Topic: Would you consider yourself a nerd?

[fuzzyMarmot]

I'm pretty much just a nerd.

Based on 25 years of online interactions, and pretty much based on just experience, almost everybody who still posts on BBs style internet is a nerd.  The non nerds use Twitter.

What if you use both?

NEEEEEEEEEEERD

That's what I was hoping

[fred.slota]

Worse still, I am both a nerd and an engineer.

[2397]

Are there non-nerd engineers?

[Gigabyte]

Are there non-nerd engineers?

Yep.  The ones that run the trains.

[Ah.hell]

Environmental Engineers aren't especially nerdy, there mostly hippies that can do math that become jaded and cynical when they figure out that their job is mostly cleaning up after industry or mitigating the liability of industry rather than saving the planet. 

[Morvis13]

Required Nerd movies:
Star Wars
Star trek
back to the future
ghostbusters
the princes bride
monty python
LOTR
Office Space
spaceballs
HHGTTG
Galaxy quest

There are many many more but these have to be included. Any others can be disputed.
I believe the Marvel and DCU are moving more mainstream BUT, love of the comics is nerdy.

TV:
Star Trek
BGS
SGU
Firefly
Dr Who
quantum leap

[fred.slota]

Um actually, I believe the correct initialism is "BSG".

-5 points from Ravenclaw.

[Morvis13]

for the record I don't consider the Potterverse nerdy.

[amysrevenge]

Environmental Engineers aren't especially nerdy, there mostly hippies that can do math that become jaded and cynical when they figure out that their job is mostly cleaning up after industry or mitigating the liability of industry rather than saving the planet.

This is true.  The two environmental engineers I work with are healthy young-ish women who play competitive amateur volleyball on evenings and weekends.  (And that analysis of their character is spot on, for both of them.)

[Ah.hell]

Environmental Engineers aren't especially nerdy, there mostly hippies that can do math that become jaded and cynical when they figure out that their job is mostly cleaning up after industry or mitigating the liability of industry rather than saving the planet.

This is true.  The two environmental engineers I work with are healthy young-ish women who play competitive amateur volleyball on evenings and weekends.  (And that analysis of their character is spot on, for both of them.)

Also the only engineering major at my university that was majority women. 

[swan]

In school I always wanted to hang out with the nerds because they actually talked about cool stuff, but they didn't think I was smart enough. The self-identified "geeks" (not quite the same as today) were more accepting, but most of them had personal hygiene issues (perhaps phobias?) that made them difficult to be around.

[amysrevenge]

Luckily(?) in my locale there weren't enough people for nerds and geeks to have separate circles.  In my graduating class of 75 people (and the similar sized classes above and below) here were like 3-5 smart nerds, and maybe 10-12 smelly geeks, and our social circles overlapped exactly.

[Morvis13]

Luckily(?) in my locale there weren't enough people for nerds and geeks to have separate circles.  In my graduating class of 75 people (and the similar sized classes above and below) here were like 3-5 smart nerds, and maybe 10-12 smelly geeks, and our social circles overlapped exactly.

That's what you get for being a flatlander

[amysrevenge]

It's funny to think about, the way that even when the stereotypes are firm and mostly meet up with reality, there's always ways around them.

The two king nerds (the smartest and nerdiest, the matheletes and dungeon masters) of us both found niches outside of nerdery to fit in.

I was (and am) large, and relatively coordinated, and a bit sporty.  In sport, like in many things in my life, I'm continually flirting with the border between being the shittiest keener or the awesomest casual - like 85th percentile, where I'm worlds better than most people but still get blown away by the really good ones.  Best player in a casual league, or worst player in an elite league.  A bit of a frustrating place to be.  I was able to excel at casual sports in a way that helped me fit in with the normies.

My contemporary had a Jan 1 birthday, in a region where the legal drinking age is 18, so he was the first one of us legal to go buy booze.

[st3class]

In school I always wanted to hang out with the nerds because they actually talked about cool stuff, but they didn't think I was smart enough. The self-identified "geeks" (not quite the same as today) were more accepting, but most of them had personal hygiene issues (perhaps phobias?) that made them difficult to be around.

Huh, now that I think about it, there was a distinction between nerds and geeks when I was in school too. (First half of the 00s)

The nerds were the kids who were in the honors classes, competing for highest grade, while being interested in Star Trek, LOTR, and Knowledge Bowl.

The geeks were the kids who struggled academically, but spent lunch in the library playing Yu-Gi-Oh and DnD.