What sounds most familiar to me in both this article and Paul Graham's, is that, for the most part, nerds ("we") see through the game and decide it's not worth

What sounds most familiar to me in both this article and Paul Graham's, is that, for the most part, nerds ("we") see through the game and decide it's not worth the attention. I spent the last 3 years (out of 6 here in NL) playing a game with my mother. Every day she would ask if I learned something new, I would reply with "no". Unfortunately, college here works about the same.