Is Nerdiness Hereditary?

[naturegeek]

My niece (who is my age) wrote me this email today about the differences between geeks, dorks and nerds, and whether the kind of passion nerds feel about their interests are really obsessions, and whether it's hereditary - it's great food for thought, so I'm posting both her email and my reply - what do YOU think?

Her Email

Earlier this summer I read American Nerd, by Benjamin Nugent, that I found on the “New Books” shelf at the local library. The book was okay, but it sparked a conversation about what exactly is the difference between a nerd, geek, and dork. Any input? I don’t think much about being a nerd, geek, or dork, but of course I usually score quite high on tests which measure such things. Sometimes I even get extra credit for wearing glasses and bonus points for repairing my own glasses. I used to score even higher when I was homeschooling my kids because we had a microscope in the house and there were extra points for that too. Do you think that there are differences between dorks, geeks, nerds? Andrew has commented that it’s an interesting family trait, that when one of us is interested in something, we’re really interested, like obsessive or something. Which is probably true. I don’t have 12 Japanese maples or 20 Japanese maples. I have so many Japanese maples that it’s embarrassing to count them. And that’s only the grafted ones, not the ones that I grew from seed. The 4” pots cover my porch. I visit public gardens with Japanese maples; I know endless trivia on Japanese maples. I own books on Japanese maples. I get interview in the local paper as a recognized local authority on Japanese maples.
Andrew doesn’t just restore old trucks; he buys CD’s so that he can listen to music from the era, and even his sun glasses are vaguely vintage. He knows endless detailed information on vintage truck parts and restoration details. When he goes to car shows, he’s recognized as “Andy in Loomis that restored the “vintage something truck” or whatever else he’s recently worked on. Sarah lives for her French horn. Mary’s thing is birds. To us it seems normal. Yet Bill and his parents and siblings don’t get obsessive about what they’re interested in. Daniel isn’t obsessive either. Andrew thinks it’s a hereditary trait.

We also discussed the difference to being passionate about something versus being obsessive. I think that being “passionate” about something is a nice way so say that a person is obsessive about something. Does being obsessive fit into being a dork/geek/nerd?

And My Reply

ABSOLUTELY!! ADD/OCD and Nerdy Passions is a name of one of my blog posts on Nerdfighters!

I consider myself a geek, dork, AND nerd, but I do think there are subtle differences. I think “geek” generally implies someone who is really good at computers and technology, “dork” is someone that just has fun and doesn’t care what other people think, would never try to look “cool” because, how boring! At least that’s my definition, perhaps it’s of an enlightened dork, someone who’s embraced their inner dork and let it out to play. And a “nerd,” I think, is someone who is smart and led by their interests, which become their passions, whether they are computers, old cars, musical instruments, birds, or Japanese Maples.

On Nerdfighters, people describe what kind of Nerdfighter they are, and there are all kinds, but the commonality is that they are passionate to the point of being OCD about their interests! Learning and improving are also common traits – lots of literature nerds, librarians, teachers, and authors/aspiring writers on there, but also film-makers, artists, band geeks (which just sounds better than band nerd, but a band geek is really a nerd by my definition), scientists and all sorts of interesting people. What makes nerds great is they are so interested in things, especially certain things, mostly academic things, in a broad definition which includes music and gardening in “academic,” and being interestED, makes people interestING, at least in my opinion.

I think it’s a trait of smart people... But I may be a bit biased – ha.

One of my favorite bloggers has a post on NADD (Nerd Attention Deficit Disorder)

So, did Mary and/or Sarah tell you I have a Facebook account and they’ve been throwing octopi and such at me? Ha. I resisted signing up for yet another social network for a long time, but finally I gave in when the website for a book I’m currently reading (Designing with Web Standards) mentioned a Facebook group... Then I found out that tons of folks I know are on there! Sheesh.

I’m on Twitter now, too. And FriendFeed. And and and... Yeah, I think we’re talking a little OCD here!!

I may end up posting this as another blog post, because it’s really interesting to consider it may be hereditary, and I would like to see what the Nerdfighters think!

Your Turn!!

[Evangeline]

Interesting question, the one about nerdiness and heredity (am also fuzzy on the nerd/geek/dork definitions although I think NG summed it up nicely). I do think that there is a genetic component to nerdiness. With both of my sons being recently diagnosed with Aspergers, I've been thinking a lot about the genetic quirks that both my husband and I have passed down. Many of the things that I embrace as delightfully nerdy (incl. obsessive interests, difficulty relating to others, that sense of being a little different from everyone else, and wanting to march to the beat of your own drum) are actually part of Aspergers. And it's a little hard to tell where hard core nerdy leaves off and AS traits begin, or if there's really any difference at all (in our family at least?!?). So yes, nerdiness and little touches of autism all bundled up together indistinguishably and definitely genetically based in our family (I hope that made sense...it's been a long week).
But there is a nurture component too, learning and reading were encouraged and supported in my family of origin, and are certainly held dear in my own little family. My boys dive into their interests with gusto, and we come eagerly along! Trains, dinosaurs, crocodilians, Star Wars, Lego...we've been there with books and trips and projects every step of the way. Totally fun!
And I agree wholeheartedly with NG that "being interestED, makes people interestING". Absolutely. My parents used to always say that there is no such thing as being bored, only being boring. As in, it's such a big, full fascinating world with so much to learn about and discover, it's silly to waste time being bored! I think that's part of what what makes us nerdfighters so awesome, being passionate about stuff.

