At least a nerd can be big enough that they don't get beaten constantly. When you're 4'9'' and 95 lbs soaking wet going into High School, you're a walking punching bag. I speak from experience.My experience: Being nearly 6ft but skinny, wearing glasses, and always the last chosen for gym class teams (we didn't have track for kids like me to excel in). Being smart and having a high IQ was offset by being borderline autistic (they call it Asperger's nowadays) left kids like me on the outside of sports, dates, dances, etc. High school was hell. One of my friends, smartest kid in his class, suicided in his senior year.
ComputerWorld had a recent article on "Aspie's in IT". They referred to it as the "dark secret". Apparently it is pretty common. Some of the brightest, most productive people in IT are "Aspies". Many of them have no social life...and don't give a rat's ass about social standing.