Posts tagged with definitions.
The nerd-geek-dork continuum
In last week's post-blog dialogue, reader Shane mentioned his difficulty in pinpointing the essence of "nerd" and asked for my definition of the word. It turned out to be a much simpler exercise than I had originally thought, for in the singularly reflexive moment that followed, I realized that one could define a nerd as someone who gleefully obliges when asked to define something.
Indeed when the intellectual gauntlet is thrown down, it's the nerd amongst us who will rise, or, more accurately, hyperactively scramble, to the occasion. We are incapable of resisting a mental challenge, whether it's a simple matter of seeking out a definition or solving a puzzle, or something more involved, like calculating whether or not it's possible to have a non-overnight transpacific commercial airline flight whose entire journey takes place in daylight hours* or building a trebuchet to see how far you can fling a car.**
This compulsive need to exercise one's mental faculties stems from the nerd's defining characteristic, namely an unabashed curiosity - the insatiable and lifelong desire to learn about anything and everything. In fact, I suspect that many of us nerds have shared the same existential crisis, which arises not from the sudden grasp of our own mortality, but rather from the resulting realization that we haven't got time enough to read every book in the library.
Regardless, we soldier on and try to cram as much learning into the day as possible. We're the people that read each and every panel at the museum (and sometimes correct them). We bought iPhones because it means we're never more than five seconds away from being able to check something on Wikipedia. We've vetoed potential partners who we felt were not sufficiently excited at the prospect of going to the science centre on a first date. And we're the people you don't ever, ever want to play Trivial Pursuit with.
No column on the definition of "nerd" would be complete without a few brief words on the notion of the "geek" and the "dork". A nerd is not always a geek, but a geek is always a nerd. Neither geeks nor nerds are necessarily dorks, but dorks do occur at a greater frequency within the nerd-geek subpopulation. Follow me?
A geek is someone who exhibits the archetypal nerd trait of compulsively pursuing new information; however, whereas the pure nerd is a knowledge generalist, equally fascinated by dinosaurs, art history and teaching themselves Cantonese, a pure geek tends to focus their dogged learning on a single subject area. These subjects are often scientific and/or technical in nature, and include things like computer programming, backyard engineering, and writing songs about Kirk and Spock.
A dork is someone with markedly impaired social skills - the person that regularly stumbles, mumbles and fumbles through even the simplest task. Napoleon Dynamite writ large. There is almost certainly a higher proportion of dorks within the nerd ranks than one would observe in the population at large, and I suspect the majority of these cases come about as a result of the young nerd focusing on their intellectual betterment to such a degree that they completely fail to take notice of the world around them.
Many of us spent a good portion of our childhoods entirely unaware of the codes and behaviours that ruled the school playground - we were too busy organizing our dinosaur sticker collection by taxa to care about which lunchbox was in fashion this year, which bit of playground equipment was the place to be seen at, or whether Velcro shoes were a clear tip-off that their wearer was a loser. By high school, the nerd's keen powers of observation had kicked in and heretofore unknown subtleties of social interaction came to light. We dipped our toes into the sea of adolescent relationships and eventually figured out how to swim. The dorks, on the other hand, tripped over a piece of driftwood on their way to the sea and landed face-down in the sand. They're the ones who never figured out the rules for getting along in life, from the basics (like rule 2476 from The Nerd's Guide to Successful Social Interaction: Just because you want to correct someone's grammar doesn't mean that you should), to the more complex (see rule 83756: Taxidermy and first dates rarely mix).
If you're curious as to your place on the Nerd-Geek-Dork continuum, OKCupid.com has a test that will reveal your nerd/geek/dork score (sample question: "Throughout this test, have you been trying to figure out which each question is testing for?"). I'm 91% pure nerd, and just may adopt that as the slogan for this blog.
*It's not.
**Far.
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JENNIFER GARDY 
