<p>^ Only by your personal definition (or definition used in your social world). Which is a valid point and partly what I was asking in the OP. </p>
<p>But I think you are equating ‘getting good grades’ with ‘being smart’ or ‘being intellectual’ I think these are entirely different things and only somewhat related. Its a highschool sort of mentality that is actually inaccurate. I see tons of high scoring kids that are neither particularly sharp nor at all intellectual, and likewise I know plenty of intellectuals (including many current professors at top universities) who always valued learning for its own sake far more than grades. </p>
<p>I was making a point that in the social world I’m familiar with, the self-labelled nerds (and I’m not talking about kids you know who who get a 4.0 who say it as a joke) are ones that are proud to be nerds, very happy and social with their little circle even though they fit the stereotype to a degree that you describe (and they know it and like it). I am pretty sure you and I are talking about the same type of kids, but what I was saying was that said nerds in the world I live in (e.g. in the region we live, at the schools they attend), they are not insulted by the label, they are fortunately not at all picked on for being nerds, and they are not aspiring to be popular or part of some other highschool tribe. I swear to god they like being nerds. </p>
<p>But I completely appreciate and value that in your experience, where you live at the schools you are familiar with, it is more like the article describes. </p>
<p>Could it be that in your circle of friends, you look down upon nerds and see the label as an insult, but the nerds themselves are clueless about it? So then maybe we aren’t talking about regional or highschool differences, but simply how one views ‘nerds’ based on where one sits in the social hierarchy at school?</p>