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Re: Why Nerds are Unpopular

paulgraham.com · 1,251 words · saved by 1 readers

Many people have written to me about Why Nerds are Unpopular, and many more seem to be posting about it on various Web sites. Here are answers to some of the points they've raised. It wasn't like that at my school. Some of my friends who went to private schools or to one of the small number of really good public school systems say that things were very different for them. What I'm talking about in this essay is the situation in the average American public secondary school. I feel confident that I understand that, because I went to them. The scary thing is, the schools I went to were probably above average. My parents chose the suburb we lived in because the schools were said to be good. (As newly arrived immigrants from England, they had no idea how bad "good" was.) I knew smart kids who weren't nerds. Smart kids don't necessarily turn into nerds. If you're good looking, a natural athlete, or the sibling of a popular kid, you'll automatically be popular. But most popul

Re: Why Nerds are Unpopular --> Many people have written to me about Why Nerds are Unpopular , and many more seem to be posting about it on various Web sites. Here are answers to some of the points they've raised. It wasn't like that at my school. Some of my friends who went to private schools or to one of the small number of really good public school systems say that things were very different for them. What I'm talking about in this essay is the situation in the average American public secondary school. I feel confident that I understand that, because I went to them. The scary thing is, the

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