Fierce Nerds

May 2021 Most people think of nerds as quiet, diffident people.

2021 年 5 月 大多数人认为书呆子是安静、害羞的人。

In ordinary social situations they are — as quiet and diffident as the star quarterback would be if he found himself in the middle of a physics symposium.

在普通的社交场合，他们就像明星四分卫参加物理研讨会时一样安静和羞涩。

And for the same reason: they are fish out of water.

出于同样的原因：它们是离开水的鱼。

But the apparent diffidence of nerds is an illusion due to the fact that when non-nerds observe them, it's usually in ordinary social

但书呆子表面上的自信是一种错觉，因为当非书呆子观察他们时，通常是在普通的社交场合

situations.

情况。

In fact some nerds are quite fierce.

事实上，有些书呆子是相当凶猛的。

The fierce nerds are a small but interesting group.

凶猛的书呆子是一个虽小但有趣的群体。

They are as a rule extremely competitive — more competitive, I'd say, than highly competitive non-nerds.

一般来说，他们非常有竞争力——我想说，比那些具有高度竞争力的非书呆子更有竞争力。

Competition is more personal for them.

对他们来说，竞争更加个人化。

Partly perhaps because they're not emotionally mature enough to distance themselves from it, but also because there's less randomness in the kinds of competition they engage in, and they are thus more justified

部分原因可能是因为他们在情感上还不够成熟，无法与它保持距离，但也因为他们参与的竞争种类较少随机性，因此他们更有理由

in taking the results personally.

个人认为结果。

Fierce nerds also tend to be somewhat overconfident, especially when young.

凶猛的书呆子也往往有些过度自信，尤其是在年轻的时候。

It might seem like it would be a disadvantage to be mistaken about one's abilities, but empirically it isn't.

错误地认识自己的能力似乎是一种劣势，但从经验来看，事实并非如此。

Up to a point, confidence is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

在某种程度上，信心是一种自我实现的预言。

Another quality you find in most fierce nerds is intelligence.

在大多数凶猛的书呆子身上发现的另一个品质是智力。

Not all nerds are smart, but the fierce ones are always at least

并不是所有的书呆子都很聪明，但凶猛的书呆子至少总是

moderately so.

适度地如此。

If they weren't, they wouldn't have the confidence to be fierce.

如果不是的话，他们就没有底气去凶猛。

[ 1 ] There's also a natural connection between nerdiness and independent-mindedness .

[1] 书呆子和独立思想之间也有天然的联系。

It's hard to be independent-minded without being somewhat socially awkward, because conventional beliefs are so often mistaken, or at least arbitrary.

要想保持独立的思想而不在社交上感到有些尴尬是很难的，因为传统的信念常常是错误的，或者至少是武断的。

No one who was both independent-minded and ambitious would want to waste the effort it

没有一个既具有独立思想又雄心勃勃的人愿意浪费精力

takes to fit in.

需要适应。

And the independent-mindedness of the fierce nerds will obviously be of the aggressive rather than the passive type: they'll be annoyed by rules, rather than dreamily unaware of them.

而凶猛的书呆子的独立思想显然是积极的而不是被动的：他们会被规则惹恼，而不是梦幻般地不知道规则。

I'm less sure why fierce nerds are impatient, but most seem to be.

我不太清楚为什么凶猛的书呆子会不耐烦，但大多数人似乎都是如此。

You notice it first in conversation, where they tend to interrupt you.

你首先会在谈话中注意到这一点，因为他们往往会打断你。

This is merely annoying, but in the more promising fierce nerds

这只是令人讨厌，但在更有前途的凶猛书呆子中

it's connected to a deeper impatience about solving problems.

这与解决问题的更深层次的不耐烦有关。

Perhaps the competitiveness and impatience of fierce nerds are not separate qualities, but two manifestations of a single underlying drivenness.

也许凶猛的书呆子的竞争性和急躁并不是独立的品质，而是单一潜在驱动力的两种表现。

When you combine all these qualities in sufficient quantities, the result is quite formidable.

当你将所有这些品质足够多地结合起来时，结果是相当强大的。

The most vivid example of fierce nerds in action may be James Watson's The Double Helix .

凶猛书呆子行动的最生动的例子可能是詹姆斯·沃森的《双螺旋》。

The first sentence

第一句话

of the book is "I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood," and the portrait he goes on to paint of Crick is the quintessential fierce nerd: brilliant, socially awkward, competitive, independent-minded, overconfident.

这本书的主旨是“我从未见过弗朗西斯·克里克心情谦虚”，他接下来为克里克描绘的肖像是典型的凶猛书呆子：才华横溢，社交尴尬，好胜，思想独立，过度自信。

But so is the implicit portrait he paints of himself.

但他为自己描绘的含蓄肖像也是如此。

Indeed, his lack of social awareness makes both portraits that much more realistic, because he baldly states all sorts of opinions and

事实上，他缺乏社会意识，使得这两幅肖像都显得更加现实，因为他直言不讳地表达了各种观点和观点。

motivations that a smoother person would conceal.

圆滑的人会隐藏一些动机。

And moreover it's clear from the story that Crick and Watson's fierce nerdiness was integral to their success.

此外，从这个故事中可以清楚地看出，克里克和沃森的强烈书呆子精神是他们成功不可或缺的一部分。

Their independent-mindedness caused them to consider approaches that most others ignored, their overconfidence allowed them to work on problems they only half understood (they were literally described as "clowns" by one eminent insider), and

他们的独立思想使他们能够考虑大多数其他人忽视的方法，他们的过度自信使他们能够解决他们只理解一半的问题（他们被一位著名的内部人士字面描述为“小丑”），并且

their impatience and competitiveness got them to the answer ahead of two other groups that would otherwise have found it within the next year, if not the next several months.

他们的急躁和竞争使他们比其他两个小组先找到了答案，否则这两个小组即使不是在接下来的几个月里，也能在明年内找到答案。

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