King of the Nerds... exploitative or genuine?

Pythagorean

Yup, nerd is in limbo between the perjorative and the recent reaction to the perjorative. It's going to be used differently by people in different ways for different contexts.

But "over-enthusiast" (to the point of neglecting social nicities like mannerisms and dress) is sometimes a perjorative too. For instance, making a pedantic point or correcting someone in casual conversation on a date might lose favor with your date.

ZombieFeynman

I dont identify with being a nerd. Labels like that are silly. The show is probably bad, but its ok. Most shows are.

I nearly never volunteer my profession. If someone asks I say student, if asked for more I tack graduate in front. Only if pressed will i say I study physics. Many people assume if one studies physics, one must be some super genius. I dont think thats true. Im not smarter than the average bear, I just spend much more time doing physics than them.

Jack21222

Thanks to this thread, I'm now reading a 457 page Ph.D dissertation: an ethnographic study of nerd culture. If I wasn't considered a nerd before....

Mentalist

I see a joke in here but cannot put my finger on it.

Whovian

I can't find it, but earlier in this thread, I seem to remember someone saying something along the lines of "it's going to be terrible, but that's okay, pretty much every TV show is."

Just reminds me of the Sherlock quote, "Because you're an idiot. Oh, don't take it like that. Practically everyone is.

BenG549

You have a local board game store.... that's incredible.


For fear of discussing the topic in the OP.... I totally agree with this.

Jack21222

To call it a "board game store" is to sell it short a bit. Upstairs, it's a book store and Magic: The Gathering cards for sale. Downstairs is an area with a wall full of board games for sale, another wall for warhammer stuff, and in between, shelves for roleplaying games. The other half of downstairs has tables for games.

It's located directly in between MIT and Harvard, so I get to hang out with some cool people from those universities.

BenG549

Right that makes sense, I was wondering how they were still open with such a niche and to be honest dated product... It makes more sense that they have a little more diversity in their store, my imagination just got carried away with a shop just FULL of board games!

Bet that's the source of many interesting conversations.

Jack21222

I'm not sure I'd call board games a dated product. There are SO many board games out there, and it wouldn't be difficult to fill a store with nothing but board games. There was a store back in my hometown that was pretty much just board games, though I don't believe it was very successful. Maybe I should start a board game thread over in the fun and games subforum (if there isn't one already), but you can check out www.boardgamegeek.com for a taste of how big the market is.

Evo

The off topic dating posts have been moved here http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=664876

Aero51

I didn't realize this was such a controversial issue with everyone...

Well, I'm just being myself - not trying to be condensing, malicious or arrogant. If it bothers you then I don't know... I'd rather be true to myself and others than someone who waters everything down. Apparently that's terrible.

Evo

It's off topic.

Jack21222

Alright, I just watched the show and I'm still not quite sure what to think. Pretty much anything done by the hosts was somewhat offensive to me. I'm not blaming the hosts, they're just doing what they're told by the producers. But it's as if the show is trying to play to every negative stereotype there is.

On the other hand, I genuinely like the contestants. When the show is just showing the contestants talking to each other, I think it's quite good. It's just a shame that has to be interrupted by a guy on a bullhorn saying "Attention all nerds" calling them out to be picked for teams, where one person isn't going to get picked (playing on that old stereotype).

I'm probably going to watch next week just because I'm rooting for the contestants to look good against the wishes of the show. That probably isn't how reality shows are supposed to work, but oh well.

Dembadon

This has been my experience as well. I describe myself as "nerdy" when the situation calls for it. I'm to the point where I don't care what people think, but I have noticed a general shift in paradigms about our kind.

I had the same reservations about BBT, but it turned out to be one of our favorite shows for many of the same reasons you mentioned in an earlier post. We don't have cable/satellite anymore (haven't for quite a few years), but we do occasionally catch things that come out on NetFlix. If it becomes available through something like that, I'll probably check it out.

Jack21222

Full episodes online. Here's the first episode: http://www.tbs.com/video/index.jsp?cid=875319