Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Your Inner Geek

I work in IT and this week we've all been taking this Geek Test . Some people I work with are up in the 50 and 60 percentile. Me, I'm just 37% geek.

It's the fanfic and my love of documentaries (and being female) that scored me so high. And, well, maybe a few other reasons, but at least I'm not a *dysfunctional* geek.

I only scored 8%. Which has to be deeply depressing. Apparently, it's because I don't do anything but read and watch TV/movies and I'm way behind in owning the new technologies (don't even own a cellphone). Geez. I need a life.

I started to score when it got to my reading and watching habits, but otherwise, I was only ticking the odd box here and there.

LabRat

Wow! I really thought I was more of a geek than that. I only got 14.4% - just geekish tendencies. As many darn boxes as I was clicking on, I thought my score was going to be astronomical... some of those boxes must actually count against the score.

Whew!

Ha ha! That was too fun Sue!

Wow, I only got 16%! I thought for sure fanfic and the concept of dating was going to push it over the edge ROFL.

JD

Hmmm . . . for some reason I thought I'd score higher--I was checking boxes left and right, and they were ALL TRUE.

36.88363% - Major Geek

Yeah - I wonder how many points you get for ticking "I may have exaggerated to score high on this test." 'Cause as soon as it turns competitive like that I start *needing* a higher score.

mmm... ok... well, I'm a couple decimals above 45%, so I'm a super geek. (just when I never thought I'd never be Super anything!)

I was almost ashamed to have to answer YES to some of these questions. I kid you not! Then again, I already *knew* that I'm a geek.


~Lara

who has, among other somewhat geeky things:
- written fanfic (!), shareware applications and a column for an online tech website
- learned Perl from a book, for *fun*, and the bases of the Klingon language, just cause she could
- 6 e-mail accounts (not including aliases set up on her main account) which she actually uses!
- met her boyfriend online in 1995 on the Star Trek message board of a BBS system (yes, BBS... as in "what we had before internet in these parts") and met him in person for the first time at a get-together of all the board users (aka: the premiere of Star Trek: First Contact. Oh! the irony!)
- and works as a software tester for one of the leading companies in computer 3D effects and animation (and does actually know that they're celebrating their 20th anniversary today, cause her calendar was marked...)

Ohh... it's not in the list, but I can also quote several Ferengi Rules of Aquisition.

How pathetic is *that*?

30.57199% - Total Geek
Not surprising at all! Fun link...thanks!

That was so funny. The entire time I was taking the test I had to keep my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud, since I am at work.

I only scored a 16%, which suprised me, I thought it would be higher. I wish it would give me a list of all the answers I checked.

That would have been a great question! And I would have had to check it, too...

That was fun, Sue. I'm disappointed though I'm only 33.333% geek! thought I'd be higher!

Jo

Oh, cool!

I sent the test to some of the guys in the Dev team earlier and, sadly enough... most of them scrored lower than I did. ARGH! Some of them should have scored way higher! We're talking guys that the hem of their pants cut about 2 inches too high, haven't had haircuts in 10 years, have collections of Tranformer toys in their offices and eat nothing but "flat food". I'm guessing being female really does get your store that much higher!

Yeah, I think so too! I shared this with a male friend of mine, who believes it's invalid. He thinks that I should be docked points because I'm "too hot to be a geek." He calls me a nerd instead. Nerd...geek...anyone know the difference? We went to a training a few weeks ago where I totally got into proving my braininess during a 20 minute writing assignment that no one else at my table even bothered to do. My quote to the table: "I get off on proving my intellectual worth!" His end-of-the training paper on what he learned at the conference: "1. Nerds rule. 2. Busty nerds really rule!" What a guy!

I'm depressed. I only got a 48.91519% and am a Super Geek. I would have scored higher in my childhood, but lost my pocket protectors and stuff and had to answer no on a bunch of things I used to do but don't anymore.

21.89349% - Geek.

Not bad, eh?

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

As far as I understand it, the difference is that a geek is not socially inept. They have social skills, although perhaps bizarre ones.

Meaning a geek can be a geek, but still be cool - a nerd is never is cool, a nerd lives in his basement and hasn't seen the light in weeks. (and I do most definitely *know* guys like that, they really exist!)

Generally speaking, "Geek" is a lot more positive way of referring to a person than "Nerd" is.

Mind you, this is how *I* understand it. I could be light years away from right. I could be in a whole different galaxy, altogether. *lol*

Crazy 11.24% Geek. I thought I was wayyyy higher than that. I must have not done it carefully enough.

