# Are you a nerd? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791 "2005-12-30T23:06:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/1 "2005-12-30T23:06:54Z")
If not a nerd, what about a loser or geek? Me, I’m a lam-o. I think that would be a cross between a nerd and a geek. What are you? ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/2 "2005-12-30T23:09:20Z")
Nerd. I like gaming, graphic novels, and science fiction/fantasy novels. Also, I’m a smarty-pants. I dig nerdy guys, too. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/3 "2005-12-30T23:26:39Z")
I am more of a geek than a nerd, although I have a number of nerdish characteristics. [side story]My Speech Team has t-shirts that read across the front “Yucaipa High School Speech Geek.” On the back it says “At least we aren’t band nerds!” 😃 [/side story] ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/4 "2005-12-30T23:31:03Z")
I’m a geeky, slacker, hippy, loser. Nerdonomic, but not nerdy. I’m the Dude, dude. ---
**Author:** ![lightingtool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@lightingtool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lightingtool)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/5 "2005-12-30T23:34:35Z")
I’m just … you know, I’m … me, man. Can’t we, like, stop with all the labels? Oh, crap. Does that make me a hippy? ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/6 "2005-12-30T23:38:26Z")
I’m too sociable to be a nerd, too private to be an extrovert, too opininated to stay introverted, much too much of a luddite to be a geek. I’m too urbane to be provincial, too successful to be a loser, too laid back to be a workaholic, too reckless to be shy and too interested to be indifferent. I defy your clumsy efforts at characterization. Yet… my response is the nerdest thing I’ve read on the boards today. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/7 "2005-12-30T23:38:58Z")
I was a nerd in high school. Now I’m more of a geek. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/8 "2005-12-31T00:36:11Z")
What about us [Wonks?](http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/13176/) Won’t _somebody_ think of the Wonks? mm ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/9 "2005-12-31T00:40:05Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Yet… my response is the nerdest thing I’ve read on the boards today. I’d say you were probably a dork or doofus then. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/10 "2005-12-31T00:51:10Z")
My girlfriend, at least 5 times daily: “You’re such a dork.” I guess that settles it. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/11 "2005-12-31T00:55:45Z")
According to all the woman I ask out, I am a colossal geek. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/12 "2005-12-31T01:42:01Z")
I would say Geek. But I guess it depends on how these terms are defined. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/13 "2005-12-31T01:45:19Z")
> [@mamboman](#): > > What about us [Wonks?](http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/13176/) Won’t _somebody_ think of the Wonks? Dear Og. I may be an embryonic wonk! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/14 "2005-12-31T01:54:52Z")
Social Outcast. ---
**Author:** ![Dinaroozie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Dinaroozie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinaroozie)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/15 "2005-12-31T02:19:42Z")
Yeah, I’m a nerd. I’m a bit of a geek, but only when it comes to videogames. I’m not _that_ much of a dork, these days. ~ Isaac ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/16 "2005-12-31T02:30:56Z")
I usually define myself as a geek. I learn programming languages for fun (I spent parts of yesterday learning J, which is Iverson’s sequel to APL. Very fun language for math geeks.), I count Hofstadter as one of my favorite authors (I got _Metamagical Themas_ as a Christmas present! Hooray!!!), Lehrer as one of my favorite musicians, and I download and run PDP-11 emulators just so I can write K&R C using ed and sed under V7 Unix. I think RSTS/E was an improvement over many of its successors (I’m looking at _you_, CP/M.) and don’t know why we need Java when we have Scheme and Common Lisp (If you’re gonna bloat, you might as well give the developers a nice language.). Oh, and I’m currently using the Kazehakase web browser, simply because I can. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/17 "2005-12-31T03:44:26Z")
> [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > I’d say you were probably a dork or doofus then. Dork. Dick. Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/18 "2005-12-31T04:07:27Z")
Me in highschool? Geek, nerd, hippy, doofus, brainiac, artsy-fartsy, wallflower, and happy as a pig in schit. And I had a lot of friends, since my ‘fellows’ outnumbered the Jocks and Princesses Now, I’d say ‘popular nerd’ sums it up ---
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/19 "2005-12-31T04:11:04Z")
I have dorkish, geeky interests and tendencies. But I keep it hidden, usually. I’m pretty social, but never really stick with one group. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791/20 "2005-12-31T04:19:12Z")
I’m a successful and married older geek. Computer Programmer, I can build a working computer from spare parts for fun, I can quote obscure baseball trivia, and I read Wikipedia & Scientific America for fun. I am a die-hard Tolkien & Heinlein fan. I even still play D&D sometimes. I was a social Nerd in High school. The Nerd that got along with almost everyone and I was the envy of my geekier and nerdier friends as I actually dated in High School. I was the organizer of the D&D Club and the 3rd board on the chess team when we won the Nationals. I was even in Model UN and a Math Team emergency member. Complete Nerd. Trekkie too. My non-nerd features were being fairly handy with tools, dating and no comic books and joining the military after High School. Jim [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-nerd/337791.md?page=2)