Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
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Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
1–10 of 148 posts
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#2Many good points but missing one important observation. The cliques in school are hierarchical in nature. All groups may be exclusive toward other members but a band geek cannot make a jock's life miserable as a pastime. Members of each clique can torment those in the "lower castes" with virtually no social cost for those actions. For fun, to fit in, because daddy never hugged them, whatever.
The Nerds and programmers almost always find themselves on the bottom. Things look different when you're a Dalit.
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#3This writer is really clueless as to what high school is like for those on the bottom of the heap -- I mean, really, no idea at all.
For that reason, it's hard to listen to what else he has to say, no matter how relevant or (potentially) awesome.
Obvious that he's never been the low end of the totem pole. It may be different now, but when I was in high school, geeks and nerds got shit on by every group -- the jocks, the actors and actresses. Everyone.
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#4Ugh, typography on that page is a mess. The title shadow is distracting, and the leading feels cramped.
Off topic, but please fix.
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#5He makes a few decent points, but it really doesn't seem like he understands nerds or complex social interactions between different personality types very well.
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#6If you guys have never seen the Dilbert cartoon "The Knack", have a look...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw
It will lighten your mood after reading this post...
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#7Many good points but missing one important observation. The cliques in school are hierarchical in nature. All groups may be exclusive toward other members but a band geek cannot make a jock's life miserable as a pastime. Members of each clique can torment those in the "lower castes" with virtually no social cost for those actions. For fun, to fit in, because daddy never hugged them, whatever. The Nerds and programmer…
Once you eliminate the jocks and cheerleaders, the hierarchy actually seems to disappear. The nerds still try to be alienated for the most part, but the without the focus on sports, I find that all the other cliques just become 'different' instead of one being higher than the other. That might just be at my school though.
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#8What makes a great writer? Someone who understands both angles, someone who has been both popular and a nerd. See Paul Graham's Why Nerds Are Unpopular, which was the first essay I ever read of Paul's in high school as a sophomore and that got me hooked on reading the rest of his: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#9Many good points but missing one important observation. The cliques in school are hierarchical in nature. All groups may be exclusive toward other members but a band geek cannot make a jock's life miserable as a pastime. Members of each clique can torment those in the "lower castes" with virtually no social cost for those actions. For fun, to fit in, because daddy never hugged them, whatever. The Nerds and programmer…
It really depends on the school. In my high school there was no dominant clique, so the situation was somewhat as the author described. Sure people made fun of nerds, mostly because they left themselves open to it by being different and socially awkward, but there was definitely no strict hierarchy amongst cliques. I think there is some truth to the idea that certain nerds create a sense of superiority as a defense mechanism (think Comic Book Guy), but that is not the root cause of the nerd's social status.
After the opening section I think the rant goes completely off the deep end with a rapid succession of wrong-headed generalizations. It reads like an 18-year-old who just finished high school and now thinks he's got it all figured out. The idea that programmers define themselves by what they are not, or by nitpicking inconsequential details is laughable. Sure programmers may be a bit more prone to nasty protracted flamewars over subtle issues, but we don't define ourselves that way. Sure our communities form around tools moreso than ideas (though not exclusively), but that's simply a matter of necessity given the detail of using any particular tool well. Personally I find the notion that "I define myself as a programmer" offensive. Programming is something I do, and I do it reasonably well, but at the end of the day it's only one of many things I do, and it's certainly not "who I am."
Re: Why People Don't Like Nerds or Programmers (In School)
#10There's something ironic about a post on nerds being deliberately exclusionary which redirects IE browsers to a Safari download link.