Has anyone else noticed how fashionable its become to be a nerd? I first noticed this trend a year ago when I was dating a girl a few years younger who kept referring to herself and her friends as "nerds" and "dorks". Now, it's all the rage, particularly in the tech world, where nerdiness often correlates with passion, creativity and vision. Talking about the latest website, gadget or innovation with a friend has become cool, not just for people in the industry, but for normal civilians too. Growing up, nerds and dorks were the ones who wore glasses, ran cross country and wore their backpack with both straps. Today, glasses are cool, marathons and triathlons are more popular than ever and everyone knows that two straps is much better for your back - not to mention the move from shoulder bags to backpacks in the business world. Notice a trend?
The Urban Dictionary has a bunch of entertaining definitions for nerd and cool nerd, but my favorite, likely written by someone of my generation who has reaped benefit from the new nerd paradigm (that would be a good title for a book), is:
the group of people who will most likely make a life changing invention that will radically change the world. the computer was invented by a nerd....jocks and normal people have no claim to civilization except for being the hard labor. nerds actually do the thinking....