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Why Nerds Are Unpopular
Paul Graham.com ^ | Feb 2003 | Paul Graham

Posted on 06/02/2008 1:55:29 PM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

When we were in junior high school, my friend Rich and I made a map of the school lunch tables according to popularity. This was easy to do, because kids only ate lunch with others of about the same popularity. We graded them from A to E. A tables were full of football players and cheerleaders and so on. E tables contained the kids with mild cases of Down's Syndrome, what in the language of the time we called "retards."

We sat at a D table, as low as you could get without looking physically different. We were not being especially candid to grade ourselves as D. It would have taken a deliberate lie to say otherwise. Everyone in the school knew exactly how popular everyone else was, including us.

(Excerpt) Read more at paulgraham.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: adolescence; educationsystem; nerds
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Long essay, but he actually has some pretty insightful things to say about how our society deals with teenagers and the educational system.
1 posted on 06/02/2008 1:55:29 PM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Nerds are unpopular?


2 posted on 06/02/2008 1:58:17 PM PDT by cripplecreek (I miss the days when only the politicians were unethical.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

bump for later


3 posted on 06/02/2008 1:59:39 PM PDT by JamesP81 (George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not a suggestion)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Be nice to the nerds. Chances are, one day you will work for one.


4 posted on 06/02/2008 1:59:42 PM PDT by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
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To: cripplecreek

Nerds get the cute girls and the best revenge.

I saw it in the movies.


5 posted on 06/02/2008 1:59:56 PM PDT by exit82 (People get the government they deserve. And they are about to get it--in spades.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
I am a 6'3”, 225 lbs, combat vet and....a nerd.
6 posted on 06/02/2008 2:00:10 PM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: cripplecreek

Isn’t being unpopular part of the definition of a nerd?


7 posted on 06/02/2008 2:00:31 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Hillary to Obama: Arkancide happens.)
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To: cripplecreek
Nerds are unpopular?

Maybe, but they often get the last laugh. Take Bill Gates for example...

8 posted on 06/02/2008 2:00:37 PM PDT by the_devils_advocate_666
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

This dude thinks too much.


9 posted on 06/02/2008 2:00:38 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (Play that Funky Music Typical White Boy!)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Because they wind up making all the money and getting all the hot chicks.

10 posted on 06/02/2008 2:00:46 PM PDT by gridlock (Now that Polar Bears are protected under ESA, where do I go to apply for a permit to breathe?)
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To: cripplecreek

Anyone been watching the program “Big Bang”? I love nerds....They’re “mockable”.


11 posted on 06/02/2008 2:02:17 PM PDT by Sacajaweau ("The Cracker" will be renamed "The Crapper")
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To: 2banana

Nerdbabes are hot too.


12 posted on 06/02/2008 2:03:08 PM PDT by cripplecreek (I miss the days when only the politicians were unethical.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Isn’t being unpopular part of the definition of a nerd?

Well it was in 1983.
13 posted on 06/02/2008 2:04:47 PM PDT by cripplecreek (I miss the days when only the politicians were unethical.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Wait until that nerd masters futures trading, retires at 28 and shows up at his 10th reunion. Watch the women swoon the nerd...


14 posted on 06/02/2008 2:07:50 PM PDT by Righter-than-Rush
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To: the_devils_advocate_666
Only if your daddy is a high-powered Intellectual Property lawyer and your mommy sits on the board of the United Way right next to an IBM Vice-President.

Then after mommy cuts a deal for you to sell your product to IBM and daddy writes up the contract for you, yeah, then you get the big bucks.

15 posted on 06/02/2008 2:08:32 PM PDT by Knitebane (Happily Microsoft free since 1999.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

I went to 2 different high schools and was the smartest boy at both. I got beat up lots. The only people I was popular with were jocks and cheerleaders, but only when it was time for them to study for a test. I certainly couldn’t get dates from my own class, so I usually had to look one or even two grades lower.

Fast forward four years, I suddenly got real popular, when everyone realized that I was going to have a big paying job upon graduation.


16 posted on 06/02/2008 2:11:37 PM PDT by CholeraJoe (Skirting the line between rakishly charming and frighteningly maniacal.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
And that's why smart people's lives are worst between, say, the ages of eleven and seventeen. Life at that age revolves far more around popularity than before or after.

Homeschoolers aren't having these worries.

It is only worse between the ages of 11 and 17 because segregating children into same aged packs, treating them like prisoners, marching them about to the sound of Pavlov's Bells is and UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY UNNATURAL WAY TO TREAT CHILDREN! ( Yes, I am shouting.)

17 posted on 06/02/2008 2:14:32 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
And that's why smart people's lives are worst between, say, the ages of eleven and seventeen. Life at that age revolves far more around popularity than before or after.

Homeschoolers aren't having these worries.

It is only worse between the ages of 11 and 17 because segregating children into same aged packs, treating them like prisoners, marching them about to the sound of Pavlov's Bells is and UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY UNNATURAL WAY TO TREAT CHILDREN! ( Yes, I am shouting.)

18 posted on 06/02/2008 2:15:12 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: 2banana

6’2” 240 former Marine/LEO/athlete now computer nerd. I do alright.


19 posted on 06/02/2008 2:15:29 PM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: 2banana

6’1” 260 lbs, rugby player and a nerd.


20 posted on 06/02/2008 2:17:26 PM PDT by DarthVader (Liberal Democrats are the party of EVIL whose time of judgement has come.)
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