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[slink]

Actually I'm absolutely with you there Pedro.
I was the same through high school, still am really. Since I was like, you into computers, acting, literature, anime, music and bands and such...
It's just more recently, where apart from the creative side of me that does these things to some extent (some to many extents) I spend most of my time being a computer geek.
But I do certainly agree that geek doesn't just apply to computing.
And it is more that I think of nerds as the geek-poseurs, since the nerds I knew, of any real kind, weren't actually intelligent or knowledgable on any real level. Best they tended to be was unimaginative enough to be good at maths and little else.

And hell, I've spent far too long going on about this now!
I just have too much time waiting for my new CPU/Mobo...
*cough*

[CortJstr]

Another key is that the geeks tend to thrive on their self-segregation. A geek knows he's not popular on the whole and shuns those who everybody likes. The Superfriends on the Simpsons fit this geeky mold.

Nerds are convinced either that they are accepted and popular on the whole or that by doing even nerdier things that they will be soon. Nerds often look down on the sepratism of geeks, usually as an emulation of the cruel popular cliques. Screech and most David Spade characters fit into this category.

[sjlimmer]

This is confusing! Can't we all just go back to being dorks?

My bookbag.  Sorry for the poor quality; I don't have a digital camera, so I had to use the flatbed scanner in my lab.

It seems I'm certainly no geek, but I think of myself as quite the nerd, thank-you-very-much.  Evidence:

-I've had the same HP calculator for over 13 years, and I'm so used to RPN now I can hardly work with anything else.

-Right now, I’m wearing a short-sleeve button-down shirt and a tie*

-I'm an engineering grad student

I think I've made my case.

* This isn't usual for me, but I have a poster and an interview with some NSF representatives today, so I figured why not.  And no, I don't own a pocket protector, and my glasses are quite stylish

[wombat]

Pedro's point that there are all kinds of geeks is so right.  You can be a geek in any subject.  I was an animal geek long before I was paid to work with animals.  I am a cooking geek even though I cook very little anymore - because I just possess so dang much information.

 I think geekiness is a basic personality thing that tends to extend to anything you get interested in.  Like you can't just read a webcomic every day, you have to read a messageboard about it and keep the web links to the interviews with the author after he takes them down from the site and reread the archives all the time...  Geekiness is the impulse to turn everything into a learning experience and a research project and amass a ton of information about it no matter how apparently trivial the subject.  

I think everyone in the world can be divided into geeks and non-geeks.  Non-geeks think that when you are finished going to school, you never need to learn anything again for the rest of your life.  Geeks feel that every time they get out of bed and get dressed they should read ten books and fifty web pages on the subject first.  I found that a lot of my frustration in life with other people was explained when I realized this difference.

[jough]

I'm probably one of those geek-poseurs you're fond of scorning.  I play at being geeky, but I can never quite achieve the level of fanaticism and obsession that is required to truly be a geek.

I guess I'm kind of a literature geek, and a web design geek, and certainly a film geek, and for a while was a music geek, but none of these things really identify me as a person - they're just interests.  Things which I'll focus on for a while and then they'll pass.

I think to achieve true geekdom you need to keep your focus narrow, and know your subject deeply.  Geekism is like a water well.  

Essentially, geeks get the shaft.

[slink]

Geekiness is the impulse to turn everything into a learning experience and a research project and amass a ton of information about it no matter how apparently trivial the subject.  

That's it!
I totally have to learn everything eboug something if I show interest in it.
My friend (who is a comparison geek) compares us to film duos all the time, and he decided, rightly, that in Dogma, I would be Bartleby, simply because I amass those kinds of amounts of knowledge about anything I become interested in. I could probably make a great researcher, but I enjoy putting the knowledge to practical use too much when it comes to computers, so I'd be a researcher who's just off changing the fan and adding heatsinks to his graphics card (that was this afternoon's little sojourn).

Geekism is like a water well.

Essentially, geeks get the shaft.

Dear me, and you locked threads for puns!
Though thanks to the line break it did make me snigger.
I think, Jough, your outlook is probably very wise. Grounding yourself to not letting things identify you. I reckon I probably just think too much to manage something like that.
And a lot of times my interests, geeky or not, will pass over time, some things I'll look into once and never pay much attention to again, but others kind of last long term, like computers, which have been a part of my life since the moment I could interact with one.
There are really many other things I am that geeky about - film, music, literature, science... hell, information in general!

[CortJstr]

[backpack image]

My bookbag.  Sorry for the poor quality; I don't have a digital camera, so I had to use the flatbed scanner in my lab.

You need to meet Adam Brodsky.

http://www.adambrodsky.com/pressphotos/headshotcolor.gif

That's obviously a temporary tattoo on his forehead but he has a real version of that on his arm.

[V-Adore]

I also invented Clique Techtonics

You deserve the Nobel Prize for that, friend. And massive university funding to create a National Clique Tectonics Institute.

Other than that... I am both far more educated about the nature of the geek and far more confused as to where I actually fall. I think that counts as enlightenment.

[andalucia]

I agree that the dichotomy between geeks and nerds lies in social skills... but I also dig the defenition of geekdom as the obcessive accumulation of knowledge... I definately recognized myself in that definition:  Music geek, 20th century literature geek, myriad other geekeries are mine.  It is a good life.

[AugustWest]

I'm probably more aligned with Jough on this one.  Based on this definition I am not a geek because my focus isn't sufficiently narrow.

Don't misunderstand -- I am a voracious information consumer.  I am interested in anything and everything.  I am constantly reading, constantly seeking new interesting bits of information (which is why I'm addicted to the damn intarweb.)  

But I'm more of a generalist.  I don't feel compelled to know everything about any particular subject.  I more interested in knowing something about everything.  Granted, some things I am more interested in than others, but I don't consider myself a geek on any particular thing.

[AlohaDawg]

I used to think that you could separate Geeks from Nerds by their social skills and ability to blend into a crowd.

This was very hard during my HS days (the 80s) because everyone dressed a little funny (except the rich prepsters with their pink polos and deck shoes).

I sort of went the Ducky Dale route. I guess I was a geek too...but there are 24 picures of me in the yearbook - so I don't know how that works into Dr Pedro's calculations.

Still can't dance, but I do anyway. And I still don't care.

[jough]

I'm probably more aligned with Jough on this one.

Gasp!