In a comment to yesterday’s post about Chesterton, Catherine pointed out some intellectuals think they’re superior to other people. Some do feel that way.
an intellectual:
- a person of superior intellect.
- a person who places a high value on or pursues things of interest to the intellect or the more complex forms and fields of knowledge, as aesthetic or philosophical matters, especially on an abstract and general level.
- an extremely rational person; a person who relies on intellect rather than on emotions or feelings.
On the other hand, as I’ve said before, my brain is my favorite toy. I love playing with ideas and learning new things because it’s fun. I’m not an intellectual, I’m a nerd:
Nerd:
Someone who enjoys learning and obtaining new information in general for it’s own sake, often without discrimination to different areas of knowledge. The key to recognizing a nerd is if they are completely indifferent to the application of what they learn; they are not inherently inclined to use or not to use the information.
Someone who is a nerd could also be a geek, who is passionate about highly specific interests, or a dork, who is a social outcast, but they do not have to be.
That reminds me of a friend years ago who looked at me with some disdain and said, “You’re a scholar! You learn things for the joy of it, not for any useful purpose.” Yep, guilty as charged, and it’s way too late for me to change now. At my age I’ll be grateful if my poor old brain keeps letting me play.
November 15, 2019
that’s not a bad place to be in…to be a “happy nerd” and from the description if you loved to browse and then bake cakes; grow an interesting garden: be cacti or herbs; read and study travel books: but not necessarily travel…it’s all the same, just different.
I follow a number of young and not so young worldwide travellers…they do some oddball things at times, but many of them research where they are and they explain the history or whatever; one pair love to try local foods; some of the them just dabble in the foods; most them explain the tactics of the financial costs and travel days trials; and of course some of them are doing their travels methodically whilst others flit back and forwards (often back to their homeland)
I also follow the paper-makers – books, ideas, tutorials, their adventures with making. Most via uTube but I didn’t find the bundle of workshops via that mode but rather through google (some time ago) I also regularly have e-letters from other artistic ideas including ikebana…
I’m still interested in areas I studied at University but haven’t got back to one area in particular “geography” …I recently meet a young man studying G and it reminded me…
The nice thing is nowadays we don’t have to take formal classes to learn a lot. I used to buy tapes/videos from the Great Courses, which has college-level lectures on a lot of subjects. The ones I bought were mainly history. But now they have a streaming option, The Great Courses Plus, that I’ve been subscribing to. So far I’ve watched a lot of history courses, the last one being The Big History, 48 lectures covering the Big Bang to the present, which was fun. Because of that I’m watching A Field Guide to the Planets, about our solar system, with a lot of great graphics. The thing I like about the courses is the professors love their fields and want to share their enthusiasm as well as their knowledge.
But it doesn’t matter what we’re interested in — as you say, we have so many choices nowadays, and we get to decide what to pick. I think we’re so lucky.
I am not sure what I would call myself…I sure do watch a lot of youtube…I might say i am a wantabe craftswoman, when all I really am someone who makes the occasional quilt, and someone who takes a lot of photographs when give the opportunity.
And I really don’t know what this says about me, but I love to read memoirs and diaries of people moving/or living in Alaska, also the early settlers of our country.
I don’t think there is a week goes by that I don’t have the thought ‘Wow, I wonder what the early settlers thought when they saw all this flat land?’
Or if I see the Mississippi or a Great Lake, whether in person, on a show, or in a photo, I wonder who had the nerve to start across any of them in a canoe. Or who had the audacity to think a bridge could be built across the Mississippi…
I can spend hours on Google Earth, or hours at The Library of Congress, searching for and looking at old, old photos.
I love your photos! And aren’t we lucky to be able to explore so much, enrich our lives, without having to leave home. 🙂
I read a lot. All kinds of books. When our daughter was young she used to ask me how I knew something or other and I’d answer that I must have read it in a book. I remember playing Trivial Pursuit as part of a team of people. I didn’t expect to know anything about sports. But a lot of the questions had to do with horse racing and I had read all the Dick Francis mysteries which were set in various types of horse racing so I knew things like what a jockey’s uniform is called.
That’s neat. 🙂
I guess I’m both an intellectual (definitions 2 and 3) and a nerd (someone who enjoys learning and obtaining new information in general for its own sake). Does that make me a nerdilectual?
I really love the term nerd. It avoids the connotations of the first definition of intellectual.
Whether you’re a nerd, an intellectual or something different, the important thing is that you are happy with being who you are.
Yes, and being able to do what really turns us on in life without worrying about our image/status, what other people think of our hobbies.
Ditto what Ann, above, said.
Yes. 🙂
After reading the definitions I can confidently say that I’m – neither one.
I think I’m a…..well I’m not sure, but I guess I’m a dreamer.
The main thing is do you do things that make you happy?
The answer is…. mostly no.
My pets, especially the pups, make me happy but right now I’m struggling.
I’m trying to find things to make me happy but it’s proving difficult because of my energy level. My work leaves me exhausted, not only physically but mentally and that has been destroying my creativity. Seems like I spend way too much time dreaming of retirement.
So that is why I’d say I’m a dreamer.
I’m sorry about that! 🙁