The Difference Between Geeks and Nerds Settled in Infographic

Hello, my name is Joey Paur, and I am a Geek.

There is an age old debate on the difference between Geeks and Nerds. Well, thanks to an infographic created by Burr Settles, the debate has been settled. The infographic was created using information from Twitter. He looked to see how people used the terms "geek" and "nerd" when describing themselves. Here's how he begins his explanation:

In my mind, “geek” and “nerd” are related, but capture different dimensions of an intense dedication to a subject:

geek - An enthusiast of a particular topic or field. Geeks are “collection” oriented, gathering facts and mementos related to their subject of interest. They are obsessed with the newest, coolest, trendiest things that their subject has to offer.

nerd -A studious intellectual, although again of a particular topic or field. Nerds are “achievement” oriented, and focus their efforts on acquiring knowledge and skill over trivia and memorabilia.

Here's an explanation from io9 on how Settles built the infographic:

"Using a statistical measure of association known as pointwise mutual information (PMI), Settles pored through millions of tweets in search of which words were most likely to appear near the word "nerd" or "geek." Featured above is a scatterplot of words and hashtags according to their PMI scores in relation to both “geek” and “nerd." A PMI score greater than zero indicates that two words "keep great company," as Settles puts it. A PMI score less than zero, in contrast, indicates the two words tend to keep their distance. The greater the PMI score's magnitude, the stronger its attraction or aversion between the word pair (so two words with a PMI score of 6 appear together more often than two words with a PMI score of 3); and a PMI score of 0 means the two words have a more or less random chance of appearing together in the same tweet."

Look over the chart below, and read his thoughts on the outcome. Let us know if you agree or disagree with his conclusion, and whether you place yourself in the Nerd or Geek category.

Settles explains what the completed chart reveals:

Moving up the vertical axis, words become more geeky (“#music” → “#gadget” → “#cosplay”), and moving left to right they become more nerdy (“education” → “grammar” → “neuroscience”). Words along the diagonal are similarly geeky and nerdy, including social (“#awkward”, “weirdo”), mainstream tech (“#computers”, “#microsoft”), and sci-fi/fantasy terms (“doctorwho,” ”#thehobbit”). Words in the lower-left (“chores,” “vegetables,” “boobies”) aren’t really associated with either, while those in the upper-right (“#avengers”, “#gamer”, “#glasses”) are strongly tied to both. Orange words are more geeky than nerdy, and blue words are the opposite.

In broad strokes, it seems to me that geeky words are more about stuff (e.g., “#stuff”), while nerdy words are more about ideas (e.g., “hypothesis”). Geeks are fans, and fans collect stuff; nerds are practitioners, and practitioners play with ideas. Of course, geeks can collect ideas and nerds play with stuff, too. Plus, they aren’t two distinct personalities as much as different aspects of personality. Generally, the data seem to affirm my thinking.

I suggest that you head on over to Settles' blog for more of a detailed analysis of his experiment.