"Weird nerds" are the people who not so long ago were ostracized by society for their interest in science and technology. They weren't "cool", they weren't doing things that "cool" people do, so they were bullied. Many of them indeed became programmers and laid foundation of what is now the IT industry.
Then, tech became mainstream and seen as a very good career path. It started being "cool", so it attracted the "cool" people. As the nerd-type interests, like sci-fi, became less shunned by society, the industry started to fill with "cool nerds" - people who are nerdish, but not to the level of not being "cool".
You don't have to join a nerd subculture to be accepted as a programmer. On the contrary, majority of programmers employed today are not nerds or hackers. What has once been mostly a hobby, became a profession.
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Or look at it in another way - "weird nerds" are usually the ones in real love with science and technology. "Cool nerds" are usually the ones for whom science and technology is just an occupation, a job.
No, I get that the author is making that distinction between weird and cool. And I' get that you're making it. But this distinction... it's bullshit. Nobody identifies as weird or as cool. And being weird was never a prerequisite for being interested in computers . Most of all, being weird doesn't give anyone the right to exclude women, minorities, or even "cool" people from technology. I thought the hacking community was supposed to be inclusive!
I don't agree that the "cool nerds" are impostors and only do it for the attention. I think the difference is more a personality one - extroverts vs introverts. The former in the 'nerd' subculture is the type that goes to ALL the meetups, that likes networking, is highly active on social networking, etc etc etc, while the latter prefers to be left alone with his (literal) devices.
I didn't mean to say that "cool nerds" are impostors - they have every right and reason to be interested in technology, but the kind of deep love for technical interests seem to correlate more with "weird nerd" character traits. I might be wrong about the actual causation though. Introvert/extrovert seem to be correlated too, but not perfectly.
"Weird nerds" are the people who not so long ago were ostracized by society for their interest in science and technology. They weren't "cool", they weren't doing things that "cool" people do, so they were bullied. Many of them indeed became programmers and laid foundation of what is now the IT industry.
Then, tech became mainstream and seen as a very good career path. It started being "cool", so it attracted the "cool" people. As the nerd-type interests, like sci-fi, became less shunned by society, the industry started to fill with "cool nerds" - people who are nerdish, but not to the level of not being "cool".
You don't have to join a nerd subculture to be accepted as a programmer. On the contrary, majority of programmers employed today are not nerds or hackers. What has once been mostly a hobby, became a profession.
--
Or look at it in another way - "weird nerds" are usually the ones in real love with science and technology. "Cool nerds" are usually the ones for whom science and technology is just an occupation, a job.