Well, if Rush, Styx and Devo could sell so many records, i would say that nerds are a very powerful force in society, they should not be underestimated.

Well, he certainly goes on... My first interpretation of this essay would be that it was written by a successul computer scientist, who possibly feels that his success in computers qualifies him as an expert social commentator.

As far as his arguments relate to the lives of nerds and their relationship with popularity, it seems to go something like this:

1) Nerds are those people who, usually due to the influence of their parents, consider it more important to 'get the right answer' than 'to please'.
2) Nerds are unpopular at school because they prefer to focus their efforts on learning, which puts them at a disadvantage compared to other students, who spend all of their time working on their popularity.
3) Nerds focus on learning (point 2) as they are very smart it would be unbearable to be anything other than high-intelligence.
4) Nerds are "playing a different game" to the other students at school. The 'game' which they are playing is closer to the one played in the adult world, which accounts for why "It's hard to find successful adults now who don't claim to have been nerds in high school".

Things must be very different in America for this to really ring true. If my memory serves correct, there were a number of definite 'nerds' at school but none of these were the top students. Out of these 'nerds', a number went on to university (quite a few nerds from elsewhere ended up on my course) generally didn't excel and then had difficulty getting decent jobs or postgrad positions at the end of it, as they tended to not have anything other than grades on their CV and probably interviewed badly.

My opinion on this would be that:
a) The author has made some very interesting points and appears to feel quite strongly about the issue.
b) He is generally wrong. The essay was written from the very narrow perpective of a computing genius, with all of the predictable biases that this perpective brings. There are plenty of people who have been successful in every field imaginable who were not nerds at high school. When he says "It's hard to find successful adults now who don't claim to have been nerds in high school" its actually just a lie. The truth is, its EASY to find successful adults now who don't claim to have been nerds in high school.

Remember guys, friends and contacts do count! Popularity is an important tool in the worlds of business and academia. Ignore the issue at your peril!

to tell you the honest truth-Nerds are unpopular because theyre either too nice or they try too hard. I considered myself a nerd in High School but I had tons of friends and never got picked on-I just wasnt a D&D nerd,I was a Drama Club/Art Club nerd.I think people have so many definitions of what it means to be a nerd,that a lot of us unknowingly are lumped into what could be considered socially unacceptable (ie.not joining the cheerleading squad or football team).I would rather be a nerd than a stuck up crackwhore who sleeps with the whole team.And if there are any guys on this forum that are nerds(and there probably are)remember some girls love nerdy guys........they try harder.

The Nerds will have theyre REVENGE!!!!
sorry.as if you didnt see that coming.

skimmed over the essay, and it reads like it was written by a bitter 15 year old. the points are cliche, the arguments are repetetive, and there's nothing new or illuminating that couldn't be seen in any crap ass teen flick. ahhh how i wish i was in high school again, things were so much easier. yes bullying sucks, but to be honest, i personally havent seen any cases of it since after i left 9th grade. after that, people basically hung out with who they wanted to hang out with, and just left the people with whom they had little in common with alone, so there really was no "popular group" or "nerdy group". then you get into university, and realize that high school was fucking easy, and can't imagine how anyone could possibly be having trouble passing. on that note, anyone feel like writing my paper on marxist and iconographic methodologies pertaining to Masaccio's The Holy Trinity?

im with jib on this one, that essay is full to to the brim with cliches and glamourized classification stereotypes. id say that text came straight from a hollywood movie. but people saying you can "choose who you want to be"....yes, in theory anyone can. but its not as easy as that, theres a number of extraneous factors that can forcefully place somebody into a "pigeonhole". its all crap, my school has a big problem with labelling and its pathetic.

I agree with Jib and LedZepStu. What I found interesting is that I got the same impression as Jibber "it reads like it was written by a bitter 15 year old" after going through it. Then I read the biography of the author and it said this.

"Paul Graham is an essayist, programmer, and programming language designer. In 1995 he developed with Robert Morris the first web-based application, Viaweb, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998. In 2002 he described a simple Bayesian spam filter that inspired most current filters."

I'm surprised that he put essayist first, as he must be an extremely good programmer/language designer, whereas he's not the most convincing or well-balanced essayist. Perhaps this shows that even some of the greatest, most creative minds can be entirely devoid of perspective!

I think he forgot to mention that peoples personalities and upbringings come into it. Esspecially the point of how insecure someone is and how they apply that to their daily life.

But it obviously brought back memories for some people. For those who have had experiences, would you say it is completely in the past for you now? Do you have any regrets or things you wish you'd of done in high school? Nerd or not.

You go nerds!!! Take your revenge!!! HA haaa!

i wish i hadnt worked so hard. i look back now and realize i wasted hours and hours of my life trying to get good marks in math and physics when really, all i needed to do was pass. of course, some people actually need good marks in high school for whatever course in life they're taking.