Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Why nerds rock the kasbah

My definition of a nerd is someone who is absolutely passionate and completely knowledgeable about any one topic. For example internet nerds, science nerds, music nerds and the list goes on. I think I'm a nerd. An ad nerd obsessed with the change in the marketing world.

I have developed the following theory about nerds:

If you look at the world today, you see society works in a way where there is a very small amount of the population who are extremely popular. Celebrities and the like. Take a look at this diagram:


Sitting in the middle perimeter are the try-hards. This is the greater part of the population who try to emulate the celebrities, for example Tila Tequila or any other derivation of a reality TV star. Come on, how many soul mates does she really need to find?
Some wannabes do better than others and this is where clusters of popular groups are formed, represented by the dark green circles.

On the outer perimeter is the nerd group. There are many different nerd roles, however for the purpose of this theory we will put them into the generic branding of "Nerd". This is the group with the greatest intelligence and as a result is shunned from the other two groups as too enthusiastic and ‘left of centre’.
Nerds are in control of popular culture. With their free range of ideas and novel methods of thinking- due to their passionate nature, they are often the drivers behind society's development. Feeding brilliance to the cool people.

Case in point – Bill Gates is a massive trillionaire and the founder of a giant evil company, who has earned respect from the common man. Then there is Stephen Colbert.
Stephen, a god of the intellectually banal. I think I am in love with this man. I laugh when his jokes aren’t funny and he’s so good his show is on twice a night! He is the King of all nerds and as a bonus, he’s stolen my heart.

Other K.A.(kick ass) nerds of excellent example:
George Costanza: This nerd is incredibly resourceful and admirable. From sleeping under his desk, to creating Vandelay industries. Resources are always limited but being able to achieve the maximum result from little is always a fun challenge.

Screech: The nerd from Saved by the Bell knew a whole lot about nothing. Useless facts can be extremely useful when trying to develop an ad campaign. Now he’s a sexy porn star.

Gareth: The unknowing risk taker and a genius in his own right. By creating random bizarre social experiments he has developed a great tool in cultivating creativity and new ideas, something creative peeps like to dabble in. And you may ask why take the risk? Well after calculating the probability of success, the chance of a social experiment working is actually incredibly high. I do pretty well in my nerd blog every day.


So why am I talking about nerds anyway? Because there is something about nerds and the benefits returned on their outlandish nerdish behaviours. The basis is that because they are already shunned from the larger community, they have nothing to lose by voicing new opinions. Their thinking is limitless because they can reach above and beyond the contemporary. They think if your mind can conceive it, than it is not impossible.

Nerdz rule and for fuck's sake, stop doing what all ad people expect of you. Challenge the status quo and believe in your inner nerd!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bully post! As a reformed/self-delusional nerd, I appreciated the trip into Dante's fifth concentric circle of nerd hell.