Re: On nerds and dreamers

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@W...>
wrote:

> What do you think?
Not quite the same.  For me, the guy with in-depth knowledge
on his field (be it assembler programming, audio hardware or
oil painting) but lack of social skills is a geek.  A nerd is
the obnoxious extremum of geekdom, he's the one who sucks up
to teachers, learns by heart rather than by interest (as the
geek does) and generally makes himself hated by his peers
(whereas the girls might well *like* a geek as a colleague,
but never think of him as an eligible male).  Since a geek is
fueled by interest rather than the will to please or arrogance,
he is well capable of creativity and beauty.

A dreamer, on the other hand, implies a distinct lack of
capability on the field of rational thinking IMHO.  He's the
kind of guy who would come up with a weirdo feature for a
language (such as the lack of distinction between subject and
object roles, since that "should be clear from context") and
then decries everyone as unimaginative and pedantic who dares
to offer the word "implausible".  A dreamer would rather
start making up a new wild idea than pursuing his initial
project to the point of feasibility.

As you can see, I regard myself as a geek, and see nothing
wrong with it.  :)  Also, fellow geeks, there is hope: Since
we are capable of passion, albeit sometimes hard to understand
by others, we can actually gain the romantic interest of girls
once we've reached them across the seemingly insurmountable
activation energy barrier of our shyness.  Even I have now
been blessed with a wonderful girlfriend, albeit after 25
years of unsolicited solitude.  ;o)


-- Christian Thalmann

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