interesting, although I don't usually agree that it's the best approach. But as far as I know, the only technical thing he's done since selling Viaweb is ... this forum. You apply to YC for money and for contacts---exactly what dealmakers do.
Nerds didn't spring fully formed with the invention of the transistor - they have always existed in various forms throughout history.
But it has also been true that moving to a dealmaker provides more impact, especially once you get past a certain point.
Re: Fierce Nerds
#174Does anyone else feel sort of weird when Paul Graham talks about nerds? It feels like he's trying to deal with something on his end, and we're just watching him rationalize to himself.
I feel like the Gen-X terminology of a nerd just isn't a thing anymore. Being an older millennial, I fully understand what sort of person Graham is talking about, however I don't think Zoomers or even younger Millennials would describe these people as "nerds". Also, these days if you are a smart ambitious person looking to make an impact with technology you're not terribly edgy and you certainly aren't defying any ma…
Curious question about terminology: The word 'nerd' no longer has obvious negative connotations. It also seem to no longer apply to many folks who would have been branded obvious nerds in 2003. And vice versa - many people laughingly named nerd today wouldn't qualify in 2003.
Could the terminology just be in flux, and therefore create confusion? With woke et al., we've got pleeeeeenty of examples of smart folks who miss the social norm du jour, attempt to say something true but rather say something unacceptable. And then they get ostracized or fired.
Maybe these folks are some examples of what used to be called nerds. Do we have a name for them?
Re: Fierce Nerds
#175Why do we need to reclaim nerd? A lot of us have painful memories associated with the term, can we just let it fade into well deserved obscurity?
Because others of us have good memories associated with the term.
Given the choice between having more language available to use or less, I don't see a reason to want less.
Re: Fierce Nerds
#176" 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 fi…
Agree.
”There has never been a better time to be a nerd. In the past century we've seen a continuous transfer of power from dealmakers to technicians — from the charismatic to the competent — and I don't see anything on the horizon that will end it.”
I think the continuous transfer is in nerds learning how to be dealmakers, not in some magic power shift to nerds.
George Westinghouse was an inventor. So was Thomas Edison. You can think of both as “fierce nerds” in my book.
Re: Fierce Nerds
#177Nobody who knows me would call me "woke", except as part of some joke. But as the father of a kid with Asperger Syndrome, and as someone with a likely diagnosis myself (according to neuropysch testing), I'm a little bothered by the broad brush with which P.G. is painting.
Umm... just so ya know, practically everything in "wokeness" is about somebody saying "Please don't paint me with the broad brush you're using."
I think most of what you identify as "wokeness" is other people who aren't directly affected trying to help out, since the affected people are usually a minority who won't be heard if it's just them. That can lead to its own forms of tone-deafness and "you're not helping" behavior, but that just leads to more cases of people who are sincerely and effectively helping being dismissed as "SJWs" out of hand. That's a cheap way of avoiding genuine problems with one tiny all-purpose acronym.
I just wanted to point that out because what you wrote can be read like "I didn't care about anything except when it happens to me". It might give you a moment's pause the next time you want to deride something as "woke".
Re: Fierce Nerds
#178Thanks, Paul, for writing this. It really puts a few of my traits into perspective, including being rude (interrupting people... just get to the point, dammit!) and being awkward (yeah, I just don't care about the game of "emotions" or whatever most people are playing)...
Re: Fierce Nerds
#179It'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.
My 70 year old grand-father, whose getting increasingly worse bouts of dementia, still remembers all the names and deeds of the various school bullies who tormented him in High School like it was yesterday. School seems like it was a very traumatic time for many, many people. Bullys do enormous amounts of damage to people and I am very happy to see the slow death of the "high school caste system" from the new generation. A lot of genuine social justice will come from increasing culture shaming and rejection of people who act like bullys.
Re: Fierce Nerds
#180Although questionable as a psychometric test, he is describing the Myers–Briggs INTJ [1] or INTP [2] personality type here. In terms of the Big-Five [3], I would suggest: Moderately-high Openness, High Conscientiousness, Average-to-Low Extraversion, Low Agreeableness, Average-to-low Neuroticism. [1]: https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality [2]: https://www.16personalities.com/intp-personality [3]: https://en…
>Although questionable as a psychometric test
That's an understatement. It's meritless pseudoscience.