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A girl broke my heart, I dramatically (I was 22) plugged "Why aren't nerds popular," into Google, found PG's essay (http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://

A girl broke my heart, I dramatically (I was 22) plugged "Why aren't nerds popular," into Google, found PG's essay (http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html), read the other ones, and decided to become a Lisp Jedi.

searchableguy 6y ago
Has the situation changed?
- quantumsequoia 6y ago
  Yes it has. Sort of. These days, every high school has an overachiever clique. These students get great grades, but also run the various student clubs, have interesting hobbies, are into activism, are usually charismatic and good looking, etc. And they're usually popular and envied by people. This group isn't exactly the nerd clique of the 90s. Motivations of this group are driven by status-seeking, both among peers and college admissions officers, unlike the pure passion motivation nerds of the 90s are known for. But this group offers a realistic path of a 90s-style nerd to popularity.
  - oalae5niMiel7qu 6y ago
    > Yes it has. Sort of. These days, every high school has an overachiever clique. These students get great grades, but also run the various student clubs, have interesting hobbies, are into activism, are usually charismatic and good looking, etc. And they're usually popular and envied by people. That's not a change. That clique existed in 1990s high schools. They were known as "preps" back then, and were the opposite of "nerds". "Jocks" were preps who played sports.
- dropit_sphere 6y ago
  It's a work in progress. :)
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
FunnyLookinHat 6y ago
Oof - that article brings back a lot of memories of Slashdot and being a geek back in the day. This is possibly one of the most infamous of all Slashdot threads - it was a collection of emails detailing how it was to be an outsider in the days after Columbine. https://news.slashdot.org/story/99/04/25/1438249/voices-from-the-hellmouth https://news.slashdot.org/story/99/04/25/1438249/voices-from... If the stories in this post are interesting to you, a book to consider would be Geeks, by Jon Katz. https://g.co/kgs/p2rLUT https://g.co/kgs/p2rLUT

searchableguy 6y ago

Has the situation changed?

quantumsequoia 6y ago
Yes it has. Sort of. These days, every high school has an overachiever clique. These students get great grades, but also run the various student clubs, have interesting hobbies, are into activism, are usually charismatic and good looking, etc. And they're usually popular and envied by people. This group isn't exactly the nerd clique of the 90s. Motivations of this group are driven by status-seeking, both among peers and college admissions officers, unlike the pure passion motivation nerds of the 90s are known for. But this group offers a realistic path of a 90s-style nerd to popularity.
- oalae5niMiel7qu 6y ago
  > Yes it has. Sort of. These days, every high school has an overachiever clique. These students get great grades, but also run the various student clubs, have interesting hobbies, are into activism, are usually charismatic and good looking, etc. And they're usually popular and envied by people. That's not a change. That clique existed in 1990s high schools. They were known as "preps" back then, and were the opposite of "nerds". "Jocks" were preps who played sports.
dropit_sphere 6y ago
It's a work in progress. :)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

FunnyLookinHat 6y ago

Oof - that article brings back a lot of memories of Slashdot and being a geek back in the day. This is possibly one of the most infamous of all Slashdot threads - it was a collection of emails detailing how it was to be an outsider in the days after Columbine. https://news.slashdot.org/story/99/04/25/1438249/voices-from-the-hellmouth https://news.slashdot.org/story/99/04/25/1438249/voices-from... If the stories in this post are interesting to you, a book to consider would be Geeks, by Jon Katz. https://g.co/kgs/p2rLUT https://g.co/kgs/p2rLUT