[VT100]

I am a little fuzzy on the whole nerd/geek/dork thing. I could easily be all 3. Nerdiness goes through my family like curly hair. Not everyone has it, but it is pretty common. I think nerdiness leads to surprising hobbies because nerds tend to have spare brain power, and are not that willing to follow along with other people. So we blaze our own paths into watching bamboo, reading, geology, kayaking, or whatever. Computers are good for nerds, because there are about a million directions you can go.

I am personally delighted to hear my daughter say that she is good at math and science, and watching the various old startrek series (next gen, voyager, deep space 9, etc) are whole-family hobbies. So I'm pretty sure the nerdiness gene was passed on to her. Hopefully with some of my wife's superior social skills! Diversity is a good thing.

[JeninLB]

I think that latent intelligence is hereditary, and I think that being a part of a family that fosters intellectual pursuits is a factor of nerdiness, however, I don't think that the sort of nerd you are is hereditary. For example, both my parents are science oriented, but while I can play in the science game, I'm much more arts/music/literature oriented. (I actually took my parents to their first Broadway level musical production a few years ago, and although it wasn't something they'd have bought tickets to themselves, they were interested to go because it was a new experience. Boy was I surprised!) Both my parents had as I was growing up, and still have hobbies that required a lot of equipment of a very specific sort (woodworking, photography, biking (my dad and I had a racing tandem, custom fitted for my short legs), building electronics, computers, painting statuary, needlepoint, sewing and crochet, etc.) When I got into hobbies, they were sometimes offshoots of pre-existing family hobbies but just as often jumped out of nowhere into the fray. My hobbies were still were fairly specific and required certain equipment (violin, guitar, art, cake decorating(?!), rock tumbling and geology, cross stitch, library science, kayaking etc.) If you think about it, you can encourage a little nerdiness by feeding into the hobby through lessons and providing the equipment necessary. My mom also made sure I got to the library at least once a week, sometimes more if I asked for a return trip. So I guess I come by my nerdiness honestly. And oh yeah, my dad and I used to watch a heck of a lot of Star Trek at the cabin, much to my mom's chagrin. That counts, right?

[naturegeek]

My niece wrote me back and added more to the discussion - c'mon Nerdfighters - chime in! I'm curious about your family backgrounds - do you think you are nerdy by nature, or by nurture? Obviously, the answer is always a bit of both - but IS there a genetic component? What do you think?

So geeks are a computer techie bunch. Dorks are un-cool but don’t care. And nerds are smart but OCD. Okay. I’m a dork and a nerd. The more un-cool and obsessive I am, the happier. I’m a very happy dork-nerd. Life is sweet.

Right now I’m obsessed with bamboo because I found some bamboo at the nursery that was flowering. Bamboo flowers at long intervals and all bamboo of the same species flower at the same time all over the world. Then it usually dies. The bamboo that was flowering is a dwarf variety and the seed heads are really hard to see. I’m now being teased that I’m some sort of bamboo genius because it is really hard to see and distinguish the tiny ragged seed heads from the leaves and stems. It’s weird that I can’t focus well enough to text on my cell phone, but I can see tiny seed heads hidden in foliage.

Mary did briefly mention that you have a Facebook account but not a word about octopi throwing!

If you post the heredity subject on another blog post, let me know what other people think about geek/nerd/dork having a heredity basis. My experience raising four kids, makes me suspect that there is some kind of hereditary predisposition to being a geek or nerd or dork, but that a kid’s environment/family/world is influential as well. I don’t think a person would become a computer geek or an obsessive nerd if they weren’t wired for it, however I also don’t think a kid with a predisposition for nerdy or dorky greatness could fully develop their special uniqueness if they were raised in an environment that frowned upon nerdy-ness or dorky-ness.

Happy dork-geek-nerds FTW!! :-D

[naturegeek]

Right - my point exactly - I'm all three! Well, it wasn't actually my point, but I did say that, and I most certainly didn't ask which was better. I'm just curious about what others think of as the difference in the three terms, and also if you think there is a hereditary component to being a Nerdfighter.

[Gabrielle]

I really try not to think about it. I don't like those classifying labels- they alienate and isolate people. Proclaiming something, categorizing it, tends to create a veil, a barrier, even if it's mostly translucent.

Similarly, all of the discussion threads, "What's better, ___ or ___?" and the like bother me- asking a question like that is inherently divisive. It takes away from one of the points of the Ning, which is togetherness: even if it creates factions of people that come together to champion whichever they prefer, it still makes factions, nonetheless. I feel the same about "geek," "nerd," "dork," etc. We should be trying to get along with everybody, not just people like us.

And besides, those categories aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. They make a venn-diagram of sorts, and I bet most Nerdfighters would fit into the middle portion, the one that incorporates all three, and the next largest portion of Nerdfighters would be in one of the portions incorporating two.