t e c h i e - t a l k s ::: technology at its best

There are things in life which are in the grey area. You may refer these areas as ambiguous, blur or unclear, especially to an inapt person. One such grey area resides on the meaning/definition of a Geek and a Nerd. Mind you, although these two terms seems to have some overlapping meaning, they are different and you can get assaulted if you call one, the other (well maybe not).

Why the sudden interest in definitions you might ask? I met a friend lately who like myself, has a deep and profound interest in gadgets and the works of technology. He was sharing with me an experience that he had (which I had came across several times) about people who label others wrongly. Marve (not his real name btw) was telling me how he got mad when one day, his cousin called him a nerd while he was doing some bug-fixing on his home samba-server from his cousin’s network. Well, it was his virgin experience. Thus, I can’t blame him when he got pretty mad. I nearly flipped too when I heard, for the first time in my life, someone calling me a nerd back in school.

You see, Geeks aren’t equivalent (!=) to nerds. Neither are they subsets or supersets of nerds. They may share several common grounds on some things (like being bullied or what-so-ever) but they are different in nature. Comparing a Geek and a Nerd is like comparing an Apple with a Broccoli. Most Geeks hate it when people refer them as nerds.

So how do you differentiate between them? It’s quite simple. I’ll show you how.

Nerds

1. A nerd is someone who has an obscure knowledge and a deep interest on stuffs that requires the exercise of their intellect. For example, stuffs like calculus, 18th century English Literature, a game of chess, deep space Astronomy, molecular biology and so on.
2. Most nerds are socially inept.
3. They place very little importance on their appearance.
4. Nerds usually talk about their interests but they seldom divulge into greater details because they know that you wouldn’t understand anyway and they would not want you to be bored. They know that their knowledge surpass common people’s understanding.

Geeks

1. Geeks have an obscure interest in something but not necessarily related to academic stuffs. Their interest are more frivolous and “fun”, like Star Trek and World of Warcraft.
2. Geeks are also smart but they tend to focus more on technology.
3. Most geeks have somewhat high confidence and hence, separates themselves from the nerds.
4. Geeks are the group of people who were at times the joke of your school but probably someone you’ll work for in the future.

A nerd can have the latest gadgets but wouldn’t know how to use them throughly. Geeks on the other hand may not have the latest gadgets but somehow manage to make theirs work as good as one belonging to the nerds. Nerds can walk the walk but seldom talk. Geeks on the other hand are proud of their Geekism. They try to reach the ultimate geekdom of all (by probably hacking the latest iTouch to run Linux) and flaunt their status confidently. Geeks have actually accepted their fate, know what they are doing and proud to be doing what they do, in the world of binaries and C-codes. Geeks have the uncanny ability to find something valuable and worthwhile in what is dismissed by most as trash. That is certainly a talent.

Therefore, geeks and nerds aren’t equal. Equating them together would bring about the worst runtime error you can imagine! Even if you wouldn’t get a blue eye for your mistake, you might end up having a BSOD the next time you switch on your PC.