Are you a "geek" or a "nerd" ?

[AFB]

I think I fall under geek. I spent last night making a distributed calculation client/server. Yeah, I think I may go outsie for the rest of the day.


If you voted 2.......Yeah, you're not a geek

 

[vshah]

I'm a geek, but not a nerd.

 

[cw42]

can u explain the diff?

 

[PatboyX]

im a geek, simply because i currently make money off my nerdliness.
if i had no job, then id just be a nerd.

 

[vshah]

geek is someone who has computer skills. the term geek says nothing about social aptitude.

a nerd is socially inept, and may or may not have computer skills.

-Vivan

 

[GT1999]

<----

 

[vshah]

Originally posted by: Geekish Thoughts
<----

hehehe

 

[clamum]

Probably all of the above

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: cw42
can u explain the diff?

geek = likes to fvck with stuff and build things
nerd = likes to learn things unrelated to being a geek ie history

 

[bandana163]

Geek reporting.

 

[Turkish]

geek

 

[rocadelpunk]

geek

this thread is useless without pics. :camera:

 

[yankeesfan]

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: cw42
can u explain the diff?

geek = likes to fvck with stuff and build things
nerd = likes to learn things unrelated to being a geek ie history

Judging by these defintions, I am both. But they are contradictory. I like to build things and read history/ science. I am a nerdy geek.

 

[DWW]

I always thought that geeks were wannabe nerds with social skills.

For example, many bloggers I know proclaim their "geekness" as they call it because they know how to install plug and play hardware (oooh ahhhh) and setup a home network.

Whereas a nerd would understand more about it and typically be not as social on it like "OMFGZ IM SO HARDCORE ELET!"

A least thats the connotations around here.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: yankeesfan

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: cw42
can u explain the diff?

geek = likes to fvck with stuff and build things
nerd = likes to learn things unrelated to being a geek ie history

Judging by these defintions, I am both. But they are contradictory. I like to build things and read history/ science. I am a nerdy geek.

I'm a total nerd. I'd be a socially inept pedantic know-it-all even without computers.

 

[Schadenfroh]

both

 

[LeetViet]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
both

Same.

I don't really think there's a difference, but the fact that you're thinking about it this much makes me wonder.

 

[Trygve]

Originally posted by: cw42
can u explain the diff?

The definition that I use is that a nerd is someone who is intensely interested in and knowlegeable about (usually technical) subjects that may bore or bewilder the general public, has social skills that are a bit out-of-step with mainstream society, but would like to be "cool."

A geek is every bit as much the first two, but thinks that's what *is* cool.

 

[moshquerade]

neither
i just like men who are geeks

 

[Geekbabe]

Neither, I'm a cutie though

 

[vshah]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
neither
i just like men who are geeks

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
Neither, I'm a cutie though

 

[GeekDrew]

From The Jargon File, THE source of all definitions technical:

geek: n.

A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance. Geeks usually have a strong case of neophilia. Most geeks are adept with computers and treat hacker as a term of respect, but not all are hackers themselves ? and some who are in fact hackers normally call themselves geeks anyway, because they (quite properly) regard ?hacker? as a label that should be bestowed by others rather than self-assumed.

One description accurately if a little breathlessly enumerates ?gamers, ravers, science fiction fans, punks, perverts, programmers, nerds, subgenii, and trekkies. These are people who did not go to their high school proms, and many would be offended by the suggestion that they should have even wanted to.?

Originally, a geek was a carnival performer who bit the heads off chickens. (In early 20th-century Scotland a ?geek? was an immature coley, a type of fish.) Before about 1990 usage of this term was rather negative. Earlier versions of this lexicon defined a computer geek as one who eats (computer) bugs for a living ? an asocial, malodorous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese grater. This is often still the way geeks are regarded by non-geeks, but as the mainstream culture becomes more dependent on technology and technical skill mainstream attitudes have tended to shift towards grudging respect. Correspondingly, there are now ?geek pride? festivals (the implied reference to ?gay pride? is not accidental).

nerd: n.

1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.

2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare geek.

The word itself appears to derive from the lines ?And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo / And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!? in the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo (1950). (The spellings ?nurd? and ?gnurd? also used to be current at MIT, where ?nurd? is reported from as far back as 1957; however, knurd appears to have a separate etymology.) How it developed its mainstream meaning is unclear, but sense 1 seems to have entered mass culture in the early 1970s (there are reports that in the mid-1960s it meant roughly ?annoying misfit? without the connotation of intelligence.

Hackers developed sense 2 in self-defense perhaps ten years later, and some actually wear ?Nerd Pride? buttons, only half as a joke. At MIT one can find not only buttons but (what else?) pocket protectors bearing the slogan and the MIT seal.

I'm a geek (self-proclaimed, nonetheless; see my username &amp; my personal domain name).

 

[Wag]

You're asking this on AT?

 

[Red Dawn]

Niether. I have computer skills but I've grown extremely bored with them, so much so that getting me to work on one is like pulling teeth.

 

[CyraKrin]

I suppose computer skill defines me as geek, although I have an outside life and dont really do much on my computer (till doom3 came along)..