Thursday, July 10, 2003
Rowan's Taxonomy, part the first
Last night, I promised Sarcasmo that I'd finally do this post. There were a few posts that were inevitable once I started the blog. The Ewoks one was the easiest. Also, Sleater-Kinney Ruined My Music Tastes is coming soon. But the big one was the Nerd/Geek/Dork taxonomy. I always talk about this, largely because I think I'm clever.
So get out your permalinks, kids, cause I'm taking a run at it.
My rationale for this? Ordinary language philosophy, of course. I have a idea that words should be defined by what they're used as, therefore, definitions can by obtained by taking how words are and aren't used, and constructing a definition that way. It's kind of counter the way most people think of words. They think words have definitions first, then based on those, what is and isn't is decided. I think the opposite is true. Or a useful tool. Anyway. I'll give you an example if I ever define what a video role-playing game is (here's a teaser: The Sims is a quintessenital RPG). What a mess of a methodology description, hey? I'll go further, and say that these definitions, while useful to me, and while they match what many of my friends say they consider themselves, aren't necessarily going to be considered true. To go back to the Sims: Just because it matches up with what defines an RPG, doesn't mean people aren't going to be silly and argue with me about it. In the case of the Sims, they're wrong. In this case, well, mine are working definitions.
Anyway, here goes.
Nerds are the easiest start to define. Nerds like Star Trek. Nerds like superhero comics. Nerds are good at math and science. Nerds play Dungeons and Dragons, or Magic: the Gathering. We all know the type, right?
Next come dorks. This is a little bit harder. Dorks like drama, literally and figuratively. Goth people are probably dorks, which leads to people who like Vampire: the Masquerade being dorks, as opposed to nerds. Who like D&D. With me so far?
Geeks are toughest. I see geeks as having some level of snobbery. That is, they'll turn their nose up at things like Star Trek, or role-playing, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Let your nerds and dorks read the Robert Jordans and the Star Wars novelizations, the geeks say, but bring me REAL science fiction. Never sci-fi, of course. Might as well call it skiffy. That's just an example. The indie rockers of the world are geeks, too.
The best general description I can give is this: Nerds have no shame. Geeks have shame. Dorks revel in their lack of shame.
I'm cutting this off now, because I'm getting bored of it. Tomorrow, or sometime, I'll get into more detail. For now, please leave your questions and comments in the box.
Last night, I promised Sarcasmo that I'd finally do this post. There were a few posts that were inevitable once I started the blog. The Ewoks one was the easiest. Also, Sleater-Kinney Ruined My Music Tastes is coming soon. But the big one was the Nerd/Geek/Dork taxonomy. I always talk about this, largely because I think I'm clever.
So get out your permalinks, kids, cause I'm taking a run at it.
My rationale for this? Ordinary language philosophy, of course. I have a idea that words should be defined by what they're used as, therefore, definitions can by obtained by taking how words are and aren't used, and constructing a definition that way. It's kind of counter the way most people think of words. They think words have definitions first, then based on those, what is and isn't is decided. I think the opposite is true. Or a useful tool. Anyway. I'll give you an example if I ever define what a video role-playing game is (here's a teaser: The Sims is a quintessenital RPG). What a mess of a methodology description, hey? I'll go further, and say that these definitions, while useful to me, and while they match what many of my friends say they consider themselves, aren't necessarily going to be considered true. To go back to the Sims: Just because it matches up with what defines an RPG, doesn't mean people aren't going to be silly and argue with me about it. In the case of the Sims, they're wrong. In this case, well, mine are working definitions.
Anyway, here goes.
Nerds are the easiest start to define. Nerds like Star Trek. Nerds like superhero comics. Nerds are good at math and science. Nerds play Dungeons and Dragons, or Magic: the Gathering. We all know the type, right?
Next come dorks. This is a little bit harder. Dorks like drama, literally and figuratively. Goth people are probably dorks, which leads to people who like Vampire: the Masquerade being dorks, as opposed to nerds. Who like D&D. With me so far?
Geeks are toughest. I see geeks as having some level of snobbery. That is, they'll turn their nose up at things like Star Trek, or role-playing, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Let your nerds and dorks read the Robert Jordans and the Star Wars novelizations, the geeks say, but bring me REAL science fiction. Never sci-fi, of course. Might as well call it skiffy. That's just an example. The indie rockers of the world are geeks, too.
The best general description I can give is this: Nerds have no shame. Geeks have shame. Dorks revel in their lack of shame.
I'm cutting this off now, because I'm getting bored of it. Tomorrow, or sometime, I'll get into more detail. For now, please leave your questions and comments in the box.