This began as a comment on I Can’t Decide If I’m A Nerd Or A Geek; Maybe It’s The Gender Bias

My husband got his father to paint a Seussian nerd on the high chair he built for our child, so in our house there was never any question.  It’s practically our family crest.  But although I became quite proficient on the Apple Lisa at a film company I worked at back in the day, it was only after I was given a domain name for mothers day that i myself embraced my inner nerd.

I guess my problem with the infographic is that it appears to have been created by marketing hipsters, not actual nerds *or* geeks, because to my mind a lot of their points are incorrect.  Then of course, at this point I may well be a nerd. Personally, I totally agree with your comment on the teeth thing, which seems to imply that parents who can’t afford orthodonture are condemning their kids to looking like this.  As far as the Mac versus IBM argument goes… if using a Mac makes you a geek, then that implies the smartest tech folk are not geeks, because they are unwilling to give up the freedom to tinker,

Then, too, I am put off by labelling. I find it rather liberating to see women excluded from this stereotypical labelling.  I myself don’t call anyone “nerds” or “geeks” (although I have had characters consider the question).  Once upon a time some Hollywood people too lazy to do any actual research labelled computer criminals as hackers.  Most of the smartest tech folk I know self identify as “hackers” in the non-criminal sense.  There is a huge difference between the labels people choose for themselves and those decided by outsiders.

Recently I saw a picture of Snoop Dogg cooking with Martha Steward captioned “Stereotyoes Matter ~ and only one of them is a convicted felon.”   And since I saw it on Facebook, I couldn’t possibly be a nerd, a geek or even a hacker.

From: MastersInIt.org