The Tao of Nerds

The New York Time today answers the pivotal question of our generation: Who’s a Nerd, Anyway? Yes, your deepest suspicions about this special, self-selecting but familiar human subspecies are confirmed, but with sociological twists: “They often favor Greco-Latinate words over Germanic ones (‘it’s my observation’ instead of ‘I think’), a preference that lends an air of scientific detachment. They’re aware they speak distinctively, and they use language as a badge of membership in their cliques” and “are not simply victims of the prevailing social codes about what’s appropriate and what’s cool; they actively shape their own identities and put those codes in question.” I will confess to having taken four years of Latin in Catholic high school (that’s just what you did then, OK?) but I have never commented on anything by saying “it’s my observation….” Truth be told, as a person who manages technology I have publicly protested at our internal tech meetings against any reference to me as a nerd. Given my Irish ancestry and the specific county origins of my family, I insist proudly I am the Dork from Cork. Deal. (Geek references are optional.)