Geekdom and martial arts seem to be closely related, possibly for painfully obvious reasons that mostly reflect poorly on the geeks and the martial arts in ques

Geekdom and martial arts seem to be closely related, possibly for painfully obvious reasons that mostly reflect poorly on the geeks and the martial arts in question. If you want to learn to defend yourself and/or get fit, box, wrestle, do Muay Thai, Judo, Brazilian Juijitsu, etc. That is, something that's practiced live against people who aren't cooperating. The downside is that the techniques will also be done to you. On the other hand, if you want to put on strange clothes and raise your self-esteem by hanging out with a bunch of dudes in the same strange clothes, almost anything will work. Aikido, Ninjitsu, and similar arts are very popular among computing types as they offer the promise of combat effectiveness without being pounded on in the same way you'll experience if you come up in a 'live' art.