Constrained Bliss Point

I enjoy summers a great deal. All my childhood summers were spent at the Jersey shore. There’s a certain humidity, the ocean feel to the air, that isn’t found anywhere else. I knew it was summer when the fireflies would come out, and catching them was maybe my favorite pastime. Fireworks were up there, though, especially on the beach. We could set up towels and sit around and watch, and for a while the only important things were explosions in the sky.

I still like fireworks. I still go to see them every chance I can make the time. But I can’t view them in quite the same way anymore. I hear them go off when I’m not expecting them, and it sounds like what I imagine war zones might sound like, mortar fire off in the distance.  I don’t know why the first thing my mind goes to is being invaded by the Soviets — could be all that Red Alert 2 I played as a kid.

If I were another superpower bent on invading the United States, I would do it on Independence Day.  Partially because it’s supremely ironic, or that it would be some kind of dramatic literary device. But also there’s a shock appeal that, no, those explosions are not a part of the celebration. Not this year.

Living in a pretty little bubble for the summer, I’ve begun to miss the intellectual stimulation of being at a university surrounded by nerds. So, while I’d rather the summer not end too quickly, I am looking forward to being part of a horde of academics come Fall.

It struck me, talking to a friend from RPI, that the types of nerds I encounter at Georgetown will be markedly different from the nerds found at Rensselaer. While (I imagine) it will be easier to find econ nerds, I have a feeling that there will be far fewer techies. And, you know, internet geeks and movie buffs and mathematicians.

So I’m trying to develop a list of  “necessary topics for nerditry,” at least inasmuch as I myself define nerditry. Note that they are necessary conditions but not sufficient conditions, since there is a certain je ne sais quoi about nerds that can’t be defined. And I’m not looking for  “A nerd is X” or “A nerd does Y” either — think of this as: “if I wanted to emulate a nerd, what would I need to know?”

Nerds need to be familiar with at least one and preferably many esoteric academic topics very well. So the first condition isn’t a particular topic, it’s any topic, provided you can speak with authority and are actually interested in it. Next you need to know a bunch of trivia. Again the particular topic isn’t important, though movie quotes and internet memes are sure bets. A nerd should be comfortable with maths. If someone starts talking about sets or normal distributions or Laplace transforms, you should know what they’re saying. Maths provide a useful language for discussion, much like economics, so learning the terminology of your nerd group is vital.

I suppose all nerds are different. I wonder if a set of necessary conditions for nerditry could ever be formulated. This is harder than I had anticipated.