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A few days ago, I posted an entry with a YouTube video that claimed to use math to settle the question of "What's the difference between Geek and Nerd?"... And said I did not fully agree with the definition. But I never said why. I was actually hoping to clarify my own thoughts through discussion in the reply thread/s. But it turns out, just time was enough (at least, I think it was enough... we'll see by the end of this).
Anyway, the video was basically a recap of this blog post, here: Slackpropagation: On "Geek" Versus "Nerd", ( my own synopsis of the post, cut for length )
While I see some value in his methods, I also see a major flaw, which is: words have semi-fluid meanings to begin with, often have more than one meaning, and even more connotations per meaning. So therefore, to twist a phrase from the slightly harder sciences than linguistics: "Correlation does not mean Definition." Without knowing who is using which word and in what context, I think any conclusion based on pairings alone should be treated as "solid" as jelly.
But if I were really honest, I'd say the primary reason I disagree is that I've self-identified as a "geek" for decades, while shunning the term "nerd" (I've softened my heart toward the latter considerably, in recent years, though), and this guy is basically saying that geeks are lightweights and trivial. :-P
Going by this guy's definitions, I should have been self-identifying as "nerd," all these years, instead (I don't collect things, I'm terrible at trivia, and I resent being told that I have to get the latest gadget). But I had my reasons for picking "geek," back then... And they're still my reasons for sticking with it:
( And those reasons are... [cut again, for length] )
I woke the other day with this thought: "The irony is: all my reasons for choosing 'geek' are the same reasons that 'burrsettles' (the collector of these statistics) concludes I should choose 'nerd,' instead."
It's just that I'm a Word Nerd, and, as a practioner, I care about the mechanics of words, and their history, and how all that makes words tick the way they do... while he is a Numbers Nerd.
*This article -- From M.I.T., btw -- says he was: http://www.mit.edu/people/daveg/Humor/HumorLocker/Incoming/origin.of.nerd
Anyway, the video was basically a recap of this blog post, here: Slackpropagation: On "Geek" Versus "Nerd", ( my own synopsis of the post, cut for length )
While I see some value in his methods, I also see a major flaw, which is: words have semi-fluid meanings to begin with, often have more than one meaning, and even more connotations per meaning. So therefore, to twist a phrase from the slightly harder sciences than linguistics: "Correlation does not mean Definition." Without knowing who is using which word and in what context, I think any conclusion based on pairings alone should be treated as "solid" as jelly.
But if I were really honest, I'd say the primary reason I disagree is that I've self-identified as a "geek" for decades, while shunning the term "nerd" (I've softened my heart toward the latter considerably, in recent years, though), and this guy is basically saying that geeks are lightweights and trivial. :-P
Going by this guy's definitions, I should have been self-identifying as "nerd," all these years, instead (I don't collect things, I'm terrible at trivia, and I resent being told that I have to get the latest gadget). But I had my reasons for picking "geek," back then... And they're still my reasons for sticking with it:
( And those reasons are... [cut again, for length] )
I woke the other day with this thought: "The irony is: all my reasons for choosing 'geek' are the same reasons that 'burrsettles' (the collector of these statistics) concludes I should choose 'nerd,' instead."
It's just that I'm a Word Nerd, and, as a practioner, I care about the mechanics of words, and their history, and how all that makes words tick the way they do... while he is a Numbers Nerd.
*This article -- From M.I.T., btw -- says he was: http://www.mit.edu/people/daveg/Humor/HumorLocker/Incoming/origin.of.nerd
