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I'm not even sure what your distinction between nerds and smart non-nerds, to be honest. I've always found them essentially equivalent (modulo the topics they find interesting).

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Well, I don't want to get into an argument about poorly-defined words, but I see "nerds" as embodying a certain set of negative behavioural stereotypes.

You can define it so broadly as to include all smart people if you wish, but then what label do you have for the fat smelly bearded 35-year-old virgin on the bus writing Firefly/Dollhouse crossover fanfiction?

That's a pretty negative image. I'm sure most people would just call that person a loser.

Perhaps, but this particular form of loserdom seems to be a common enough trap for smart people, so it's an interesting one to analyze.

Ah, but now we have to discuss the definition of smart: I think there's a distinct type of intelligence involved in not being a weird, smelly loser. In fact, the vast majority of people are at least moderately smart in this regard.

I'm not coming up with this less pejorative usage all on my own - clearly the original article meant this usage as well. The pejorative "nerd" is really kind of fading out lately, I think.

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