Really related to this post and these quotes "To be nerdsniped is to fully and deeply connect with yourself" and "I have a hard time relating to many people because of this these days. I am so fired up and excited about life. But many people are not like this, they are disintegrated from their own interests"
I was very good at report card mode, stuck around in corporate for 6 years and was smashing records climbing the corporate ladder. It made me think, if this thing I am doing is extrinsically motivated and told to me as the modus operandi of any well-functioning, sensible being then what would it look like if I put the same focused energy and relentlessness to something that is intrinsically motivated and whereby I see the process of doing as joyful in and of itself rather than in pursuit of the output??
Personally, I find myself getting nerdswiped by topics that lie somewhere in between the “useless” and “useful” as defined in this piece: jumping into the very deep end of a topic that I end up applying directly in my own life—most recently, learning all about strength training—but that certainly aren’t economically “useful.” (Quite the opposite. It’s been quite the expensive obsession! 😅)
I love nerding. The beauty of the world is that useless knowledge can often lead to useful stuff. You don't really know beforehand. Steve Jobs embraced this and encouraged to connect the dots later on. Maybe usefulness emerges from a fertile ground of heterogeneous knowledge. Maybe that's how we advance knowledge outside of what we already know.
Or maybe something is driving our "guided imagination and interest" generation. It's not totally random, for example. No one gets sniped by patterns of static noise. We get sniped by something that has already a pattern and hidden quality. We want to find out what is the hidden element.
I naturally exist in a continual state of nerdsnipery. I learned to suppress that mindset when I was 16 because I hated school and I hated being told what to do and the fastest way to get to adulthood and to a place where I thought I could just be a nerd all the time was to go hard in report card mode until I graduated, moved out, and got a job. Then I was in report card mode at work for 10 years trying to figure out how to be an adult correctly and wondering when I was going to arrive at the magic place of stability where I could just nerdsnipe myself 24 hours a day. Now I'm 33 with an overly developed report card mode, a backlog of interestibg topics, a dangerously pressurized nerdsnipe mode, and I'm trying to tear down the whole foundation of priorities but super carefully cause I added a whole bunch of responsibilities since I was 16. Wish me luck!
Just stumbled across this newsletter/post and YES. My whole life I’ve been needy about nerds. I love nothing more than hearing about someone’s obscure interests and “useless” knowledge 🔥🔥
In your experience have you noted the quality or quantity of nerdsnipe to have any relationship to the intention/desire (or lack of such) to encounter a nerdsnipe?
Hmm interesting question. I really have stopped aiming at things. I think the biggest difference has been removing a job from my life. I have more space to approach things with lightness and can pursue interests over long periods of time.
Really related to this post and these quotes "To be nerdsniped is to fully and deeply connect with yourself" and "I have a hard time relating to many people because of this these days. I am so fired up and excited about life. But many people are not like this, they are disintegrated from their own interests"
I was very good at report card mode, stuck around in corporate for 6 years and was smashing records climbing the corporate ladder. It made me think, if this thing I am doing is extrinsically motivated and told to me as the modus operandi of any well-functioning, sensible being then what would it look like if I put the same focused energy and relentlessness to something that is intrinsically motivated and whereby I see the process of doing as joyful in and of itself rather than in pursuit of the output??
that is a great reflection while still on the path - it took me a couple years of wandering to realize that!
you should write about that realization!
Those two quotes stopped me in my tracks, too. 🤯
Nerdswiped! Love this totally-new-to-me term.
Personally, I find myself getting nerdswiped by topics that lie somewhere in between the “useless” and “useful” as defined in this piece: jumping into the very deep end of a topic that I end up applying directly in my own life—most recently, learning all about strength training—but that certainly aren’t economically “useful.” (Quite the opposite. It’s been quite the expensive obsession! 😅)
Loved this reflection, Paul.
I feel like if you truly follow your curiosity these things become "useful" but in hard to predict ways.
Also it's nerdsniped BUT honestly i think I like nerdswiped better. haha
Ha!! A fun typo indeed 😂
Awesome. Turns out I was nerdsniped by the existence of ponds over the last couple of weeks
Well done! This is a wise post.
20K sakes is fantastic in today’s climate
I love nerding. The beauty of the world is that useless knowledge can often lead to useful stuff. You don't really know beforehand. Steve Jobs embraced this and encouraged to connect the dots later on. Maybe usefulness emerges from a fertile ground of heterogeneous knowledge. Maybe that's how we advance knowledge outside of what we already know.
Or maybe something is driving our "guided imagination and interest" generation. It's not totally random, for example. No one gets sniped by patterns of static noise. We get sniped by something that has already a pattern and hidden quality. We want to find out what is the hidden element.
I once got nerdswiped by a Tesla and took the 369 all the way to inventing a dissociated alter named Elon Must who invents the Nerdal Link.
So I hear you.
Total Nerd Dogiema.
I love this article and the whole idea of Nerdsniping. Just gotta narrow it down to one or two topics because I just want to know everything 😊
I naturally exist in a continual state of nerdsnipery. I learned to suppress that mindset when I was 16 because I hated school and I hated being told what to do and the fastest way to get to adulthood and to a place where I thought I could just be a nerd all the time was to go hard in report card mode until I graduated, moved out, and got a job. Then I was in report card mode at work for 10 years trying to figure out how to be an adult correctly and wondering when I was going to arrive at the magic place of stability where I could just nerdsnipe myself 24 hours a day. Now I'm 33 with an overly developed report card mode, a backlog of interestibg topics, a dangerously pressurized nerdsnipe mode, and I'm trying to tear down the whole foundation of priorities but super carefully cause I added a whole bunch of responsibilities since I was 16. Wish me luck!
I walked away from report card mode at 33! that feels like a ripe age of discovery for many!
There is something strangely magical about it.
Your book deserves to hit 20m copies sold. Easily the best book I read last year!
Just stumbled across this newsletter/post and YES. My whole life I’ve been needy about nerds. I love nothing more than hearing about someone’s obscure interests and “useless” knowledge 🔥🔥
In your experience have you noted the quality or quantity of nerdsnipe to have any relationship to the intention/desire (or lack of such) to encounter a nerdsnipe?
Hmm interesting question. I really have stopped aiming at things. I think the biggest difference has been removing a job from my life. I have more space to approach things with lightness and can pursue interests over long periods of time.
Where to start