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 Cheesecat wrote:
I thought geek and nerd meant the same thing.

Well, geek has a very nebulous meaning and nerd too. They cover the same vague nebulous meaning.

 Cheesecat wrote:
I thought geek and nerd meant the same thing.

I would say in large part they do... I've generally differentiated the two, when talking to other geeks/nerds as the use of lingo in everyday conversation and whether someone can "turn off" that lingo when talking to someone who is not of their particular "fan base"

ie. a gearhead who cannot "turn off" automotive lingo is a "car geek" whereas a gearhead who can, is a car nerd who will sometimes "geek out"


It may not be entirely accurate, but it's worked well for me thus far, and people I've talked to tend to agree with my line of thinking.

An old colleague of mine's father was a real calculus major, a senior officer in the Army Dental Corps. He was the only man in the world the SAS were afraid of.

 Sasori wrote:
I like how this thread devolved into a nerd Epeen contest...

Yeah, I was kinda surprised to see the same people who get in internet shouting matches over plastic army men couldn't take this article seriously. I was going to attempt a seriously critique of it, however, at this point, I'd just like to say that real nerds wear bow ties.

Going back to the original article I think they made a couple of good points:

1. Computer technology is now so pervasive that we are all users. OTOH a lot of it has got much easier to use. Perhaps the real nerds now are people who develop esoteric mechanical skills such as sailing or joinery.

2. The hallmark of the nerd was always the obsession with detailed items of fictional information such as minor characters in the Star Wars novels. As the article says, anyone can look up any of that whenever they need to on Wikipedia -- so no more impressing people with your Force Facts!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 easysauce wrote:
so when do the calculous majors get to start wedgie-ing the football players?

Calculus isn't a major. As a Math Major (Pure Math as opposed to Applied Math), I feel compelled to inform you that Calculus is the beginner's level of Mathematics.

Thats what the Boy told me. Then he went on to tell me what he taking at the time. I think I had a seizure.

It'll always be more impressive to rail off a whole thing from memory than being scrunched over your phone "Uh, hold on a second, used up all my premium data this month but the quote is definitely funny, just wait guys. Guys?"

 Kilkrazy wrote:

1. Computer technology is now so pervasive that we are all users. OTOH a lot of it has got much easier to use. Perhaps the real nerds now are people who develop esoteric mechanical skills such as sailing or joinery.

I'm not sure more people know how to use computers though. I think they just know how to use applications. The difference is slight, but still there. Something like the argument made here.

Calculus is the last math that has any possible application to real life. Not just math for math’s sake, or to provide an underpinning for science. But you can use basic/integral calc to find the min/max points of equations, or calculate the area/volumes of odd shapes.

Back in college I took math to the level where I figure I could successfully calculate a trip through hyperspace (n-dimentional vector matrix calculus) but has to stop because it not only had not practical use in my life, but was making my brain hurt a lot

But on the topic of the article, It has a good point. The traditional hallmarks or nerddom are becoming more widespread.

That is a very interesting article.

Having had a smartphone less than a year I find myself continually annoyed that it doesn't work like a computer. I can't see the filing system and so on, I don't know what it is doing and it frustrates me. Because the interface has been dumbed down for non-technical users.

I wish I could have enjoyed math. It is a huge part of science,and I love science. But school and tutors ruined it for me during childhood.

Math is okay, but calculus is boring. That is why I went to discrete maths/graph theory .