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Do STEM professionals despise nerds, geeks, introverts, and eccentrics?


Sargon Torchrise

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Do engineers, scientists, physicists, MIT students, Caltech students, and STEM professionals in general despise geeks, nerds, eccentrics, and introverts and want to fire them? The article in the link below says that geek clubs should be disbanded.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/05/im-a-woman-engineer-and-i-love-science-stop-calling-me-a-geek/%3FoutputType=amp

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That article is from 2014.

I'm a STEM professional and I'm a geek. The label has lost some (most) of its negative connotation.

The article is directed at women, though, and I'm a guy and only speak for myself.

 

I did notice this:

Quote

Certainly, there are many girls who identify with the geek image. But they may be sold on STEM careers already, preparing to become part of the about 20 percent of engineering students who are young women. Those aren’t the girls primarily targeted by STEM diversity campaigns. I want to reach the other 80 percent and show them the fascinating careers available in science and math. To truly embrace diversity and reach gender parity in STEM, we must engage all girls.

That's...not how math works. 

20% of engineering students are women, not 20% of women become engineering students. The "other 80%" are male engineering students.

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55 minutes ago, Sargon Torchrise said:

Do engineers, scientists, physicists, MIT students, Caltech students, and STEM professionals in general despise geeks, nerds, eccentrics, and introverts and want to fire them?

No.  When I hired someone for a technical job I didn't care if they were a classic nerd or if they looked like leading man actor, what I cared about is did they seem like they would do the best job.  

Edited by Bufofrog
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3 hours ago, swansont said:

I'm a STEM professional and I'm a geek.

You weren't a 'geek' when you were James Bond ...
( apologies to new members; you had to be there )

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I hate to corral people into these categories. You miss so much detail of the human landscape.

30 minutes ago, MigL said:

You weren't a 'geek' when you were James Bond ...
( apologies to new members; you had to be there )

@swansont with license to kill. I can see how that image has been burnt in your memory.

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