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Fierce Nerds

paulgraham.com

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Re: Fierce Nerds

#471

Post by _fhnu »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #170
shohpanhandler wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus it's not as though people don't still make fun of nerds. They just don't throw the term itself around anymore. Twitter (not that we should be paying any attention to the thought pit anyway) is rife with jabs at smart/technical people and some of our more common idiosyncrasies.

The butthurt at our (collective) success is also obvious from a wide variety of sources. My gun-loving red state relatives have impressed upon me multiple times about how the high pay that engineers get and general cushy life that they get is really bad for society and that eventually when the power turns off due to a solar flare we will be essentially their slaves. There's even a comic of this exact scenario that ge…

It's misplaced anger, but that anger is valid. Not everyone can adapt nor gets the opportunity to adapt. Our society leaves millions behind, a cruelty that keeps the wheels of capitalism lubricated with fear of the same happening to you.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#472

Post by courtf »

arduinomancer wrote: post #285
MyHypatia wrote: post #20

I met a lot of nerds in graduate school. In my experience the "fierce" nerds weren't smarter or successful than the "nonfierce" nerds. The fierce nerds were just more insecure and emotionally immature. They felt more threatened by being surrounded by other people who might smarter or more successful than them. It threatened their identity of being uniquely intelligent. They responded by lashing out. It may be that th…

> exhausted themselves with petty disagreements and arbitrary hills to die on In a more broad sense, you can be smart but easily work on the wrong thing or put your energy into the wrong area.

Indeed, although I think it's a huge mistake to represent these failures as permanent, and bitterness as an immutable, defining characteristic of fierce, unsuccessful nerds. Not only have some of the greatest intellectuals overcome decades of repeated failure and mistakes, but we often only see one small part of their personality: the extremes that draw the most attention. This is even more true in the social media era where people are reduced to bite-sized summaries. Haters and successes. An incredibly reductive, childlike view of the business word, itself a tiny corner of humanity that gets all the attention because people love money.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#473

Post by courtf »

bradleyjg wrote: post #227
fouric wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you think young African-Americans lucky enough to have never had the N word used as racial epithet against them ought to ignore other parts of the community that tell them this is a very painful term and they should not throw it around causally? What right do you have to reclaim something that was never a source of harm for you to begin with? Doesn’t that make you just another set of bullies metaphorically shoving…

Bad words belong to all of us. I use words that can hurt, and words that have been used to hurt me.

The N word is interesting because most white people are very hesitant to utter it. It's a rare, off-limits place that isn't accessible to every person of privilege who otherwise feels entitled to go where they please.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#474

Post by mkoubaa »

peterthehacker wrote: post #468
mkoubaa wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're not talking about people who disrespect waitresses. fierce =/= jerk. There are many well intentioned nerds who try their best to be considerate and kind that can't help but be impatient in technical discussions. Some organizations don't tolerate that and some do, and those who do are at a natural advantage.

> We're not talking about people who disrespect waitresses Right, we’re not. We’re referring to behavior in the workplace. > There are many well intentioned nerds who try their best to be considerate and kind that can't help but be impatient in technical discussions. This is true, but I don’t think that accurately describes pg’s definition of a “fierce nerd” in the article. Also, Netflix would probably still classify…

I completely agree with you. I just think the norms around what makes someone a jerk aren't universal.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#475

Post by snowflake_ptr »

bradleyjg wrote: post #227
fouric wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you think young African-Americans lucky enough to have never had the N word used as racial epithet against them ought to ignore other parts of the community that tell them this is a very painful term and they should not throw it around causally? What right do you have to reclaim something that was never a source of harm for you to begin with? Doesn’t that make you just another set of bullies metaphorically shoving…

Simultaneous straw-manning and logic-less emotional guilt-tripping. Not cool.

I never made the claim that you're insinuating I made, nor is it implied by anything I said.

> What right do you have to reclaim something that was never a source of harm for you to begin with?

What right do you and your fellow authoritarians have to try to make language inaccessible to me, especially (but not only) when you have never been hurt by it?

See, I can play the emotional manipulation game, too. Doesn't make me more right than you.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#476

Post by waheoo »

stephc_int13 wrote: post #128
waheoo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone made an app / service that remote desktops chrome on a server to avoid the bloat? Instead of using Firefox? Was that an April fools?

Nah, this is the future of Internet, according to PG :)

Lol. Smells like thin clients of the early naughties.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#477

Post by KaiserPro »

sudosteph wrote: post #334
KaiserPro wrote: post #89

> The fierce nerds are a small but interesting group. If by interesting you mean "humorless bellend", then yes, I agree wholeheartedly.

Only the boring ones are humorless. I actually think most decent satirists would match up to the fierce nerd persona pretty well. Voltaire comes to mind.

I would dearly love to find one that does come even close to voltaire.

At the moment we are crammed full of Thomas Paines without the social or washing skills.

Re: Fierce Nerds

#478

Post by sudosteph »

KaiserPro wrote: post #477
sudosteph wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only the boring ones are humorless. I actually think most decent satirists would match up to the fierce nerd persona pretty well. Voltaire comes to mind.

I would dearly love to find one that does come even close to voltaire. At the moment we are crammed full of Thomas Paines without the social or washing skills.

Hah! You sure you aren't going after Voltaire's mantle yourself?

Re: Fierce Nerds

#479

Post by KaiserPro »

sudosteph wrote: post #478
KaiserPro wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would dearly love to find one that does come even close to voltaire. At the moment we are crammed full of Thomas Paines without the social or washing skills.

Hah! You sure you aren't going after Voltaire's mantle yourself?

I'd need to be much better read for that :)

Re: Fierce Nerds

#480

Post by fraud »

sn9 wrote: post #263
fraud wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you say so?

Probably an awareness of the history of MB and the research about its utility: https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personali...

That's an interesting article but I just have a few questions about it. How would someone exactly prove that a certain theory in a field as subjective as psychology to be true? What kind of studies would prove the usefulness of something like MBTI? While I agree it does limit people to certain binaries that aren't necessarily always 100% accurate, I have found it to be fairly accurate myself and think it describes people to a decent degree of accuracy.
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