Procomm Plus Software

Practical Nerd: The Practical Nerd manifesto

What does it mean to be a Practical Nerd?

I mean, being a standard-issue nerd is no longer a challenge. Not like when I grew up, when “nerd” was a term of derision, a reason for even the art and drama geeks to shun you, and a near-guarantee that someone at junior high school graduation would place an overly ripe plum on your chair just before you sat down in your, uh, white suit. (Yes. It’s true.)

But nerds – or at least their label— are now mainstream, thanks to the success of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and J.J. Abrams. So we now get to watch in glee as once-revered jocks show up bald and fat at high school reunions, while those of us once-shunned at the same events get awards such as “Best Preserved.” (Yes. Also true.)

It may be time, though, for nerds to stop being respectable and reclaim their heritage of edgy unpopularity. Because going mainstream has brought with it a definitely counter-productive aspect: having been allowed to fit in, self-proclaimed nerds are counter-intuitively popular – and are watering down what “nerd” means.

A true nerd, a Practical Nerd, realizes the geek not so much inherit the Earth as they sardonically evaluate and then critique it for having a primitive UI. Practical Nerds don’t chase the next bright shiny object as much as they toil to make sure the playthings cavalierly toyed with by the digirati actually fracking work for normal people.

And we Practical Nerds have our own Manifesto of five core principles, honed from hard-won, real-world experience:

1) Cool is not necessarily useful . I’ve reviewed literally hundreds of gadgets, websites and apps over the years. In most cases, what may seem absolutely fascinating upon demo doesn’t hold up when integrated into everyday routine. (Getting gadgets to review may sound great, but it’s analogous to when I used to review science-fiction novels, causing friends to jealously comment, “You get to read all those free books!” and me to reply, “No, I have to read all those free books – even the bad ones.”)