Geeks, Nerds, and Dorks

[Azalin]

I was reading some programming documentation and came up upon an interesting analogy describing the difference between a Geek, a Nerd and a Dork. I think it's really interesting, as I wasnt sure myself.

Three words are used to describe a stereotypical developer: geek, nerd, and dork. Many people assume that these words all mean the same thing when, in fact, they each have very specific meanings. Once you learn the meanings of each of these words, you'll quickly be able to run down the list of all of your friends listening to techno in dimly lit rooms and sort them into each category. Even better, you now have the power of more accurately describing a person.

Geeks, Nerds, and Dorks: A geek has a very focused knowledge of a subject (that guy that memorized the language of myst), a nerd is a master at many subjects (that girl you go to when you need homework help), and a dork is just plain socially inept (Napoleon Dynamite).

[lenf]

A geek has a very focused knowledge of a subject (that guy that memorized the language of myst), a nerd is a master at many subjects (that girl you go to when you need homework help), and a dork is just plain socially inept (Napoleon Dynamite).

Sounds like something a nerd would come up with.

[Lambchop]

I was reading some programming documentation and came up upon an interesting analogy describing the difference between a Geek, a Nerd and a Dork. I think it's really interesting, as I wasnt sure myself.

Geeks, Nerds, and Dorks: A geek has a very focused knowledge of a subject (that guy that memorized the language of myst), a nerd is a master at many subjects (that girl you go to when you need homework help), and a dork is just plain socially inept (Napoleon Dynamite).

Oh dear!

[avanutria]

Geek and dork sound about right to me. Not sure about the nerd definition. Nerd and dork are still considered insults but geek is becoming more of a compliment in technical circles. Some of my friends take pride in being 'coding geeks'

I base the above opinions on having studied a technical major at an overwhelmingly male technical university, and having had three software engineering roommates for several years.

[brewerpaul]

I'm always a tiny bit taken aback when I hear someone called dork, 'cause when I was growing up dork was a euphemism for male genitalia...

[amar]

you were called that? why?

[chas]

I would describe them this way:

A geek is a person with specialized (usually technical) knowledge but some social skills

A nerd is a smart person with limited social skills

A dork is someone who's not that bright who has limited social skills



Charlie, geek and proud of it

[Azalin]

A geek has a very focused knowledge of a subject (that guy that memorized the language of myst), a nerd is a master at many subjects (that girl you go to when you need homework help), and a dork is just plain socially inept (Napoleon Dynamite).

Sounds like something a nerd would come up with.

Hehe, I wish I was a nerd, but alas my knowledge is much more limited than your typical nerd

[Wanderer]

a geek is someone who bites the heads off of chickens.

[BigDavy]

I would describe them this way:

A geek is a person with specialized (usually technical) knowledge but some social skills

A nerd is a smart person with limited social skills

A dork is someone who's not that bright who has limited social skills



Charlie, geek and proud of it

Geek and Nerd and proud of it in my case.

I would have thought that most of the posters to this message board would qualify for both appelations.

David

[dwinterfield]

I'm always a tiny bit taken aback when I hear someone called dork, 'cause when I was growing up dork was a euphemism for male genitalia...

a geek is someone who bites the heads off of chickens.

From Dr. Seuss - 1950


I say we stand for tradtional definitions and let the computer people go off and invent new words.

[avanutria]

a geek is someone who bites the heads off of chickens.

Careful, you're showing some specialised knowledge there...

[emmline]

I would describe them this way:

A geek is a person with specialized (usually technical) knowledge but some social skills

A nerd is a smart person with limited social skills

A dork is someone who's not that bright who has limited social skills



Charlie, geek and proud of it

Somewhere on the nerd/dork cusp here.

[gonzo914]

a geek is someone who bites the heads off of chickens.

Precisely -- it's an old carny term. They had geeks and freaks. The freaks were the oddities -- the bearded woman, the conjoined twins, monkey-faced boy, the dwarfs and midgets, and a whole assortment of birth defects. The geeks were the onew who had tricks or acts -- knife thrower, sword-swallower, even the guy who pounds a spike through his head. Geeks had skills, just like today, even if they were somewhat bizarre skills. Geek as a word has been with us for more than a hundred years.

I was delighted to find when I was digging around last night that the earliest reference to 'nerd', according to several sources, including American Heritage, really was Dr. Seuss. In fact, American Heritage has some interesting comments about its history --

The word nerd, undefined but illustrated, first appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo: “And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!” (The nerd is a small humanoid creature looking comically angry, like a thin, cross Chester A. Arthur.) Nerd next appears, with a gloss, in the February 10, 1957, issue of the Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday Mail in a regular column entitled “ABC for SQUARES”: “Nerd—a square, any explanation needed?” Many of the terms defined in this “ABC” are unmistakable Americanisms, such as hep, ick, and jazzy, as is the gloss “square,” the current meaning of nerd. The third appearance of nerd in print is back in the United States in 1970 in Current Slang: “Nurd [sic], someone with objectionable habits or traits…. An uninteresting person, a ‘dud.’” Authorities disagree on whether the two nerds—Dr. Seuss's small creature and the teenage slang term in the Glasgow Sunday Mail—are the same word. Some experts claim there is no semantic connection and the identity of the words is fortuitous. Others maintain that Dr. Seuss is the true originator of nerd and that the word nerd (“comically unpleasant creature”) was picked up by the five- and six-year-olds of 1950 and passed on to their older siblings, who by 1957, as teenagers, had restricted and specified the meaning to the most comically obnoxious creature of their own class, a “square.”

The dictionary definitions of 'geek' and 'nerd' both carry at least one meaning that ascribes a degree of competence and respect to the person so tagged --

Slang 1a. A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy. b. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept. 2. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

Slang 1. A foolish, inept, or unattractive person. 2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

Not so with 'dork.' --

1. Slang A stupid, inept, or foolish person: “the stupid antics of America's favorite teen-age cartoon dorks” (Joshua Mooney, The Detroit News ( carried via Entertainment News Wire) Friday December 27, 1996). 2. Vulgar Slang The penis.

So if you are going to be one, you probably want to be a geek, but being a nerd isn't al bad. Dork should be avoided.

To translate into today's IT world -- Programmers and developers are geeks; functional analysts are nerds; and management and marketing wonks are dorks.

[Azalin]

For the software programming geeks or nerds, the current analogy was used to describe the difference between a framework, a library and a toolkit. I am using the Dojo toolkit for some web stuff. Here's the link to the analogy:

http://manual.dojotoolkit.org/WikiHome/ ... ookToolkit