How is it that some people excel in many different things, while others might seem to only be capable of performing one particularly task? There are many possible answers, but ultimately you will find yourself facing this rather ubiquitous revelation: You can only be as much of a nerd as they want you to be.
In other words…
despite all of your peculiar and presumably profoundly interesting personal
pursuits… eventually you will need to take responsibility for other aspects of life. (Amidst awkward attenuations and annoying
apocalyptic amendments; alliteration almost always aborts absurd Apollo aspirations.)
They say that it takes 10,000 hours to become a professional
at something. That’s a rather significant portion of time. If that claim is
true, it certainly doesn’t apply to the people that are good at everything, am
I not right? Here’s the catch, happiness isn’t necessarily related to success.
Most people spend a
tremendous amount of time looking forward to being able to do the things that
they love to do. You all have found yourselves in the company of people who obsessed about a particular thing to the point
of obnoxiousness and after half an hour of listening to them, you're ready to jump out the window..
Like it or not, your skills are being harvested and if
society can’t find a use for you they will chew you up and spit you out. Hence,
the rise of the nerd is rather like the hybridization of canola. Sometimes you
get these really ugly looking plants that don’t at all resemble the ones that
are desired. - It doesn’t necessarily mean that the objective of producing stronger and healthier
plants wasn’t met.
The difference between talking about issues that are relevant
and your favourite pass times is that they aren’t doing anyone else a single bit of
good. Yes, you could argue that many people find volunteering to be relaxing
and rewarding. You would be correct, but neither would you ever think about
calling those types of people self absorbed egoists.
It’s not always easy to recognize where you fit, or that
anyone else cares about you… but all of those feelings are rather irrelevant
when you start viewing your life from a point of essentiality. A nerd can only
be assessed on the basis of nerdines in the presence of his/her antithesis
Ha I like how the gamer is situated at the far corner of both geek and nerd on the graph.
ReplyDeleteAnd I must add, I did a guilty squirm
As I read your reaction to those who delight only in discussing the things they are obsessing about, I know I can be a bit of a bore sometimes.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. - Plato
ReplyDeleteI was basically saying the same thing. Yes you are free to pursue your own goals + dreams, but the reality is that you only have about as much freedom as a marionette.
I think it's worth listening to people talk about the topics on which they are knowledgeable, but I'm not necessarily convinced that self-indulgent hobbies are as fulfilling as one might be led to believe.
I don't think your life is all that boring. - Anyone who grows a beard to ward of the onslaught of Mennonite women... probably has a good story to tell. :)