How the Nerds Lost the World

There was a time, somewhere between the Dot Com Boom and the rise of GAMAM (Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Miscrosoft), when the revenge of the nerds was complete. We owned the world, the biggest companies, the most important personalities, the richest people in the world were nerds. It was clear that our way was better and that we were creating a better world from what came before.

Nowadays the situation for nerds couldn’t be worse. Though the big companies are still those created by nerds, they are commanded by less nerdy types, less admired… Some of them absolutely despised, as if they had been, shall we say, “Musked”.

What happened? How did we arrive from there to here? Frankly, I have no idea, but I think there are three things that influenced the move in the weltanschauung. These factors are the rise of Social Media, the attitude of Venture Capital, and the desire by top nerds to chase the stale prestige of the society that preceded the rise of the nerd.

Social Media

The effects of social media in society have been analyzed by people that know more than me, but there is one thing that bear repeating: Social Media is neither.

Social media betrayed the initial idea of the internet. It divided people in different castes. From succesful creators (called “influencers”), to wannabes, to mere spectators. The creation of verified “real people”, left mere humans in a void between the elite and the bots. Nothing to do except watch and become addicted, or worse, pretend you are part of the top group by acting as stupidly as them. All classified by numbers (of followers, of likes, etc).

Initially the internet was supposed to level the field, everybody could become a publisher of whatever they wanted, you just needed a domain and a server and you were accesible from all over the world. This open idea was challenged by oppressive regimes such as China, and the response from the “free” societies was to give China special status and copy their authoritarian attitudes.

It shouldn’t surprise us that Social Media is the entrance of China into the big applications with billions of users outside its borders. Social Media followed an authoritarian vein, helped by governments forcing them to check and censure the interactions of users and the prominent idea that they have to defeat all rivals to become “The One” and make all the money. That aim forced all Social Media companies to divide and control its user in a similar way as China divides and control its population. Disinformation is not a consequence of Social Media, but rather a succesful strategy to force users into compliance.

Users are given funny short content, the type of content where the nerd, with its ability to analyzed every detail in depth, is simply a fish out of water. Only a few nerds have power in social media, but the means they get that power is by betraying their nerdiness.

The VC Betrayal

Venture Capital (VC) was key to the rise of the nerd. They provided the necessary capital for the nerds to create companies that truly surprised, changed, and disrupted the previous order. But, as less money was needed to create those companies, something funny happened, VCs started following the belief that the only way to make big money was through advertising.

Business concepts as profitability and cash flow became obsolete, substituted by the expedited idea of an “exit”. What was important was for the company to conivnce enough people that they were going to be big, by expending money in growth, and then sell the company or do an IPO. What happens afterward is irrelevant for these VCs as they were just chasing money, not ideas.

That is how most companies ended up depending on ads both for revenue and for growth. One fueling the other in useless turns of hamsters in wheels.

You can almost trace the change of all companies in a line that starts with caring about the users and trying to satisfy their needs and ends in a view that the user is either money or attention, no longer a human being, no longer worthy of any consideration or respect. This attitude that can easily be seen in the cavalier way in which companies chose money over doing right by the user and is a direct consequence of the VCs looking for a fast way to make many bucks.

Assimilation by the Bored

The third factor is something that is intrinsic in human behaviour and that should have been fairly easy to predict. Nerds wanted to be accepted by the cheerleaders and the jocks. They had no desire to change the world or do anything useful, just a common desire to be respected and appreciated by the beautiful and powerful.

Problem is once you are accepted you become one of them and they become one of you. Without differentiation and change any sense of acceptance and respect disappears and the nerds and their creations become just one more thing to despise.

This was clearly enhanced by Social Media. That was the place where both the nerd desire for acceptance by the traditional elites and the hating of the nerd by common people are in display for everybody to see.

The Last Nerd

This three factors contributed to the current state of affairs, where nerds are again the butt of jokes and they keep trying to be accepted by the elites that, in turn, are just using them for their ends before throwing them to the lions in the colliseum to the cheers of the millions satisfied by bread and circus.

There may be a new hope. A new kind of nerd, less interested in being accepted in society and more in transforming it. How they will escape and help others escape their TikTok adiction long enough to pay attention to ideas remain to be seen.