::original posts:: A Topic to Profundicate and Altercate Upon

Greetings to all readers and such. As my first official post on the revived blog I’d like to discuss arguably the most important question for a Nerd. What is a Nerd? This is a subject of much contention, and as such is a touchy subject to discuss. There are many different representations of what a Nerd is, and especially this is in relationship to other similar names. The two main names are Nerd and Geek, though each have meant different things at different times, and each try to put themselves above the other. Each term has its backgrounds in very random topics, for instance, the term Nerd was first used in a Dr. Seuss book, and the term Geek refers to a circus man who bites the heads off of live chickens and snakes.

I have heard many many different representations, most of which include graphs.

These are two of the most common graphs, showing just one groups superiority over another. One of the better representations is the three part circle, sort of like a rock paper scissors game type of representation.

Although this is a better, or at least more sophisticated, representation of the differences between Nerds and Geeks, it still creates a tier system, keeping Nerds in this instance at the top of the chain. Though these are useful for some people, it is not helpful overall in describing what a Nerd is. They must be said though to point out the main problem in choosing a specific description, which is that some people get really animated and angry when they are called one or the other. The best reference to this has to be in the incredible web comic xkcd written by Randall Munroe:

So all of these diagrams are nice and pretty and easy to understand, but it still doesn’t answer the original question: what is a Nerd? Well, to try to answer that I will reference many different distinguished sources.

My first source is the all powerful oracle of the web: Wikipedia. While not an incredibly reliable resource (for example I have to quote the time that I got these as 11/16/10 at 5PM so that when you go back in later and see that it says something totally different because somebody went in and changed it you don’t get angry at me) it still has some good beginning information to start with. So Wikipedia’s answer for us is that “Nerd is a term that refers to a person who avidly pursues intellectual activities, technical or scientific endeavors, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests, rather than engaging in more social or conventional activities.” so basically it’s someone smart who doesn’t necessarily lack social skills, but doesn’t always watch Friday night football. It may be noted though that wikipedia goes on to say that the term usually carries a derogatory connotation that they do lack social skills. so we’ve got that much, but what about the argument that Nerds and Geeks are the same? or if not, which one’s better? Well, again we can go back to the oracle and see what it says about Geeks: “It is taken to be someone who is an enthusiast, often in things outside of the mainstream spectrum. It may also describe immersion in a particular mainstream interest to an extreme that is beyond normalcy (e.g. sports Geek). Of note is that in this definition, there is no reference to being socially inept in the slightest.” So according to Wikipedia’s description, it says that while both are intelligent, Geeks are merely obsessive while Nerds are obsessive and lack social skills. Again I’ll say that there is a very high probability that someone pro-geek or at least anti-nerd wrote these descriptions, so these are not really reliable resources.

With that description we get one view of the difference, but I’d like to get another view before I just totally ignore this one and the one before and give my concluding argument. I’d like to reference a highly respectable and well established definer of terms: Merriam-Webster. So I’m sure we’ve all used a Merriam-Webster Dictionary in our lives at least once, and on remember how difficult it was to search through all the pages to find the one word you want, which is why I decided to use www.merriam-webster.com which is infinitely easier and still carries the same amount of respectability as the book does. So in looking at the definition of a Nerd it says that it is someone who is “unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept [...] one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits.” So in effect what we just heard from Wikipedia, but what really sets it apart from the oracle is what it says about Geeks. At first it gives the same answer as before, but then it gives a more widely held idea which is that a Geek is “an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity.” Which is what we are right about to talk about.

Now after looking through many different resources, which all had about the same general idea and there were really a ton so I’m not going to write them all down for you, the widest view out there pertaining to Nerds and Geeks, and surprisingly seeing the amount of persecution we get, the majority of the public’s view of us is good. The major and most commonly held views are that Geek generally refers to your ability or knowledge of something, whereas Nerd refers to a large amount of general knowledge overall. So according to the public at large one could hypothetically be both a Geek and a Nerd. And this I believe is the main idea held here at tbcrh, and so as we have and will continue to do, we will mostly use Nerd, unless referring to a very specific type of obsession, when we will use the term Geek, without any animosity.... most of the time.

And so with that, I conclude my ridiculously long treatise on the differences between a Nerd and a Geek, and the answer to the question: “what is a Nerd?” You may either agree with us here at tbcrh or you can decide to argue about it in the comments until I rehash this at some later point and possibly address some of your points.

It’s been a pleasure,

The King of the Blog