4 ms·
I'm a little ashamed to admit that this essay was what got me into programming. I found it, thought, "wow, this guy is really smart," read his Lisp essays, and
by dropit_sphere 12y ago
I'm a little ashamed to admit that this essay was what got me into programming. I found it, thought, "wow, this guy is really smart," read his Lisp essays, and, well, the rest is history.
But I've had a lot of time to think about it since. And one thing PG never really defines is what makes a nerd. The definition I've settled on is:
1)smart
2)working
3)provides no immediate value (usually this is because they are working on something too "smart" for most people to understand)
http://calculatedbravery.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/on-nerds/ http://calculatedbravery.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/on-nerds/
- thenerdfiles 12y agoI've recently personally dealt with this. The consequences of the experiment have been immense, but I'll spare the details. These hacker schools are looking for knowledge workers. The higher ranks will be more associated with the centers of codebases/workflows/builds/systems. Some of us manage way more information than even the common person is willing to talk about. Nerds can withstand complexity, and [that] is what people know. The culture becomes, regardless of intelligence, [that person who manages such-and-such complex thing]. If the person is smart, it helps.
- freework 12y agoThe word he means to use is "me". He says "nerd" in its place in the article. He's writing about why he wasn't popular in school.