I am channeling my Inner Nerd. I do that from time to time.
It is odd, come to think of it, that we live in a culture nearly entirely characterized by outer appearances. The popular kids are the ones who dress correctly, say the correct things, and who are edgy in just the right ways.
Nearly our entire cultural landscape, though, is populated with ideas begun with nerds. Our political life is dominated by ideas originating with intellectuals–or in defiance of them. Our business lives are shaped by enterprises begun in many, many cases by inventors and nerds. Only perhaps in entertainment does this change, and think about that: entertainment–frivolity, what you do when you are not being serious, not working.
And even there, consider, say, “Rebel without a Cause.” The screenplay was based on a book written by Robert Lindner, and written by Irving Shulman, both of whom were likely nerds/introverts. Into this matrix stepped the ACtors.
It seems to me that the inner life is what creates meaning in the outer life, and denigrating those who largely live in their internal worlds is therefore a species of stupidity. Of course, stupid is what stupid does.
You may never have thought of it this way, but nearly every word that leaves Obama’s mouth has roots in the life and intellectual work of some Dead White Nerd (as whispered in his ear by a very living Iranian-Chicagoan woman).