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Ditto. I was, and am a nerd. In junior school I was on the popular side, despite being shorter than the most popular dudes (partly because I was smart, I was dr

Ditto. I was, and am a nerd. In junior school I was on the popular side, despite being shorter than the most popular dudes (partly because I was smart, I was dressed sharply and I was a cool kid: Everyone loved me ('tough' kids because I didn't treat them as "less intelligent brutes", smart kids because we were on the same level, and those in between because I knew how to talk to them). Plus the two most popular girls were in my class and had frequent cat fights for me(Gotta love women, they may want you, but they crave for validation more than anything)). In High-School, my friend and I were amongst the most popular: We spent our days missing classes and playing basket ball and football, we got used to our "fandom". We were known to the Administration by first names. And of course, when you were seen around a lot, people knew who we were (even years after). But to come back to the point: I have been blessed and lucky in my life. I did sports (Judo (since age 6 or so to 17, competitions with lots of people, trained with many boys and girls in my club, both my age and older), football (many, many people cheering at your feats helps), basket ball, running, working out (body weight only)). But I was also pretty cute, dressed nice, and was clean. These points lack to a lot of nerds (Cuteness isn't something you can change, but you can take showers and dress respectably). I was also blessed in the sense that I hang around girls since I could remember, like since I could talk. And I hang with a clique of older girls and guys who had me, and few other girls and boys my age with them, so I had a lot of socializing way before I got to high-school. Having girls have a crush on you wasn't a big deal, it was all part of normal. So it's not the same thing, when you already had thousands upon thousands of interactions with people, and if you only talked with one friend or something. There are things they can do, though, and it's not to be popular per se, but if I were like those kids who had it hard growing up (like being mocked or stuff like that), I would ask myself questions and hack it. It's not even to fit in or something, but taking showers and dressing okay doesn't make you less smart.

Jugurtha 12y ago
To summarize it: It's great to be a nerd, as long as you're not nerdy. Nerdy makes your life miserable. Nerd doesn't. Anyone who's good at something is a nerd, there's no way around it. But you can be a nerd and be cool, which makes you even more frigging cool.
funky_lambda 12y ago
Off your ego trip yet?
- Jugurtha 12y ago
  Depends. Got off your self defense mechanism yet? Maybe you can read what I wrote and try not to put the image of the faces of the douchebags you hated in high-school and college imagining me. Maybe you'll read it another way. I'm a decent guy, and have shown no hostility, have I.
jquery 12y ago
> Ditto. I was, and am a nerd. Popular, boastful, not bullied, dressed sharply, pursued by popular women, played popular sports, social butterfly, good looking, many friends. Yet you attribute your "fellow nerds" lack of such to their lack of effort and claim you would "ask yourself questions" and "hack it". Nerds have a name for such a type: douchebag.
- Jugurtha 12y ago
  You have a point. Though I've always tried to help the most socially excluded people by introducing them to people, and getting them into groups, and making their "weirdness" disappear in front of people by not locking onto it, or making them self conscious. Countless guys shredded their shyness and got a social life by me doing this, not because I pitied "the poor guy", but because I felt nobody had to live like this, or go through life this way. But I'm probably a douchebag, anyway.
blairbeckwith 12y ago
That's a whole lot of meaningless bullshit talking about how awesome you were to get to a single line of relevancy.
- Jugurtha 12y ago
  The point was making the point PG wast trying to make: That you can the social "thing". That you can be one of the guys for whom things matter, who doesn't take pride to be completely out, who's not proud of not understanding a topic, and yet, have a decent social life. And it wasn't a lot of meaningless bullshit about how awesome I was, I said that I was who I was because I was lucky to hang around people from whom I learned how to navigate in society, but here I am, getting vitriol for sharing something, someone who might not have had this chance might find useful.
angersock 12y ago
I was, and am a nerd. You keep using that word...I do not think it means what you think it means.
- Jugurtha 12y ago
  Not to toot my own horn, but I was able to open an email account, alone, in less than a day. I don't need to tell you that you must be able to power on a computer to do that, which is on a whole other level. That must count for something. No?
coldtea 12y ago
I'm glad to see the spirit of Eric S. Raymond writing being kept alive.
PavlovsCat 12y ago
I "love" how this got voted down, but replies attacking you personally weren't. That said, this sentence cracked me up "I hang with a clique of older girls and guys who had me"... sorry :P While I don't mean to say your post is arrogant, because I don't feel it is, I want to leave this here: "Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change." -- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Jugurtha 12y ago
  :D Doesn't take a genius to see my English is funny. However, I assure you it's not hypocritical humility. I'd go with honest arrogance. The things I say serve to give context. I wonder if I must give the info then give the context, or give the context before the info. I chose the latter. Unfortunately, the context triggers such strong reactions from people who have suffered as children, that they read the context with biased eyes: This guy's an asshole, let me own him on HN. It's funny too to see ad hominem attacks by people on the very topic about nerds not being popular and bullied. Kind of ironic and makes me think: If these guys were so rough with their finger muscles on a keyboard, I wonder what they'd do if they had strong biceps if I were to be in front of them. Anyway, thanks for having a cool head. PS: I upvoted every single one of the posts attacking me before I replied to it. I figured they voiced their opinions on me, which deserved an upvote.

