3 ms·

Trying to See Through: A Unified Theory of Nerddom (2012)

22 points by gwern 10y ago

refulgentis 10y ago
This is reaching quite a bit. I'm the stereotype mentioned, but I only exhibit ~30% of the traits treated as universal. The author's self-conception, and conception of the groups they partake in, isn't enough to support anything after the first couple sentences.
rhapsodic 10y ago
I have no idea what this guy is talking about. Maybe it's just me, but this seems like a bunch of incoherent gobbledygook.
- orasis 10y ago
  He's nerdy about nerdiness
- zeroer 10y ago
  It spoke to me and accurately described many parts of my experience of the world. You may not be the target audience.
- zeroer 10y ago
  It spoke to me and accurately described many parts of my experience of the world. You may not be the target audience.
orasis 10y ago
I appreciate the idea of having more perspective on socially constructed reality than others. As Robert Kegan might say instead of being fully embedded in socially-constructed reality, the nerd can objectify it. Now if you want to go next level, see if instead of being embedded in subject/object duality (I am here and that is over there) see if you can disembed and objectify. Here is a nerdy manual for how to accomplish that: http://integrateddaniel.info/book/ http://integrateddaniel.info/book/
yummyfajitas 10y ago
I'd suggest this article, "Sanity for Sociality", as a perhaps less longwinded and cleaner elucidation of the same idea. http://thefutureprimaeval.net/sanity-for-sociality/ http://thefutureprimaeval.net/sanity-for-sociality/ The gist of it: ...analyze the adoption of...Mormonism: Price: A small piece of sanity...[express belief in assorted weird Mormon things]...Some freedom... Value: Access to high-quality mates. Friendship, community, etc. A stable and sure flourishing life. Spiritual well-being. Most or all societies have similar requirements to sacrifice sanity for sacred beliefs, e.g. in my society I need to express a belief in the figurative Hitlerness of Trump. Applying this to the post under discussion, the author's theory seems to be that nerds are people less willing to sacrifice a piece of sanity in favor of sociality.
- projektir 10y ago
  > Applying this to the post under discussion, the author's theory seems to be that nerds are people less willing to sacrifice a piece of sanity in favor of sociality. We nerds just need to make our own religion. ;)
- someguydave 10y ago
  First off - I hope you picked up that blog from my comment last week - it's a high quality blog (I'm just a reader) - Beliefs about weird Mormon things aren't even falsifiable. In other words, it's possible that religion isn't even wrong about ultimate reality. - In my observation, nerdness is correlated correlated with "sensitive sensory" behavior. Nerds tend to be more curious about odd sights & sounds than regular people. My theory is that nerdly curiosity is related to some kind of abnormal sensory processing.
justifier 10y ago
i once had a friend, of whom english was a second language, ask me, 'what is the purpose of nerd?' after someone called me a nerd in front of her i still hold to my answer, 'a nerd is someone who cares a lot about something you care little for'
paulpauper 10y ago
These days we often identify as rationalists, skeptics, or atheists, interested in cognition and cognitive biases; Does he not mean empiricist instead of rationalist? Rationalism means, mentally, rationalizing something as true, which tie in with religiosity.
- zeroer 10y ago
  Hmm. I don't think so. I've consistently heard "rationalist" to mean someone committed to or pursuing rationality. This is very different than "rationalization", which is coming up with reasons to believe something after you've decided what to believe by other means. It's sad that such words are so close when they mean polar opposite things.

22 points by gwern 10y ago

This is reaching quite a bit. I'm the stereotype mentioned, but I only exhibit ~30% of the traits treated as universal. The author's self-conception, and conception of the groups they partake in, isn't enough to support anything after the first couple sentences.

rhapsodic 10y ago

I have no idea what this guy is talking about. Maybe it's just me, but this seems like a bunch of incoherent gobbledygook.

orasis 10y ago
He's nerdy about nerdiness
zeroer 10y ago
It spoke to me and accurately described many parts of my experience of the world. You may not be the target audience.
zeroer 10y ago
It spoke to me and accurately described many parts of my experience of the world. You may not be the target audience.

orasis 10y ago

I appreciate the idea of having more perspective on socially constructed reality than others. As Robert Kegan might say instead of being fully embedded in socially-constructed reality, the nerd can objectify it. Now if you want to go next level, see if instead of being embedded in subject/object duality (I am here and that is over there) see if you can disembed and objectify. Here is a nerdy manual for how to accomplish that: http://integrateddaniel.info/book/ http://integrateddaniel.info/book/

yummyfajitas 10y ago

I'd suggest this article, "Sanity for Sociality", as a perhaps less longwinded and cleaner elucidation of the same idea. http://thefutureprimaeval.net/sanity-for-sociality/ http://thefutureprimaeval.net/sanity-for-sociality/ The gist of it: ...analyze the adoption of...Mormonism: Price: A small piece of sanity...[express belief in assorted weird Mormon things]...Some freedom... Value: Access to high-quality mates. Friendship, community, etc. A stable and sure flourishing life. Spiritual well-being. Most or all societies have similar requirements to sacrifice sanity for sacred beliefs, e.g. in my society I need to express a belief in the figurative Hitlerness of Trump. Applying this to the post under discussion, the author's theory seems to be that nerds are people less willing to sacrifice a piece of sanity in favor of sociality.

projektir 10y ago
> Applying this to the post under discussion, the author's theory seems to be that nerds are people less willing to sacrifice a piece of sanity in favor of sociality. We nerds just need to make our own religion. ;)
someguydave 10y ago
First off - I hope you picked up that blog from my comment last week - it's a high quality blog (I'm just a reader) - Beliefs about weird Mormon things aren't even falsifiable. In other words, it's possible that religion isn't even wrong about ultimate reality. - In my observation, nerdness is correlated correlated with "sensitive sensory" behavior. Nerds tend to be more curious about odd sights & sounds than regular people. My theory is that nerdly curiosity is related to some kind of abnormal sensory processing.

justifier 10y ago

i once had a friend, of whom english was a second language, ask me, 'what is the purpose of nerd?' after someone called me a nerd in front of her i still hold to my answer, 'a nerd is someone who cares a lot about something you care little for'

paulpauper 10y ago

These days we often identify as rationalists, skeptics, or atheists, interested in cognition and cognitive biases; Does he not mean empiricist instead of rationalist? Rationalism means, mentally, rationalizing something as true, which tie in with religiosity.

zeroer 10y ago
Hmm. I don't think so. I've consistently heard "rationalist" to mean someone committed to or pursuing rationality. This is very different than "rationalization", which is coming up with reasons to believe something after you've decided what to believe by other means. It's sad that such words are so close when they mean polar opposite things.