Nerd / Geek - which is worse?

[flapcats]

Sometimes a person is called a nerd and takes offense. It seems less so when someone is branded a Geek.

Are Nerds worse than Geeks?

[Jake4]

IMHO, (also the forum this should be in, perhaps) yes.

See here (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=75004&lastnode_id=124), or here. (http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek)

[Lobsang]

Challenge 1 - How to remove the anomalous twist from a telephone cord without working it to the end of the wire.

Mystery 1 - How the bloody hell does it get there in the first place!?

[Lobsang]

FUCK! (sorry) That was supposed to be an OP, not a reply in someone else's OP!


(double FUCK. I sent the above message to the wrong thread)

[Achernar]

Nerds and Geeks are both harmless on their own, but their powers combine to form Gnerks, who are a danger to others and the world.

[Lobsang]

What I meant to say in this thread was...

I think it was milhouse who said - "A Geek is just a nerd without cleverness"

[don't ask]

My son is a nerd or geek. I always tell him that it is no insult to be called a member of any group that is never preceded by gang of. Thus being called a nerd or gay or a bookworm is better than being called a thug or bully or drug dealer.

Lobsang get back to the other thread.

[Napier]

They're different things. Geeks are circus performers who bite the heads off animals, or eat them whole, or display perverse appetites. How that came to be misunderstood as "nerd" is anybody's guess.

[Belrix]

To me, "Nerd" is an insult while "Geek" is not.

A nerd is a pimply-faced, high-water-wearing, top-collar-button, no-chinned weanie who's only life is computers.

A geek is a person of high-technical skill.

I'm both but only want to be called the latter.

[Iteki]

I read on /. today (heheh) that it goes:

Dweeb = no skills, no social life
Nerd = skills, no social life
Geek = skills, social life

[facil]

those terms are very simple to understand. let me show you.
in one hand you have a scoop of cat poop.
the other hand is holding a scoop of dog poop.
you are given a choice...eat one.

see? simple.

[engineer_comp_geek]

Nerd is definately worse.

*cough*

[micco]

To me, "Nerd" is an insult while "Geek" is not.So Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/), subtitled "News for Nerds", has been blatantly insulting themselves and their readers for years. Go figure.

[FriarTed]

did "nerd" actually exist as a word before the TV show HAPPY DAYS? I never heard it until it was used on that show- I've certainly never seen it in a book, movie or TV show that was actually made in the 1950s.

Historically, then, AFAIK, "geek" is worse as it been used for most of the 1900s to mean a mentally-challenged or addicted person who does grotesque things for entertainment to support oneself out of desperation. "Nerd" just meant "uncool person" & was a 1970s TV-created word.

Since then however, they are pretty much the same.

[Belrix]

So Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/), subtitled "News for Nerds", has been blatantly insulting themselves and their readers for years. Go figure.

I figure this is for several reasons

1) it's nicely alliterative (prime reason, IMO)

2) Nerd is used by Geeks the way that "Queer" is used by Gays - pejoritive by outsiders, OK used by ourselves.

-B

[Jon the Geek]

I use "geek" to essentially mean "out of the closet nerd". In other words, a geek knows he's a geek, a nerd thinks he isn't.

I also agree with the "nerd is equivalent to queer" statement...

[Chronos]

My take on it is the same as Napier's. A geek is a grotesque carnival performer, and "geek" is therefore a unilateral insult. A nerd, however, is an introverted person of high technical skills (there are other personality aspects as well, but they're harder to elucidate). Despite the implication of hampered social skills, most nerds in my experience recognize and are proud of their nerdiness.

Of course, only a nerd would insist on the distinction between "geek" and "nerd" :D.

[Titan2]

did "nerd" actually exist as a word before the TV show HAPPY DAYS? I never heard it until it was used on that show- I've certainly never seen it in a book, movie or TV show that was actually made in the 1950s.

Historically, then, AFAIK, "geek" is worse as it been used for most of the 1900s to mean a mentally-challenged or addicted person who does grotesque things for entertainment to support oneself out of desperation. "Nerd" just meant "uncool person" & was a 1970s TV-created word.

Since then however, they are pretty much the same.


I'm a teen of the Happy Days period and I never heard the word until the TV show.In our parlance you may have been a square,or mope, mook,hick-never a nerd.

[Mirror Image egamI rorriM]

Nerd is definately worse.

A geek is someone who has fun being smart, but it doesn't take over their life.

A nerd is someone who ALWAYS talks about math/science/whatever. They don't need a life, they are so immersed in their chosen subject.

I heard this somewhere, but I don't remember where.