Jugurtha 12y ago

To summarize it: It's great to be a nerd, as long as you're not nerdy. Nerdy makes your life miserable. Nerd doesn't. Anyone who's good at something is a nerd, there's no way around it. But you can be a nerd and be cool, which makes you even more frigging cool.

funky_lambda 12y ago

Off your ego trip yet?

Jugurtha 12y ago
Depends. Got off your self defense mechanism yet? Maybe you can read what I wrote and try not to put the image of the faces of the douchebags you hated in high-school and college imagining me. Maybe you'll read it another way. I'm a decent guy, and have shown no hostility, have I.

jquery 12y ago

> Ditto. I was, and am a nerd. Popular, boastful, not bullied, dressed sharply, pursued by popular women, played popular sports, social butterfly, good looking, many friends. Yet you attribute your "fellow nerds" lack of such to their lack of effort and claim you would "ask yourself questions" and "hack it". Nerds have a name for such a type: douchebag.

Jugurtha 12y ago
You have a point. Though I've always tried to help the most socially excluded people by introducing them to people, and getting them into groups, and making their "weirdness" disappear in front of people by not locking onto it, or making them self conscious. Countless guys shredded their shyness and got a social life by me doing this, not because I pitied "the poor guy", but because I felt nobody had to live like this, or go through life this way. But I'm probably a douchebag, anyway.

blairbeckwith 12y ago

That's a whole lot of meaningless bullshit talking about how awesome you were to get to a single line of relevancy.

Jugurtha 12y ago
The point was making the point PG wast trying to make: That you can the social "thing". That you can be one of the guys for whom things matter, who doesn't take pride to be completely out, who's not proud of not understanding a topic, and yet, have a decent social life. And it wasn't a lot of meaningless bullshit about how awesome I was, I said that I was who I was because I was lucky to hang around people from whom I learned how to navigate in society, but here I am, getting vitriol for sharing something, someone who might not have had this chance might find useful.

angersock 12y ago

I was, and am a nerd. You keep using that word...I do not think it means what you think it means.

Jugurtha 12y ago
Not to toot my own horn, but I was able to open an email account, alone, in less than a day. I don't need to tell you that you must be able to power on a computer to do that, which is on a whole other level. That must count for something. No?

coldtea 12y ago

I'm glad to see the spirit of Eric S. Raymond writing being kept alive.

PavlovsCat 12y ago

I "love" how this got voted down, but replies attacking you personally weren't. That said, this sentence cracked me up "I hang with a clique of older girls and guys who had me"... sorry :P While I don't mean to say your post is arrogant, because I don't feel it is, I want to leave this here: "Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change." -- Frank Lloyd Wright

Jugurtha 12y ago
:D Doesn't take a genius to see my English is funny. However, I assure you it's not hypocritical humility. I'd go with honest arrogance. The things I say serve to give context. I wonder if I must give the info then give the context, or give the context before the info. I chose the latter. Unfortunately, the context triggers such strong reactions from people who have suffered as children, that they read the context with biased eyes: This guy's an asshole, let me own him on HN. It's funny too to see ad hominem attacks by people on the very topic about nerds not being popular and bullied. Kind of ironic and makes me think: If these guys were so rough with their finger muscles on a keyboard, I wonder what they'd do if they had strong biceps if I were to be in front of them. Anyway, thanks for having a cool head. PS: I upvoted every single one of the posts attacking me before I replied to it. I figured they voiced their opinions on me, which deserved an upvote.