Tag Archives: Real Genius

Surprising things you can learn while editing the Periodic Table of Nerdery

If you want your child to grow up to be a nerd (and really who doesn’t?) a good first job might be as a bagboy or grocery store cashier, at least that’s what my research has discovered. Of the 79 nerds profiled for the Periodic Table of Nerdery, eight of them listed their first job as bagboy or grocery store clerk. Good things coming out those grocery stores, huh?

Some other interesting similarities?

• “Real Genius” was the movie the nerds cited most often for favorite fictional nerd.
• Oregon Trail swept the First Internet/Computer memory category, which is kind of awesome since our own John K worked on the program.
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were either a favorite Nintendo game, childhood heroes, or favorite fictional nerd (a shocking upset since I was sure MacGyver would sweep that one).
• No/Can’t was the most popular word/noise to hate, which should give you a lot of insight into the nerdy mindset.
• In the comicbook realm, Superman beat out both Batman and Spiderman for most childhood hero mentions. Batman does deserve some props for getting one fan to talk about “superpower-wielding sallys,” which totally made this blogger laugh out loud.

What have you learned from the Periodic Table of Nerdery that surprised or delighted you the most?

One of my favorites? The Scrooge McDuck quote as best advice.

Profiles in Nerdery: Kai Esbensen, defying witty headlines

1. Astrological Sign: Astrology promotes a lack of critical thinking. Critical thinking saves lives. Ergo, astrology kills. Birthdays, by way of contrast, promote life — mine is St. Valentine’s Day.
2. Time at the Nerdery: At the time of this writing, just about exactly 20 megaseconds.
3. Area of expertise: Proper science test procedure, severe storm morphology, water vapor dynamics, sleep deprivation, and kittens.
4. When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I cut them off, mid-sentence and say, “Oh yeah? Well, why don’t you tell me what YOU do?” And then before they can respond, I cut them off again and say, “Yeah, that’s what I THOUGHT.” Then we stare awkwardly at one another for a while, until one of us bursts into tears. Pretty soon someone’s mother is called. I forget what happens after that.
5. Favorite kinds of projects to work on: The kind of projects where there’s time travel, and you get to fly under your own power, and you come away from it having gained telekinetic abilities.
6. What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: The fact that everybody who works here gets their very own executive office suite overlooking the ocean.
7. Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: #1. Tornadoes. #2. Time Signatures and Polyrhythms. #3. Cats I Have Owned. #4. Parents I Have Had. #5. Things I Already Know. #6. Making Out. #7. Bubblemath.
8. Favorite Fictional Nerd: Jordan Cochran, from the movie “Real Genius”, as portrayed by Michelle Meyrink (see Jeopardy list item #6 above).
9. According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: That depends on what you mean by “disambiguation”. Are you talking about the musical group? The traditional dessert? The video game? Or the controversial concept overall, as discussed incessantly in theoretical linguistics?