Re:Fierce Nerds
by spamizbad on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:22AM
(#27194950)
I think after the dotcom craze, it stopped being "edgy" or "different" to be passionate/ambitious about technology. If anything, it's the most straightforward thing to pursue ideas or business interests with these days, especially if you have a "fierce" personality.
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Re:Fierce Nerds
by helen___keller on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:29AM
(#27195027)
To be fair, there's a lot more to the "nerd" archetype than just technology. But, from my experience, it was not particularly edgy or differentiating to be passionate about video games, board games, card games, literature, obscure TV, fanfics, internet culture, etc.
there's a lot more to the "nerd" archetype than just technology.
I'd probably go as far as saying that technology (or at least practical technical skills) has become far less relevant as a 'nerd' marker.
Many of the self identifying 'nerds' I meet might be avid technophiles, but it's not like most of them know how to code better than anybody else (or at all in many cases).
Is the word "geek" no longer used for what you are describing? Although there a lot of overlap, I thought nerd referred to strong interests in academic subjects and geek referred to niche cultural subjects.
Re:Fierce Nerds
by helen___keller on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:53AM
(#27195415)
True, I've been conflating the two in all of my posts. As far as how they were used when I was growing up, the distinction tended to be moot because they were most commonly used ironically or jokingly.
Re:Fierce Nerds
by SyzygistSix on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @01:09PM
(#27197751)
That is the problem with using labels rather than talking about what people are doing or what specific actions they are taking.
Yeah... if anything that seems normal these days? Many young adults are passionate about at least one of those things, whereas for Gen-X (Paul's generational cohort) those were far more underground interests.