Just a light post today, but before we get to it, I want to thank Miz Pink for having popped in here a couple times to post while I was mired in work the past week. I’ll try to have some deep thoughts to share soon, but in the meantime, how about this Venn diagram to determine whether a person is a geek, dweeb, dork or “true nerd.” (It was posted by a guy named Scott Lamb at BuzzFeed, but I don’t know if he’s the creator of it or not.

To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of folks define nerd and geek with the same definition, but with no agreement as to which term fits which definition. That is, one person will say a nerd is someone with technical knowledge in an area but a lack of social skills, while a geek is someone with strong interest in an area (but not necessarily useful knowledge) and lack of social skills.

Then I’ll turn around and see that someone will apply those terms to the opposite definitions.

What is clear, though, is that no one wants to be a dork. A nerd may have one or two “negative” characteristics, but has intelligence. A dork seems to have little to show that anyone would appreciate, except being a social inept buffoon by most defintions.

I saw this, too, at one place online:

Nerd = a bright or even genius-level individual with intense and advanced knowledge, interest, and skills in one field (usually academic), likely to the exclusion of other interests, associations, or social skills.

Geek = Intense interest (but not necessarily accompanying skills) in obscure fields that are not necessarily academic. So, what the geeks would call, “a nerd with social skills” or what the nerds would call “a nerd without the smarts.”

Anyway, by most definitions, no matter how they vary, I usually seem to be a geek.

Thank God I’m not a dork, at least…