Happy Monday – let’s talk about scifi and bridging the world of Weird Nerds. Science fiction can’t exist without ‘weird nerds,’ but weird nerds can’t exist without understanding how to co-exist with the world. How do we bridge between them? Who or what, you ask, is a ‘weird nerd?’ All good questions.
This recent article singing the praises of ‘weird nerds’ is a wonderful start, and I’d like to expand on this idea. I’m a weird nerd, too – I need to fit into the world and scifi is my Comment je m’intègre.
First and foremost – THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH WEIRD NERDS. Please don’t read this and think the term ‘weird nerd’ is pejorative. It’s not – it’s affectionate. I’m a weird nerd, and many of the best people in the world – people I love and respect – are weird nerds, too. The world needs weird nerds. The rest of this article is about how we can be scifi thought leaders by embracing weird nerds.
Why I’m Writing This
As a weird nerd, scifi is how I fit in, but never mind that. What’s important to me is ‘fitting into the world.’ I’m not an island, but many of my ‘bridges’ to everyone else have burned. Some infernos were self-inflicted, others the direct result of social arson. It wasn’t until this article that I clearly understood:
- My challenge is more common than I think.
- I needed help to overcome it.
- I can’t overcome without becoming
Figuring out what I needed to become has been part of my journey. Yes, I need scifi but does scifi need me? Am I doing something in service to the world, or to myself? Wrestling with those answers has driven this blog and the stories I write. All my characters are trying to figure themselves out, too. Watching them struggle, learn, grow – that helps me and it helps my readers engaged in the common toil.
How do I navigate this correctly? How do I help others do the same? It comes down to a simple answer and I include it as the TL;DR – Don’t burn bridges.
Weird Nerds Need Love
If you think about human connection – it’s about building bridges between each other. That’s not just my view. Genuine connections are built on shared experiences, empathy, and understanding, elements that algorithms, for all their prowess, cannot fully replicate. The issue for ‘weird nerds’ is – our bridge-building technique is different from most people. Where some people like steel arch bridges, but our bridges resemble those living root bridges in India or other places. Our connections “show a very wide variety of structural typologies, with various aspects of particular bridges resembling characteristics of suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges, arches, trusses, and simply-supported beams.”
I say all that to remind the reader – weird nerds value connection and meaningful relationships just as much as everyone else! We just have a different way of connecting. Imagine approaching a person in India who builds living root bridges with hostility – ‘that’s not a bridge!’ Congratulations, you just sunk the world. Go back home, Sunshine – you clearly don’t understand the world you’re living in. Conversely, imagine building the Golden Gate Bridge with rubber fig tree vines – think it’ll carry cars and people? Have fun with that.
When interacting with weird nerds, please remember that at the end of the day – we all want the same thing. Weird nerds just go about it in a different way, and their different way enables them to do far more than you could imagine accomplishing on your own. As noted in the main article, Katalin Karikó is a ‘weird nerd,’ and look at what being a weird nerd enabled her to do:
Karikó’s work laid the foundation for BioNTech and Moderna to create therapeutic mRNAs that do not induce an immune response. In 2020, Karikó and Weissman’s technology was used in vaccines for COVID-19 produced by BioNTech and its partner Pfizer and by Moderna.
Millions of human lives have been saved by Karikó’s work. We are indebted to her, and other weird nerds like Jonas Salk, who could have become a *trillionaire* for his discoveries surrounding the polio vaccine. Instead, he gave his word away for free – the world is a better place for it.
With me so far? Weird nerds need love. NOW – let’s talk about what weird nerds need to do:
Weird Nerds Need to Love
Using my bridge metaphor – weird nerds need to remember to ‘build bridges’ with others, too. When our counterparts engage with us, they’re solving a problem and they see our value in helping to solve it. Imagine being at the foot of Manhattan looking toward Brooklyn and kicking away the first strands of iron cable because ‘we really think the Brooklyn Bridge should be built with copper, instead.’
Instead, we can ‘hack’ the conversation by using love. ‘I get that you’re trying to build a bridge and you see that your standard bridge types won’t get you there. Let me show you a new way to build bridges. I know the idea of a living root bridge sounds weird, but let me show you how it works.’
Does this make sense? We can use this strategy to connect with each other in *so many ways.* On the subject of Star Wars being scifi or fantasy – we can build a connection by saying ‘whether it’s scifi or fantasy, we can all agree that Jar Jar sucks!’
Do what you want with this information – it’s not going to cover every use case. But please remember that at the end of the day – weird nerds rise in the world by showing love.
Major Points to Remember
- The Juice Must be Worth the Squeeze – Weird nerds like Karikó succeed because the juice is worth the squeeze. Yes, she’s a weird nerd, but she’s saving millions of lives. Does your ‘weird nerd’-ness provide similar levels of value. Is it worth putting up with you because you have something meaningful to share? Don’t forget – House was tolerated because he could do a Sherlock Holmes on medical conditions and arrive at correct conclusions faster than anyone else. If you’re going to treat everyone like House, you better have something to offer – the juice must be worth the squeeze.
- Conversations Over Conflagrations – When you’re approaching a ‘bridge building’ moment, remember that steel beam bridges contain lots of hard surfaces and sharp corners. Similarly, some conversations will be painful and uncomfortable – but it’s still important to have them. Don’t burn the bridge, don’t end the relationship over a conversation. ‘I get that you’re trying to solve a problem and I want to help you solve it. There are some points here that I can’t say yes to, but let me think about it and see if we can find a better approach.’
I hope you can take this ‘bridging’ and ‘weird nerd’ discussion and find some value in it. Always remember: the world needs weird nerds and weird nerds need to feel connected, too. Remember that we’re all trying to build bridges, not burn them, and at the end of the day – weird nerds rise in the world by showing love.
Hope this is helpful – thanks for listening – I’m going to continue building bridges and learning how to build them better. I hope you can do the same.
