Best of The Geek Whisperer (3 Year Blogiversary)
I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for three years (999 posts)! To celebrate, I skimmed through my archive for the first time in three years, and it brought back a lot of memories.
Join me on a brief and mildly narcissistic trip through some of my favorite blogging memories:
- Arguably my best post, at least from an academic perspective is Wonder Woman: The Super Secret & Kinky Origin of a Feminist Icon. Derived from a portion my undergraduate thesis, this post has been cited in a few academic papers, and according to my web analytics has been frequently referenced on some BDSM discussion boards. I am after-all here to educate and entertain.
- My most popular single day post dates back to April Fool’s Day 2010. I collaborated with a mystery designer to introduce the world to the iProbe; it’s still my favorite post.
- In one of TGW’s stranger episodes, guitar legend Peter Frampton stopped by to comment on a post after I berated him for a very disrespectful performance at The Stone Pony.
- When I first started The Geek Whisperer, I wanted to define the difference between geeks & nerds… But I found the task painfully difficult and subsequently spent two and a half years pondering the question before I wrote Geek vs. Nerd vs. Dork.
- And last but not least, I was (and still am) cited in a Wikipedia article on Firefly/ Serenity; my favorite scifi universe.
Never forget to practice safe computing.
Geek vs. Nerd vs. Dork
I have spent an embarrassing amount of time in search of definitions to distinguish between nerd and geek. The first blog post I failed to complete was titled, “Geek vs. Nerd.” I just couldn’t define what I felt existed.
Over the years I’ve seen many graphs, diagrams, and definitions that attempt to accomplish the mission, but I found them lacking. I couldn’t put my finger on what was needed, I just knew something was missing… until now.
Geek vs. Nerd
Typically one is viewed as good, the other bad. For example, I heard Chris Hardwick say that he viewed geek as negative, and nerd as positive, thus he named his website Nerdist. I, as I’m sure you have inferred saw geek as positive, and nerd as negative.
One thing I can say for certain is that the only people who care about the difference are geeks and nerds.
My first breakthrough came when I determined the standards by which to measure the extent to which an individual was a geek or a nerd.
Intellectual Obsession – Any geek/ nerd has intellectual obsessions, it’s just a matter of what he/ she fixates on (technology, design, sports, writing, politics, economics, music, etc).
Social Skill – The degree to which an individual can function socially.
This was attempt number 1:
Staring at this first solution got me thinking…
What’s on the other side of the Y-axis?
This was my eureka moment.
The problem with defining the difference between a geek and a nerd is that it ignores the rest of society. At that point I set out to figure out two new questions:
- Who is unburdened by intellectual obsession, but has social skill?
- Who has neither intellectual obsession, nor social skill?
Make no mistake. I am using “Cool” & “Dweeb” in the pejorative; I see both as lacking substance.
Think of it this way:
Paris Hilton = Cool
Grant Morrison = Geek
Mark Zuckerberg = Nerd
I can’t think of any famous dweebs. When I think of dweebs I see basement dwellers working mall security, while in the middle of their fifth year working towards a two-year associates degree.
In the middle of the graph is “dork” territory, or people who do not fit strongly in any of the four quadrants.
No Value Judgement
There are many kinds of nerds and geeks. There are people who are intellectually obsessed with technology, comics, sports, video games, politics, writing, coding, fish… the list is endless. This graph does not cast judgement on the practicality or marketability of one’s obsession.
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”
