I can’t get this image out of my head. It’s of chickens scrambling around. Now they’re probably doing so to avoid the chop. You don’t reckon it’s a basic flight or flight (sic) response for the nerds do you? Is the end of the nerd sprint typically characterised by a quick head swivvle? If so, I could be onto something.
Back when I was younger, I would fly down the whole freaking stairway, via jumping down with my hands more or less on each handrail. The matrix was fifteen years or so in the future, at the time.
Sure, but if you did it now, wearing a long leather coat, you’d be playing the music in your head, simultaneously wondering to yourself if you could ought to try picking up a machine gun in the middle of a one-armed cartwheel.
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They’re pretending they’re playing Battlefield 2. They run until their sprint bar is used up, then they’re back to a walk for a while.
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They think it makes them look tough.
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My son does this. He used to do it for a lot, and I warned him that he could hurt himself doing it, then he hurt his ankle and asked what we could do about it, and I said, “If you jump down the stairs, you waive the right to complain when you hurt your ankles.” Then I gave him some Advil.
Hmm… As for the first one, I’d guess it’s an intense hurry to be someplace, followed by a sudden realization that running is kind of tiring/distinctly “un-cool,” followed again by “I want to be there NOW!” followed by…
#2. I do this because my job is to sit in front of a computer all day. Oh, and I’ve cracked my sternum on a few occasions, but definitely not on purpose. Kind of surprised me.
#3. Don’t do it anymore, but back in my nerd prime days I did it because walking down all the stairs is slow.
I find it interesting how there are different kinds of “cool.” There’s “nerd cool” and “non-nerd cool.” “Non-nerd cool” would be dressing according to the latest fashions. “Nerd cool” would be dressing like a Klingon.
Also, there’s “guy cool” and “girl cool.” “Girl cool” would be a big sale at the shoe store. “Guy cool” would be stuff blowing up real good.
“Kid cool” would be green ketchup, or underwear with cartoon characters on it. “Adult cool” would be a new car, or hitting all green lights on a drive across town.
Yeah, I used to do this too. It was great fun. Wow, I haven’t done that since…well, OK. I have never stopped doing it. It’s much harder when wearing a suit and those rotten slippery dress shoes.
Once you are married with children you once again no longer have to care about what is cool.
1: The nerdsprint is a combination of wanting to be some place “cool” NOW combined with a lack of stamina needed to sustain the run. For example, coming out of a theatre after watching the latest nerd-porn*, you want go and talk to your friends about it ASAP, but your body gives up pretty quickly.
2: A lot of nerd activities require you to be in one position for long periods of time. Cracking your neck just feels good. You can tell long time nerds by their abiity to crack their neck just by shaking their heads vigorously.
3:Partially related to 1, it’s a desire to not waste time in some place not nerdcool. If we were athletic enough to jump the whole flight, we’d be doing that. It probably also has something to do with the usual nerd facination with superheros, martial arts movies, and video games. The trenchcoat wasn’t a nerdccessory when I was a practicing nerd, but we still did it.
Just my $.02 - DESK
*My nerd-porn was War Games…Jeez, I’m old.
I have never cracked my neck nor seen anyone else doing so, so I can’t help you there. As for behaviors one and three, they emerge from the desire to do something spontaneous and slightly exhilirating. Or as others have already said, fun. Nerd is another word for nonconformist. Nerds are the subculture (or rather one of the subcultures) who don’t see the need to take up any particular behavior, fashion, vocabulary or speech style just because Hollywood and the advertising industry tell them to. Ergo there’s no reason for them to care that other people will judge them nerdy if they vault over the last few stairs.
You seem to suppose that jumping over the last few stairs is something we all want to do, but the constraints of polite society don’t allow us.
Bah, I say.
The nerd is a weakling who compensates for this by mastering simple tasks without real competition attached. . .for example: needless sprinting, stair leaping, bo staff, and Lucas Bashing.
The nerd’s hope is that a damsel will discover his athletic prowess when she sees a stair leap and then become his, or will at least blow on his dice.
What the poor nerd doesn’t know is that a true jock could stair leap further and more gracefully if he actually desired to do so.
C’est la vie, nerdo!
Blow on his dice. Heh. “Come on, come on, poppa’s gotta slay this dragon!”
Re: sprinting. I think the inclines have something to do with it. The places I remember seeing it most are on the downhill inclines (declines?) at two movie theaters I go to where nerds abound.
Chairman Pow, now that you’ve clarified that the sprint comes while walking downhill, I know all of these.
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It’s fun! Wheee! Plus, it’s much easier than sprinting the same distance on a flat surface.
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Manually twisting your head is an easier way to crack your neck than the normal one, and cracking your neck when it needs it feels good.
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It’s fun! Wheee!
Fortunately, I am now able to resist doing these things in public. … most of the time.
I have a recurrent dream theme where I am descending staircases a whole flight at a time with one hand on the rail, and alighting lightly at each landing. My inner nerd must be in need of something or other (such as some equal time courtesy of my outer nerd, I suspect).
Last night I dreamt about bears, though.
Really? Jumping down stairs is considered nerdy?
23 years, and I’m just finding this out. Won’t stop me from doing it though 
It’s way too fun, 'specially in skirts.
Someone just tell me what the deal is with nerds and trenchcoats. Or, for alpha nerds, leather dusters.
They are just plain cool jackets. They go with all of the current trends in “Geek Fashion”. They shed water, take a beating, and have BIG pockets.
The problem is that the geeks aren’t good looking enough to pull off the look.
-Butler
(Too short & fat for a nice leather duster) 
I have the same dream except I never bother setting my feat down–I just weave back and forth between flights.
Otherwise, I’m far too cool to post in this thread.
butler1850: I don’t agree, but please, read posts 10, 18, and 23.
Perhaps… but all the wierdos I hung about with in High School had them… very Pre-Matrix.
It was the Swiss Army knife of jackets.
I had read those posts, but think that is only one reason… the main reason would be IMO the one I presented…
I never asserted or believed that everyone has a desire to leap down staircases. I would assert that everyone has a desire for some fun and spontaneity in his or her life, and that a lot of people are afraid to provide any because they’re afraid of being uncool. I also don’t agree that every nerd behavior can be explained as a pathetically failed attempt to attract women. Part of the nerd noncomformity is not believing that you must think about sex for every waking minute. I sincerely doubt that any bannister-vaulting nerd is thinking about attracting women.