"The difference between a geek and a nerd is that, if both are invited to a party, the nerd will stay home and study. The geek will go to the party, but no one will really talk to him, and maybe he gets a wedgie."

[Ranchoth]

I, personally, call myself a "Nerd." And I'm pretty proud of it.

In any case, according to the New Hacker's Dictionary (v4.4.7), a Nerd (http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/N/nerd.html) is defined as...


1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.

2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare geek.


And a Geek (http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/G/geek.html) is defined as:


A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance. Geeks usually have a strong case of neophilia. Most geeks are adept with computers and treat hacker as a term of respect, but not all are hackers themselves — and some who are in fact hackers normally call themselves geeks anyway, because they (quite properly) regard ‘hacker’ as a label that should be bestowed by others rather than self-assumed.

One description accurately if a little breathlessly enumerates “gamers, ravers, science fiction fans, punks, perverts, programmers, nerds, subgenii, and trekkies. These are people who did not go to their high school proms, and many would be offended by the suggestion that they should have even wanted to.”


Clear as mud? I thought so.

Although, one might say that Nerds are more like scholars or scientists, and Geeks are more like artists. ("Might" being the operative word.)

[The Hamster King]

I've lived in or near fandom subculture since I discovered D&D back in '76, so I feel somewhat qualified to comment.

Nerd is definitely worse than Geek. The two are not synonyms for each other, and its possible to be one without the other.

Nerd --> social disfunction
Geek --> obsessive interest in fringy topics

Examples:

* The flabby, middle-aged law clerk who lives alone and watches movies on HBO every night while he eats his Lean Cuisine -- Nerd, not Geek.

* The pimply-faced 17-year-old you see on the bus, carrying a briefcase and talking in an overly loud voice to his buddies about whether Cthulhu could win a fight against the Deathstar -- Nerd, Geek.

* The cute girl with all the piercings who works at the coffee shop and who, you are surprised to discover, has an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure anime -- not Nerd, Geek.

* The guys in the fraternity down the street who spend their free time getting drunk and watching sports -- not Nerd, not Geek.

I've been a Geek all my life but I was never really a Nerd. I played D&D in high school, but I also played sports and had a social life. I've known a lot of Nerds in my day and usually they're pretty fun to hang with as long as you can recalibrate your own social skills to compensate. I find that spending time with non-Geeks is just painful though -- they don't usually have much interesting to say ... .

(And yes, Geek used to be an insult. But we long ago reclaimed it and made it ours. Gooble gobble, one of us, gooble gobble, one of us ... .)

[Jayn_Newell]

I always thought that geeks were the socially inept ones, and I would prefer to be called a nerd. Not to mention the fact that our school newspaper just had an ad looking for a nerd--yes, they used that word. Probably depends on how you're used to hearing the words used.

BTW, anyone with an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure anime is better called (and in most cases, would probably prefer) the term otaku. This changes is they also know that otaku in Japan is an insult.

[The Hamster King]

BTW, anyone with an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure anime is better called (and in most cases, would probably prefer) the term otaku. This changes is they also know that otaku in Japan is an insult.

LOL, I almost threw Otaku into my post. From what I understand Otaku in Japan combines the worst aspects of both Nerd and Geek -- social disfunction that borders on the pathological coupled with a total disengagement from reality. What we in the U.S. would probably call a Creep.

I suspect that the milder meaning of the term in the U.S. is the result of Otaku No Video, a humorous anime from the early 90's about a fanboy trying to become the Otaku of Otakus -- the king of all fandom. I suspect in Japan it would have played as a kind of self-loathing satire, (like Evan Dorkin's Eltingville comics) but here, cut loose from its cultural moorings, it came across as just normal comedy.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Challenge 1 - How to remove the anomalous twist from a telephone cord without working it to the end of the wire.

Mystery 1 - How the bloody hell does it get there in the first place!?

Though not, may I say, entirely inappropriate for this thread! And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

[MaryEFoo]

Nerd, year first heard.

In 1960 +/- 3 years, my brother had heard the word, and used it in a song (to insult an acquaintance):
Name-of-person is a nerd,
Hey lawly lawly oh,
There's nothing decent rhymes with nerd,
Hey lawly lawly oh

My brother was a California engineering student and a surfer.

[GuanoLad]

Like any word, if you use it as an insult, it's easy enough to be offended by it. In the same way homosexual men have reclaimed 'queer' as their own, there are those who have similarly managed to reclaim 'geek' as their own.

I think nerd, geek, poindexter, dweeb, etc, originally were pretty interchangeable, but now they've come to be distnct from each other, though many people are still combinations of them.

