I linked to The Nerd Handbook on twitter last week and wanted to say more about the overall subject here. What I’m adding is only tangentially related, but I thought to link to Rand’s piece again because it captures that new definition of nerd*—people who are passionate in what they do/like— and how they operate.
* In comparison to the old world definition ie. how 50 year old people think nerds act. Star Trek, they talk funny. So hilarious! LOL.
Anyways here’s what I want to add.
Shared Knowledge Base
When it comes to fields that nerds are interested in, there is a certain level of unspoken knowledge or (more accurately) understanding. This can make it difficult to communicate with non-nerds about the same subject.
For the design world there is just a base understanding that spec-work is bad. It wouldn’t occur to a non-nerd that design contests can be bad for all parties involved. It might be difficult to explain why
This doesn’t mean all nerds have the same preferences or know the same things in their chosen subjects. I like TV, but I haven’t seen the best show of all time*. I still think I’m a bit of a TV nerd though. I have a general understanding of what’s going on there and can converse with fellow nerds.
* The Wire. This is actually true for me for a lot of dramas.
This base understanding lingers in the background when nerds engage with each other and dialogue is built out from this understanding. NBC’s Community is a critical darling because of a lot of the humor is derived from pop-culture (TV/movie) references which speak directly to the critics knowledge of the medium. I catch few references myself, it’s non, but I’m still able to enjoy that aspect because I have an understanding of what they’re going for.
Plus, the non pop-culture humor is pretty good too and brainy. “You’re the AT&T of people” was used as an insult in last night’s episode.
There is a variable aspect to this. Let’s say you’re into the tech news. Apple, Google, smart phones, computers. That sort of thing. How do you keep up to date? A non-nerd will probably catch the latest news in Newsweek or whatnot. A nerd might go to one of many tech blogs out there. The biggest nerd? Probably one man experts/pundits and the like, Gruber and such. Each successive outlet requires and is made better with more nerd knowledge.
Recognition of the Auteur
Nerds can’t enjoy an end product by itself. They care about process and creative vision and will seek to find out everything they can about it.
Sports nerds can’t just enjoy a game at face value. They need to have an idea of stats, the strategy behind the lineup, player narratives at work. Knowing the back end details is as important as what happens in a game itself.
Nerds like to dissect. This can simply be looking up a movie’s Wikipedia page after you’ve seen it. A fun example is the The Three Glees Theory. Each episode of Glee is wildly different in tone to the point where it seems like three different shows. People wanted to know what was up with that and came up with the theory as the result.Licenses and intellectual property play a part here. Disney was moving ahead with sequels to Pixar’s films before the buyout. Imagine Toy Story 3 without Pixar. Crazy right? If it happened there would’ve been a Buffy-without-Joss-Whedon type of revolt. Non-nerds probably wouldn’t care and would go see it anyway.
You can find a lot of examples of this in video games where the developers behind a property changes. Guitar Hero isn’t in the hands of the original creators anymore (they made Rock Band). The whole Infinity Ward fallout also comes to mind. Basically, nerdsElitist Jerks
There is a tendency to come off as one. This post.
