The Brand New Glamourous Nerd

What attributes constitute a nerd?

Nerd always brings to mind a guy wearing thick black-rimmed specs, with hair parted neatly to one side, with shirt always tucked inside his shorts, always sitting in front of a computer or have a dry book at hand. Just like the picture above.

Someone for some 'don't remember why' reason called me a nerd sometime ago. I'm quite mortified coz I don't think I'm a nerd at all. And after going to wikipedia and search up a definition of the word, I'm doubly confident I'm not a nerd.

Here's what wikipedia says about being a nerd:

"Nerd, as a stereotypical or archetypal designation, refers to somebody who passionately pursues intellectual or esoteric knowledge or pastimes rather than engaging in social life, participating in organized sports, or other mainstream activities. The Merriam-Webster definition is an "unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially: one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits."

Here's a checklist about being a nerd:

Nerds show a pronounced interest in:

1. Subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, especially topics related to science, mathematics and technology,
2. Comic books and anime,
3. Complicated board games (such as Risk or Stratego),
4. role-playing games (some of which would be MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft or Maplestory), strategy games,
5. science fiction, horror and fantasy literature,
6. competitive debate.
7. They also generally maintain encyclopedic knowledge of their chosen subject, easily recalling obscure or archival details.

I don't really like the subjects in (1), I seldom read (2), I hate to think while playing games (cross-off 3), I only play WoW occasionally and the literature mentioned in (5) are definitely not my cup of tea.

And I'm very happy by this point that I'm not a nerd.

However, after reading the first few chapters of 'The World is Flat', a 2006 must read bestseller book by Thomas Friedman, I kind of start hoping that I'm a nerd in some ways.

Why? Coz the world can't do without nerds. They are definitely the unsung heroes of our society. Noticed how we can't live without the Internet nowadays? If the world is devoid of nerd but full of sociable, happy go lucky hard drinking kinda hedonistic people, we still would be searching books for all sorts of info.

Another thing is nerd = rich. Bill Gates is a nerd, and he is the richest man on earth. No matter what you say about money isn't everything, I still want to be rich. Heard this quote before?

"Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one." — Charles J. Sykes

So I guess everyone should start acting like a nerd coz being a nerd is the 'cool and rich' guy of the future. Who cares about the tall, dark handsome muscular guy. Hey, no one can live without you, since you know you belong to the same group of people who invented the Internet, Netscape, iPod, handphones, google... definitely cool.

How to do it? simple. I have a fail-safe way: Wear a black rimmed spec, bring a computer magazine with you and read it in a social event full of people. I'm sure by the end of the night everyone while say "the nerd over there..." when they refer to you. And you can flashed them a geeky smile showing a hint of your teeth in braces. You will feel proud that they called you a nerd.

I'm positively sure you want to be a nerd now. And instead of standing in front of the mirror debating "am I, am I not", just visit this website who make things so easy:

Nerd test: http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php


My not-so-bad nerd score

And yeah, if you are thinking of a new name for your new-found nerdy image, there's a nerd name generator for you:
http://www.xach.com/nerd-name/

Mine's pretty cool. It's Cletus, the Fantasy Figurine Aficionado!

Happy nerding!