Who are the coolest geeks?

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yeah sadly in this new century the generally accepted assumptions regarding the term geek have been exploded to contain basically anybody who wants to be seen as hip for being knowledgeable about any topic e.g. "oh I'm a huge * geek"

which being the grumpy reactionary that I am I find disingenuous at best and despicable at worst since a perfectly good descriptive term (occasionally derisive, yes) has been co-opted by people who really have no business calling themselves anything more than consumptive dabblers. Hence my comment above about the thread title - nobody who has a snowball's chance in hell of being "cool" (sociable, popular, laid back, never overly concerned) should be able to meet the criteria of "geek."

Although perhaps the word has acquired a new function as described above, in separating said dabblers from genuine obsessives, who will generally all have their own name for themselves.

El Tomboto, Friday, 28 December 2007 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link

"...of being "cool" (sociable, popular, laid back, never overly concerned)"

see, now i think this is funny cuz a lot of people try to push this image of themselves so hard they end up looking like the biggest saddoes ever.

pc user, Friday, 28 December 2007 19:51 (sixteen years ago) link

we should knock on wood that "cool" still means anything at all in any context

El Tomboto, Friday, 28 December 2007 19:54 (sixteen years ago) link

it's very sad when people look like saddoes

gabbneb, Friday, 28 December 2007 19:57 (sixteen years ago) link

sad is as saddoes

El Tomboto, Friday, 28 December 2007 19:57 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.toyvaulttoyclub.com/New%20Logos/Other_Pics/gaming/Plush_20_Sided_Dice%20-%20Small.jpg

you never know what you're gonna get

gabbneb, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:00 (sixteen years ago) link

i remember at school everything was "sad". then, a year later everything was "gay"

pc user, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:00 (sixteen years ago) link

geek type missing that's more femme-centric:
http://craftzine.com/images/craft/covers/05.gif

mh, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:01 (sixteen years ago) link

^^^overlaps with LARPers and goths

Jordan, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:02 (sixteen years ago) link

the fanatics and obsessives that i find the coolest are the ones who never lift their heads aboveground to see what's going on outside of their realm. they just keep digging holes. hole after hole. and they fill those holes with their love and their panic and the desperate knowledge that their work will remain forever unfinished.

but that's just me.

scott seward, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link

I remember one year when the world could "get fucked." then a year later the world could "eat shit."

El Tomboto, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:04 (sixteen years ago) link

there are loads of female nerds, they're just into things like knitting and collecting beanie babies rather than rpgs or heavy metal or whatever.

pc user, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:05 (sixteen years ago) link

none of these groups has the obnoxiously high-self regard as do lifehackers

elmo argonaut, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:05 (sixteen years ago) link

uh... move that hyphen one word to the right

elmo argonaut, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:06 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.weimax.com/images/SF_Intl_Wine_2007_Michael-Feil.jpg

Eazy, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:06 (sixteen years ago) link

i remember at school everything was "sad". then, a year later everything was "gay"

it's good that everyone found their bliss like that

gabbneb, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:07 (sixteen years ago) link

old school geeks for me -- the ones who bite off chicken heads in the circus

m coleman, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:07 (sixteen years ago) link

*board games with scott* rules by the way:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JPi_uNWUJy0

scott seward, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:09 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/IMG/HardBoiled/alley.jpg

scott seward, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link

I think this current application of geek is getting out of hand, ever since I read a review referring to john coltrane as a jazz geek. i wanted to grab the critic and say "motherfucker JC was a virtuoso you're the geek."
anyway I digress - carry on.

m coleman, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link

i actually own the hardcover copy of nightmare alley with that cover. i am way cool.

scott seward, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:11 (sixteen years ago) link

that's what tobot was talking about above, i think. the word geek just gets thrown aound too easily these days.

scott seward, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:11 (sixteen years ago) link

tombot

scott seward, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:11 (sixteen years ago) link

The coolest geeks have a doctorate in an -ology and can be found toiling away in the sub-basement of an enormous natural history museum when they aren't out on a dig.

Kerm, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:13 (sixteen years ago) link

http://indiana-jones.navajo.cz/indiana-jones-2.jpg

Jordan, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link

yeah, if you actively BUY poetry in actual book stores, then you probably qualify as a poetry geek.

What if, say, you've run and emceed a reading series for the past five or so years?

And if you have a BoardGameGeek account?

Anyway, there weren't foreign language geeks, so I went with the mathletes.

Casuistry, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:27 (sixteen years ago) link

You know, I was going to make a joke, but it occurs to me that there might actually be such a thing as a "sex geek."

nabisco, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:28 (sixteen years ago) link

And it's, like, not cool.

nabisco, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:28 (sixteen years ago) link

slashdong.org

elmo argonaut, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:29 (sixteen years ago) link

o rly?

xpost

Jordan, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:29 (sixteen years ago) link

to the tune of sex dwarf, obv

El Tomboto, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:30 (sixteen years ago) link

anyone whos taken a greek or roman or medieval lit class knows the coolest geeks are the CLASSICS geeks

max, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link

dude, no.

El Tomboto, Friday, 28 December 2007 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link

i know a guy who MADE HIS OWN CHAIN MAIL

max, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:03 (sixteen years ago) link

haha, i went to high school with that guy (possibly not the exact same guy)

elmo argonaut, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:04 (sixteen years ago) link

Chain mail = not a classicist. I did forensics with that guy

Classics geeks are okay; I have yet to see them step it up and combine LARPing, war re-enactment, and Homer, so that's a point for

nabisco, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:05 (sixteen years ago) link

uggggh

El Tomboto, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:07 (sixteen years ago) link

Results 1 - 10 of about 333,000 for "geek chic". (0.08 seconds)

sleep, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:07 (sixteen years ago) link

USATODAY.com - Geek chic
We used to shun them, mock them, give them wedgies and snicker when they played Dungeons & Dragons. Those loser days, however, are as over as Dumb and ...
www.usatoday.com/life/2003-10-22-geek-chic_x.htm - 59k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

sleep, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link

i know a guy who MADE HIS OWN CHAIN MAIL

throw the book at him

gabbneb, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link

I guess the Iliad would be more war re-enactment, the Odyssey would be more LARPing

nabisco, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:09 (sixteen years ago) link

Venn Diagram = Goth Geeks and Sex Geeks.

Eazy, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:09 (sixteen years ago) link

goth geek = someone who is not a goth but is really into them?

Jordan, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:12 (sixteen years ago) link

goth = geek

pc user, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:14 (sixteen years ago) link

i don't know if geek is quite the right term for goths

Jordan, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:15 (sixteen years ago) link

^^ geek geeks ^^

nabisco, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:15 (sixteen years ago) link

nah...c'mon, its probs the geekiest youth sub-cult ever

pc user, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:16 (sixteen years ago) link

i'm too old and/or too urban to really grok goths

gabbneb, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:16 (sixteen years ago) link

goth = geek
rong

sleep, Friday, 28 December 2007 21:17 (sixteen years ago) link


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