Why Nerds Are Unpopular. http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html Especially this part: "Where I grew up, it felt as if ther

Why Nerds Are Unpopular. http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html Especially this part: "Where I grew up, it felt as if there was nowhere to go, and nothing to do. This was no accident. Suburbs are deliberately designed to exclude the outside world, because it contains things that could endanger children. And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world. Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. And I have no problem with this: in a specialized industrial society, it would be a disaster to have kids running around loose. What bothers me is not that the kids are kept in prisons, but that (a) they aren't told about it, and (b) the prisons are run mostly by the inmates."