Welcome to the Nerdiverse (Series Intro)

There is more to nerdiness than meets the eye.

Mar 05, 2025

In this series, I’ll focus on what it means to be nerdy. Why? Because nerdiness matters. You know nerds. They are your friends, lovers, coworkers, and family members. Perhaps you consider yourself a nerd. This is for you.

Today, nerds are ascendant. Nerdy qualities are in high demand as work has shifted from brawn to brains. Computers and the internet have provided new paths to status and wealth that offer nerds cultural relevance and power.

Yet, the true qualities of nerdiness are often misunderstood or obscured by stereotypes. Over multiple posts, I’ll share perspectives on nerdiness that you may not have seen before.

Understanding Nerdiness

Virtually everyone has experience with nerds or considers themselves one. This ubiquitousness can make it feel like nerdiness is fully understood. It’s everywhere. How could we not understand it?

There is nuance and depth to nerdiness that’s just below the surface. What if common perceptions are wrong, outdated, or, at best, incomplete? We’ll work to solve this problem by focusing on what nerds have rather than what they lack.

A Quick Note

Nerds and nerdiness, like most human qualities, are highly varied and inconsistent. Nerdiness is expressed in myriad ways, and there are no bright lines. However, for the sake of simplicity, I will refer to nerds and nerdy qualities collectively.

The Stereotypes

The 1984 movie REVENGE OF THE NERDS shaped the modern idea of nerdiness as a fight between awkward outsiders and jocks. While dated, the stereotypes in the movie remain powerful in popular culture. As with all stereotypes, these are reductive and contain nuggets of truth.

If you’re nerdy or have nerds in your life, you know that social awkwardness is a common thread. Instead of being interested in mainstream subjects like trends, pop culture, and fashion, nerds are often deeply passionate about intellectual subjects or personal projects that don’t interest others. Nerds are often introverted and happy to work alone or with close friends instead of attending social gatherings like parties or bar hopping.

Professor Mary Buchholtz studied nerdiness in Bay Area high schools and noted:

Nerds are members of a stigmatized social category who are stereotypically cast as intellectual overachievers and social underachievers.

Intellectual overachievement isn’t bad, right? Why do nerds get such a bad rap?

The reality is that nerds are different in ways that stand out from mainstream expectations. Over generations, American culture became oriented around qualities that seemed necessary for success, like being athletic, wearing the “right” clothes, having the “right” interests and friends, and being confident in social situations. When a person shows little interest or capabilities in these pursuits, it attracts attention.

A Visible Difference and a Social Game

For many nerds, the realization that they are different begins in school when they see how they compare to other students.

Ty Tashiro describes his experience in his book AWKWARD:

As I entered adolescence, my peers who intuitively grasped 1980s pop culture fell into cool categories. Kids who really loved heavy metal music were stoners, kids who popped the collars of polo shirts were preppies, and those who were good at football were jocks. These social labels were all far more desirable than the category that was the 1980s kiss of social death: nerd.
The nerd was extremely enthusiastic about esoteric interests like mathematics, Dungeons & Dragons, or clarinet. It didn't take long for nerds to realize that their tremendous enthusiasm for their unusual interests would not punch their tickets to popularity. Nerds' esoteric interests also distracted them from attending to things like trending fashions and social graces. Being a nerd meant that you were different. Other kids could feel suspicious about this nonconformity, and suspicion is a powerful anticatalyst to making new friends.

This dynamic, in some form, is visible every day in school hallways and lunchrooms. The social game played by the “cool categories” is a reality that nerds can see but don’t find interesting or useful. The game can feel like it’s played in a language that’s difficult to understand or act upon.

Thankfully, many nerds don’t need the social game. While other students refine their social standing, nerds refine their interests.

This is why nerdiness is often misinterpreted. From the outside, it can look like a social failure or an inability to fit in. But in reality, many nerds aren’t failing the social game; they’re playing a different one that’s not based on mainstream conformity, but authentic connections to their interests. They form groups and subcultures that often exist outside mainstream awareness and have their own values and hierarchies.

Nonetheless, nerds remain the subjects of derision. This is the plight of anyone who does not fit society's expectations. This also applies to geeks, who are known for their enthusiasm and social connections to subcultures and fandoms outside of the mainstream, often related to technology or fantasy.

A Disruption

Historically, the “jock” stereotype has served as the nerd’s opposition in the social game. David Anderegg, in his book NERDS:

Nerds and geeks are, by definition, not jocks. Jocks are self-conscious, socially skilled, attractive, popular, and, of course, athletic, and nerds and geeks are none of these things.

The idea of the “jock” is less about athletic ability and more about status and social power. In every generation, the dominant groups are defined by what earns status at that particular moment. In the 20th century, that included physical prowess and beauty.

Today, we’re seeing a disruption in the social order. As Arthur Chu said in this presentation, the traditional “jock” is a holdover from the old economy that valued physical power, while nerds represent the new economy in the form of intellectual power. This creates status anxiety that can manifest in ostracization and bullying at all levels of life.

Today, nerds are part of a cultural transformation driven by unique capabilities that were underappreciated in the past. This is bigger than being “good at math”. The qualities and behaviors that matter are hard to see, but once you do, they can’t be unseen.

The rest of this series will cover specific qualities that are easily overlooked in popular culture. By the end, you might start to see nerds—and maybe even yourself—in a new light.

In the next post, we’ll look at why nerds don't smoke.

If you’re interested in learning about coolness, see Series 1: The Roots of Cool.