{"id":10905,"date":"2007-11-15T01:08:50","date_gmt":"2007-11-14T22:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/15\/the-nerd-handbook-quick-guide-to-the-unknown\/"},"modified":"2007-11-15T01:08:50","modified_gmt":"2007-11-14T22:08:50","slug":"the-nerd-handbook-quick-guide-to-the-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/15\/the-nerd-handbook-quick-guide-to-the-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nerd Handbook – quick guide to the unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Via Mark Fletcher’s post<\/a> came across The Nerd Handbook<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a really nice post explaining a few things about nerds.\u00c2\u00a0 While details may vary from person to person, the overall picture is pretty accurate of so many people I’ve seen in the IT industry and in some science related areas (mathematics, physics).\u00c2\u00a0 Here are a few quotes:<\/p>\n

A nerd has a mental model of the hardware and the software in his head. While the rest of the world sees magic, your nerd knows how the magic works, he knows the magic is a long series of ones and zeros moving across your screen with impressive speed, and he knows how to make those bits move faster.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your nerd lives in a monospaced typeface world. Whereas everyone else is traipsing around picking dazzling fonts to describe their world, your nerd has carefully selected a monospace typeface, which he avidly uses to manipulate the world deftly via a command line interface while the rest fumble around with a mouse.
\nThe reason for this typeface selection is, of course, practicality. Monospace typefaces have a knowable width. Ten letters on one line are same width as ten other letters, which puts the world into a pleasant grid construction where X and Y mean something.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your nerd loves toys and puzzles. The joy your nerd finds in his project is one of problem solving and discovery. As each part of the project is completed, your nerd receives an adrenaline rush that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to call The High. Every profession has this \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the moment when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve moved significantly closer to done. In many jobs, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to discern when progress is being made: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look, now we have a door\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. But in nerds\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bit-based work, progress is measured mentally and invisibly in code, algorithms, efficiency, and small mental victories that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist in a world of atoms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This post is a better written piece, which is also more accurate than most of those endless lists “You are a nerd if …<\/em>“.\u00c2\u00a0 If you know somebody really weird, working in IT or scientific research, I strongly recommend to read the article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

Via Mark Fletcher’s post came across The Nerd Handbook.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a really nice post explaining a few things about nerds.\u00c2\u00a0 While details may vary from person to person, the overall picture is pretty accurate of so many people I’ve seen in the IT industry and in some science related areas (mathematics, physics).\u00c2\u00a0 Here are … Continue reading The Nerd Handbook – quick guide to the unknown<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,62],"tags":[3418,1228,79,1146],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-10905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-technology","tag-geek","tag-geek-culture","tag-people","tag-psychology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28330,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2018\/01\/15\/nerd-fonts-iconic-font-aggregator-collection-and-patcher\/","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":0},"title":"Nerd Fonts – Iconic font aggregator, collection, and patcher","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"January 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Nerd Fonts is a collection of fonts for people who work with code snippets, command line, and text-based user interface applications.\u00a0 The fonts are also patched with additional popular icon sets like Font Awesome, Devicons, Octicons, and others.","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/custom-sankey-glyphs-combined-diagram-500x338.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28837,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2018\/10\/04\/cold-war-on-ice\/","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":1},"title":"Cold War on Ice","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"October 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WPzaVDilFEI Cold War on Ice is an excellent documentary about the USSR vs. Canada ice hockey Summit Series 1972 games.\u00a0 I find it to be quite balanced, showing the perception from both sides, featuring the interviews with the same people back in the day and their take on it now,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/WPzaVDilFEI\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29055,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2018\/12\/07\/tim-minchin-dark-side-awesome-version\/","url_meta":{"origin":10905,"position":2},"title":"Tim Minchin – Dark Side (Awesome Version)","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"December 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3xQmJ_vxHB4 I am a big fan of Tim Minchin, and, of course, I've heard his Dark Side a million times.\u00a0 But I've never heard this version, which is absolutely awesome! 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