While as with any broad overview of a particular genus or species, there is plenty of room for small or even large variations at the individual level (I myself lean a bit more towards the social side of the scale than what’s described here, though that is in large part the product of many years of practice), this field guide to understanding the common nerd should be required reading for many, many people, especially those involved with, living with, dating, or parenting nerds (also most varieties of dork or geek).
A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.
It’s unlikely that this project is a nerd’s day job because his opinion regarding his job is, “Been there, done that”. We’ll explore the consequences of this seemingly short attention span in a bit, but for now this project is the other big thing your nerd is building and I’ve no idea what is, but you should.
At some point, you, the nerd’s companion, were the project. You were showered with the fire hose of attention because you were the bright and shiny new development in your nerd’s life. There is also a chance that you’re lucky and you are currently your nerd’s project. Congrats. Don’t get too comfortable because he’ll move on, and, when that happens, you’ll be wondering what happened to all the attention. This handbook might help.
giggle so true, Michael, so true … sad, but true.
Wow — If I’d only had this information when you were playing with the Osborne — or manipulating the computer game programming so you would always win! Prairie, print the article and read it when he seems to have entered his cave with no foreseeable exit strategy. The cave analogy is the description of all your pre-Prairie apartments. But, having some definitely nerdish tendencies myself, I’ll not hold it against you!