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Who here is a nerd/geek?

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2K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  mike570 
#1 · (Edited)
I have always wondered how many fellow geeks become guitarists. I was usually the only person in math club or science club to also play guitar. The current math/science friends of mine rarely, if ever, listen to music and they are busy working on PhD papers or working to unify different theories in physics.

I can name the typical cello or marching band geeks who ace the SAT math or become science professors later on, but guitarists I meet are a fairly mixed lot. The only group I don't see too much among guitarists are weight lifter/football player types who stand 6'4" and can bench 300 pounds. :D But geeks are the second least common guitarists I have seen in over 30 years of playing. If anything, if they were in a rock band, which is rare, they may briefly have a love affair with keyboards.

But that being said, the best guitarist I personally know (joined up as session/gigging guitarist for 70s reunions ala bands like Journey, REO, Scorpions, etc on summer tours) was a weight lifting steroids addict. He only cared about his personal best in lifting and destroyed his health (and music career) but before he got very ill, he had a pretty good guitar resume. Unlike the stereotype of a violent person, this guy is the least violent person and if anything very effeminate in his behavior. You don't have to act like Conan when you bench the next level, but simply succeed at doing it. But other than him, I know of more ex-stoners and class ditchers who became guitarists after high school.
 
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#3 · (Edited)
I have a computer science degree, I work directly with (very large) computer systems, and I have published some computer programs in the wild. So well, I guess I qualify as a nerd/geek.
To me it's been a twofold thing. As a kid just being good at math/science qualified as being a geek, but due to the financial constraints of the real world and with society having a lot of good jobs in tech, many who excel there are not geeks. In the Bay Area, and Boston/NYC there was an explosion in ganstas getting into hacking/high tech crime and quite a few of them went straight and took to CS classes and degrees (WIRED magazine). Few of those were geeks but it only showed the growing universality of computers. One of the best Cisco employees I know was a full on Norteno gangsta but originally got into hacking as a way to steal.

Besides being good at math and science, a true geek usually has that lack of social skills and dressing up (normal, or basically normal) and resembles something off of Big Bang Theory. Some geeks are actually not that much into the maths/sciences but could be literature geeks or theater geeks. Usually being smart and well read is a common denominator in all geeks, plus the whole lack of social skills/dress thing. But while a lot of geeks go into computing, just as many non-geeks take to it as well and I suspect one day the computer field will be so big that geeks are just as rare there as from a random sample of any high school.

I am going to try and dig up some true geek pictures from my past! If any of you geek types have pix, put them up here!
 
#5 ·
Good point.

If you want nerd/geek, go see a forum where there's 500 posts of nerds debating the reason for Broadwell delays in Intel chips. They're behind in the 14 nanometer fabs, get a life, but for some this is all that matters. ;)

Somebody needs to tell them at the end of the day on this topic, Intel is a company that needs to make a profit and it's not all about who is the cheapest and can do so with the least voltage before ones competition. It's like our Ibanez, yes, they can put Edge I and DiMarzios on midrange guitars, but then again it kind of makes sense if the guitar company makes some money, too. ;) But the fight between the accountants who are managers versus the engineers who are managers will be the only reliable perennial company civil war we can see every year.
 
#9 ·
I think most people here are guitar geeks, whether it's playing them, collecting them or a little of both, there is a slightly obsessive nature to us. I always loved science(particularly physics), but was terrible at math, read a lot and while not socially inept I tend to like to remain a grey man and melt into the background. I also have a strange rule regarding friends, you can only have 2 or 3 good friends, otherwise there are too many demands on your time. In a social situation I always find I get on better with nerds/geeks (I mean the stereotypical Big Bang types), their lack of social skills which are probably borderline autism makes them more direct, less likely to feel the need to stroke egos and much more unpredictable/fun in a social setting.

My clothing choices, while not nerdy follow one rule - dark colours. The sports thing is also quite interesting, I always hated soccer (all ball sports) and the tribalism that came with it. For a time there was nothing that pissed me off more than some rather rotund idiot stating "oh we lost badly on Saturday" while referring to his favourite team, always wanted to reply "that's odd, I was channel hopping on Saturday and noticed a bunch of overpaid Neanderthals chasing a bag of air and crying their little eyes out every time another Neanderthal brushed against them, but I didn't see your fat hole anywhere near the field, we're you playing the second half?". I loved boxing and MA growing up and found most of the people who were into those sports slightly geeky and rather well read with the exception of the champions who were usually very one dimensional. I also never had much time for the typical steroid junkies or those who rated their success in life by trying to achieve the lowest percentile of body fat, generally they're compensating for or desperately hoping that no one will spot their major foibles - the regular guy, geek or raving lunatic is always much more fun to be around than the tool who begins every anecdote with "I was at the gym when...".

Yes video games too and my favourites are flight sims, I probably am a nerd/geek just without the look.
 
#11 ·
I don't really like sports. Or school besides english. The guitar is pretty much what I do, my life revolves around different music programs and bands and when the next time I have to change strings is ;)

A regular geek I am not (although I wish I were- Id be much more likely to get a good job), but a guitar geek I am.

I overthink tbings too much and with school I don't have confidence in my work, if not I'd probably be good at it because I am intrigued by it and WISH I could master something like math or science

The only science I know is how to fit the tiny nub of a string back into the tuner and getting enough windings around after having snapped it, and perhaps lubricating some knife edges with Chapstick.
 
#12 ·
I was defo a nerd/geek at school and college, i took up guitar to try shake that image which didnt work very well cus i got all nerdy about guitars and stuff, but then i joined a band and i instantly became the coolest out of all my friends and everyone who comes to my bands gigs always come to talk to me first and try to be my best friend and stuff, so i like to think im not a nerd/geek anymore, but secretly i still am
 
#14 ·
I'm a geek and I've always been proud of it. I didn't do well in high school, opting instead to skip school a lot to play guitar.
I started writing novels and short stories in the mid 90's and that, in turn, inspired me to go back to school. I took 10 consecutive math classes from basic to extremely hard to get my Computer Science degree. Prior to going back to school I was a programmer on a legacy system doing tax roll data capture. I worked mostly in a vague language called Natural and COBOL. After school I could program in most any language.
I started working full time in construction doing estimating and technical stuff when I was in college and decided to stay there. Pay is about the same and the workload a little less soul crushing. I do want to get back into programming though. I'm just beat after work and don't want to code - I'd rather play guitar or just relax.
I also have a sci fi novel called "The Firebrand" self-published on Amazon. (Go to Amazon and search for my name, Michael Olmeda, and you can find it. ;) ) I'm also working on another novel currently. I like writing as it combines all the skills I've learned in life into one medium - well, except for music.
I love science and follow lots of geeky stuff on the Internet. I love following the private and public space systems being developed now. I also can't wait until New Horizons finally reaches Pluto and we get our first up-close photos of the (dwarf?) planet.
Oh, I also read a ton of comic books and want to develop my own comic book company one day. I have tons of scripts written I just need an artist that would work for cheap, er... partner up. :D
 
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