I think "nerd" implies some pocket protector type of sciency mathy smartness with it. Geek doesn't necessarily have that academic image to it, at least to me--it's more about culture. I'm a geek and into languages (and ha! I was at Rocky Horror last week), but can't do math to save my life. The easiest way to get me to make a deer-in-headlights look is to ask me the multiplication tables. Sad but true.

My husband to illustrate the other extreme is a nerd. He's a researcher at a lab for computer science and does physics for fun. However, he saw the Star Wars trilogy for the first time last year and has never done any of the "cultural" stuff on the quiz (like gone to a con, seen Star Trek, etc).

But all these categories are more arbitrary than anything else. He's actually way more social than I am.

For what it's worth:

Wikipedia - Geek

Wikipedia - Nerd

I LOVE Wikipedia! Those two articles are pretty long, but I found part of a paragraph which pretty much sums it up:

So what if you studied science *and* art?
Eh, I resigned myself to a lifetime of weirdness...

JD :p

*coughs and looks ashamed of herself*

43.58974%

Apparently I'm just a poser. Got 4.9%.

Jackie/who thinks she may have forgotten to add she was female since everyone is saying that brings your score up.

Well, I also work in IT but scored only 8%. What geekiness I have stems from the fact that I have to know a certain amount of IT stuff to do my job. The rest appears to be my interest and knowledge of fanfic and science. However, I also have a knowledge and interest in the arts - ie, I'm a cross-over geek.

Yvonne

I guess that makes you normal. I mean, I do HTML programming by hand, got pretty good scores on math and verbal in the SATs, and got an A in the first Physics class I had ever taken (in COLLEGE), but I can play any musical instrument I find (with varying degrees of skill), as long as I have a fingering chart and some music, and I draw peoples' faces as a hobby, as well as rooms.

Whew! I thought I'd be banned from the boards with only a 9.6 reading.

With L&C being the only fandom that I actually participate in I guess my association with comic books helped bring my score up.

Tank (who may have seen many of the movies mentioned, doesn't actually own any of them except for the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

Ever notice that the ones with the high geek factor scores post their scores as something like 45.92034 while those with low geek factor will round the number to something like 5.5% or 10%? Things to think about. Coincidence? I think not.

33.13609% - Total Geek


I love the bit about the odd and even rule of Star Trek movies!

I also know Pi to about 25 decimal places. Used to know more, but they leaked out of my brain.

Hehe! I did too! I was just explaining it to someone a few days ago, as a matter of fact. He'd never seen any so I lent him the 4th one ("Voyage Home") which IMHO is the best one. When he brought it back to me he asked whether the others were worth seeing as well (guess I turned him into a potential Trekkie) so I told him about odd and even thing. I swear he looked at me like I was crazy. *lol*

Odd bad, even good.

I should be ashamed. I only know pi to 14 decimal places. My wife, OTOH, knew it to over 100 when she was in college. I think everyone in her crowd (she's five years older than me) competed to see who could recite the most. I don't know how many she remembers now, but it's still way more than I know.

I come in at 41%. Although I can certainly think of other geeky things I do/have done that should be on there...

I just scored "14.7929% - Geekish Tendencies".. While checking all those boxes (can't help it that I'm a solitaire addict.. ) I thought I would come out at approx. 60 per cent.. But no, I'm just a little geek

Btw, what's geeky about fanfic?

But it only works until #10, though. That one being the absolute worst ever... no story and the whole entire plot is revealed about 10 minutes into the film. I fell asleep in the theatre, during the big battle scene, on one of those vibrating seats that are supposed to make the movie-going experience more "real". right... LOL! I have yet to see that movie from start to end.

IMHO, "Nemesis" should be to Trek what "Never Say Never Again" is to Bond. (ie: fans consider it to be "unofficial")

I remember my math teacher, he must have been from the same generation as your wife, he knew (and probably still knows) pi to around 250 decimal places! He said he liked to study pi in the train.. Yahoo.. He was a very funny guy (I remember a certain story he told about "coming", well, you know what I mean.. and he was just telling it in front of class!)

Well anyway, I only know 3.14 (and I think it was 3.1419 or 3.14159 or something?)

Speaking of geekyness, I know this geeky game, but it's really fun to play it's called iSketch (something like online pictionary, pretty geeky, but real fun! )

3.141592

Those are the ones I can easily recite. I know a poem, though, that gives you... *counts mentally* 30 digits or so? (I admit, I'm a little fuzzy on the last few words *g*)

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

3.141592657 -- 9 digits, so I couldn't check the box that said I know it to 10.

16.96-Geek

would've been higher, but I don't use computers for much other than entertainment.