Nerds Outed: The Handbook

Al Gore's cave (above) from Al Gore's American Life (a Time Photo Essay)

I am scared. Did someone turn off the firewall!?! Who deliberately shut down the network intrusion detection systems?! Did someone pull the plug off the Tor Servers?

Exposed!

The secret is out in the wild! Rands In Repose wrote the Nerd Handbook and has spilled gory details on Nerds everywhere! This guy talks about our Caves:

The Cave is designed to allow your nerd to do his favorite thing, which is working on the project. If you want to understand your nerd, stare long and hard at his Cave. How does he have it arranged? When does he tend to go there? How long does he stay?

Each object in the Cave has a particular place and purpose. Even the clutter is well designed (emphasis is mine). Don’t believe me? Grab that seemingly discarded Mac Mini which has been sitting on the floor for two months and hide it. You’ll have 10 minutes before he’ll come stomping out of the Cave — “Where’s the Mac?”

The Cave is also frustrating you because your impression is that it’s your nerd’s way of checking out, and you are, unfortunately, completely correct. A correctly designed Cave removes your nerd from the physical world and plants him firmly in a virtual one complete with all the toys he needs.

He talks about the Toys!

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’re going to call The High. Every profession has this — the moment when you’ve moved significantly closer to done. In many jobs, it’s easy to discern when progress is being made: “Look, now we have a door”. But in nerds’ bit-based work, progress is measured mentally and invisibly in code, algorithms, efficiency, and small mental victories that don’t exist in a world of atoms.

Scary. I can't write anymore. If you want the gory details, you should click on "The Nerd Handbook".

*Jessie is the Girl with the cool Apple Tattoo is from Macenstein: Mac Chick of the Month (Nov 2007). Read about the Nerd Handbook via Daring Fireball.