It's always heartwarming to see people passionately geek out, seeking to advance our civilization. It's also curious that a land of geeks like the US would have

It's always heartwarming to see people passionately geek out, seeking to advance our civilization. It's also curious that a land of geeks like the US would have a culture of looking down upon geeks, to the point that Paul Graham would write essays like Why Nerds Are Unpopular[1]. I couldn't even understand that essay when reading it for the first time, as it was a novel concept in my country that people didn't appreciate hardworking and passion in hard subjects. It's even stranger that Americans thought it was a great virtual to toil in sports, like shooting hoops thousands of times a day, but it was a sin to toil in STEM, like solving maths problems for fun. But well, it's a topic for another day. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html. Quote: "I know a lot of people who were nerds in school, and they all tell the same story: there is a strong correlation between being smart and being a nerd, and an even stronger inverse correlation between being a nerd and being popular. Being smart seems to make you unpopular."