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What happened to nerds?

mrmarket.lol

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Re: What happened to nerds?

#471

Post by joquarky »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #354
vidarh wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The challenge is to distinguish "think about hard problems for a long period of time, only speak up when you have something positive to contribute" from slacking. I am not arguing for bullshit metrics - I personally love working on things that may or may not pay off on a 10 year+ horizon and wish I could do more of that. But at the same time I've seen enough people coast to accept that most places that either isn't -…

In the end we have to face that systems have failed to replace competent managers. If there isn't a chain of accountability starting at the top that can manage people without extensive justification in metrics and is properly incentivised to keep the organisation healthy, whatever we are left with will be gamed to the detriment of everyone.

Anyone relying on metrics should know about Goodhart's law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

Re: What happened to nerds?

#472

Post by ternaryoperator »

Everything the author complains about occurred in the dot-com bubble as well. His view that until 2007 founders were lovable nerds is completely off-base. In Silicon Valley, the same dynamics of start-ups chasing money, then getting it and proclaiming their genius, as they were “going to change the world” happened in 2000 as in similar ways today. The popping of the internet bubble brought back a lot of humility.

Re: What happened to nerds?

#473

Post by AngryData »

jnwatson wrote: post #122
keiferski wrote: post #78

I don’t know why you’d think “being interested in nerdy stuff like computers” would somehow translate into virtuous behavior. They seem like entirely different things to me, in the sense that I wouldn’t expect a writer, or a baker, or a chef to have typical ethical behaviors as a group. “What happened” was just that some people got rich and powerful and their real personalities showed through. This is not a new thing…

Bill Gates is a great counterexample to the article's premise. Always clearly a nerd, yet led a company that no one loved and many people hated for its strategy of embrace, extend, extinguish. Post-CEO, he had completely refurbished his image via philanthropy, only to throw it away with the Epstein stuff.

Gates has done some good with his money but a lot of stuff about him reads like pure PR to me.

Its like hearing about how Ford supposedly increased wages so people could buy cars, but when you actually look at the details that was just the PR spin to having hired, worked to injury, then fired so many people that large wages were the only way to keep enough employees to run the factories by convincing people in other states to come blindly move in under the promise of money.

Most every "good" story about him outside of donating money later on ends up with not so great details and reality.

Re: What happened to nerds?

#474

Post by QuantumNoodle »

I am in no way supportive of monopolies though taking "the need to compete" out of the equation and having steady flow of money that won't be cut off if "someone beats you to market" was pretty revolutionary. Consider Bell Labs, staffed with real "nerds" that never had to prostitute themselves or to pitch an idea on the merits of making money -- they simply did stuff that was fun, in ther nerdy way. Because of this we have wireless communication, transistors, digital cameras sensors, c, and many others.

(There were a lot of negatives due to this AT&T monopoly but we are talking about nerds here and having to socialize your own worth/value. It's a shitty game that real nerds aren't necessary interested in playing)

Re: What happened to nerds?

#476

Post by redsocksfan45 »

shermantanktop wrote: post #398
m_fayer wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nerd-dom has also somehow merged with the world of fantasy and fandom. These are subcultures obsessed with hero journeys, morality tales, escapism, and cartoonish black-and-white ethical systems. I don't expect such people to handle fame and wealth well at all.

Obsessed fans will talk your ear off about the amazing scene where the superhero had to choose between saving humanity and the magical macguffin as though it were the most sophisticated storytelling ever created. Their frame of reference is very narrow. I’m sure there are lots of sophisticates on here who enjoy that stuff along with a wider variety of literature. But the ones I know who love it are almost exclusively…

[dead]

Re: What happened to nerds?

#478

Post by Yapping7880 »

I feel like, as an industry or social group, we're going through a midlife crisis. There were so many people in tech who I looked up to as a young engineer, and now it feels especially bleak for young people in tech to find role models. But that could just be me being ~40 and despising what so many of these people became at ~60+.

Cleve Moler, the creator of MATLAB, died a few weeks ago. I've had the opportunity to meet him a few times, and despite him being a genuine mathematical genuis, the thing that impressed me so much was how humble he was, how anti-braggadocious. He was like this in person, privately, and also in public. Moler was an early post-WW2 engineer, his cohort is a shrinking class, and I'm worried about those who are taking their place, and then what happens when my generation and the younger replace them.

Re: What happened to nerds?

#479

Post by bad_username »

KaiserPro wrote: post #255
negergreger wrote: post #6

Nerds used to have a internet to discuss tech in, you were allowed to make an argument based on logic and reasoning. Then the ideologues and political commissars showed up, giving zero shit about tech or logical reasoning, this pulled the discourse down to the lowest common denominator and the rest is history. Why should I take the moral high ground and listen to an argument I dislike if I'm not offered the same cour…

> you were allowed to make an argument based on logic and reasoning. Old man here, No this was never the case. Nerds were always hysterical and used the ban hammer frequently. the difference between then and now is that there were more distinct islands of nerdary you could escape to, and they wouldn't blend together. also they generally had a "no outside opinions" rule that meant that forums were single subject. This…

Old man here, it has never been perfect, but it used to be vastly better than today.

Re: What happened to nerds?

#480

Post by mountain_peak »

aranelsurion wrote: post #405
afavour wrote: post #323

The fate of many nerdy interests: you want it to become popular and widespread. Then it does, and you realise you've lost control of it and it becomes commoditised. So went comic books, goes tech.

Damn, I remember playing games in 90s instead of watching TV like my classmates, and daydreaming one day I’d be able to talk about games instead of what was on the TV yesterday. Now everyone plays, watches or at least knows games, but most games are lowest common denominator focus group tested commodity crap. Huge budgets and production value, almost zero innovation. Even indies are 80% slop to make a quick buck. If…

> If you have a hobby no one cares about, hold it dear and close to your chest, and be happy that no one cares about it.

Yes and yes. I've often likened [unpopular] hobbies these days to how Joel tries to hide Clementine deeper and deeper into the recesses of his mind to try and avoid his memories of her from being erased in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". He fails, but somehow, they find each other and start again.

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