Nerd - socially awkward loner
Geek - obsessive about a (possibly obscure) topic
Dweeb - physically or sportifically(?) inept

I'd also like to point out that people obsessed with sports or cars somehow don't end up being called geeks, as these are considered standard human male pursuits. But in my experience it's not near as common as people seem to think, and should be considered as geeky as comic book fans.

[feppytweed]

Actually, Dr. Theodore Seuss Giesel coined the term "nerd" in his 19 fifty-somthing book "if i ran the circus".

[FriarTed]

Actually, Dr. Theodore Seuss Giesel coined the term "nerd" in his 19 fifty-somthing book "if i ran the circus".

But how did he define the word?

[Cyrokk]

This thread has been quite enlightening for me.

Since I consider myself fairly intelligent, a huge sociophobe yet have a good sense of humor and can hold my own in social situations if I am forced into it, had a barely successful social life but never fit in with the "normal" people in school, hate most sports (except hockey, but I don't watch it that much), and completely immerse myself in either reading (currently tolkein, but usually archaeology) or in my home studio playing heavy metal, I would fit squarely in the geek category.

But in highschool I could definately see the nerds as a separate group of people, and they got on my nerves after awhile, usually because of their inflated egos, but sometimes because they were so socially inept that they were crippling themselves. One in particular that I used to occasionally hang out with is probably, at age 34, still living with his parents.

[SirRay]

Well, I think a key thing is a lot of guys are intrigued by the 'Geek Girl' concept, while few seem to be into the 'Nerd Girl'.
(I think many of the non-porn 'Nerd-Girl' websites out there seem really to be 'Geek Girl' sites confused about their geekuality, based on sampling using my l33t googling skillz)

[DrMatrix]

Off to IMHO.

DrMatrix - GQ Moderator

[feppytweed]

Actually, i found out that i had mis-remembered the name of the book. it was actually "If I ran the ZOO.

and to answer the question:
But how did he define the word?
the book has the context as follows:
And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!"

THE ORIGINAL NERD!!!!!! (http://home.comcast.net/~brons/NerdCorner/NerdBig8.gif)

[Quint Essence]

The difference is a geek knows he is a geek.
A nerd has no clue...

[z28in813]

A geek is one who can accomplish multiple tasks and is a "real man of genius". They also have a better time at acutally getting into a good relationship. A nerd can only do one thing in life and one thing only. The latter usually will be single the rest of their life and complain to others that there is nothing they can do about it. Personally I am a geek who is know to my friends as, " wierd science". The nick name came about from my ability to fix any and everything from computers to cars without even really thinking about it. Give me a manual and time and I am gravy.

[gex gex]

originally posted by Cyrokk
But in highschool I could definately see the nerds as a separate group of people, and they got on my nerves after awhile, usually because of their inflated egos, but sometimes because they were so socially inept that they were crippling themselves.
I think this defines many nerds well - that combination of incredibly inflated ego with social ineptness, which leads them to believe that it's everyone else's fault that they can't interact with society.

I think nerd is far worse than geek. Geeks can fit streamlessly into everyday society. I mean, I'm a total music geek, but you wouldn't know unless you engaged me in conversation about my special interest. I'm sure all the anime lovers, or whatever are similar. I mean, often nerds aren't even interesting enough to have a geeky interest. They're just boring.

[ouisey]

I'm often called a "dork".

Example 1: I found a website for a woman in KC who plays the recorder, and wish to send her an email to introduce myself and suggest that we play some duets together. Apparently, this makes me dorky.

Example 2: I love to soak up what I call "dead interesting facts" about all kinds of historical events (i.e., Mary, Queen of Scots wore a red wig to her execution). For this I was called a "history dork".

Example 3: I want to join the SCA. Apparently, this is dorkiness at its most refined.

Is dork even in the same matrix as nerd and geek? I saw dweeb referred to earlier in the discussion, so I thought I could introduce the term dork.

[John Carter of Mars]

"Computer nerds don't like extended social situations. They'd rather talk on-line to someone they can't see."

The above wisdom from De-De on the NBC show, She Spies.

As for the term "nerd", I don't remember hearing it during my teenage years. (late 1950's/ early 1960's) "Toad" was the term that would have been most similar in meaning. A "square" was considered to be a little higher on the food chain than a toad.

[Shade]

The pimply-faced 17-year-old you see on the bus, carrying a briefcase and talking in an overly loud voice to his buddies about whether Cthulhu could win a fight against the Deathstar -- Nerd, Geek.This would be a bad time to start a sentence "He wouldn't be; it's obvious that..."?