Why Nerds Are Unpopular

Paul Graham.com ^ | Feb 2003 | Paul Graham

[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.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Long essay, but he actually has some pretty insightful things to say about how our society deals with teenagers and the educational system.

[cripplecreek]

Nerds are unpopular?

[JamesP81]

bump for later

[Phantom Lord]

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

[exit82]

Nerds get the cute girls and the best revenge.

I saw it in the movies.

[2banana]

I am a 6'3”, 225 lbs, combat vet and....a nerd.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

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

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Nerds are unpopular?

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

[Tijeras_Slim]

This dude thinks too much.

[gridlock]

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

[Sacajaweau]

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

[cripplecreek]

Nerdbabes are hot too.

[cripplecreek]

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

Well it was in 1983.

[Righter-than-Rush]

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

[Knitebane]

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.

[CholeraJoe]

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.

[wintertime]

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.)

[wintertime]

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.)

[Resolute Conservative]

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

[DarthVader]

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