In his Op-Ed column of May 23rd, NY Times columnist David Brooks opined on the distinction between ‘nerds’ and ‘geeks’. ‘Geek’ is still chic, but ‘nerd’ is still god-awful weird. In my high school, we were all geeks even if there were some who did not want to admit it (for God’s sake, we went to Stuyvesant, so get over it). But while the nerds were even more social awkward than we were, they were definitely damn well smarter.

So here’s a question — if you could trade in the ease that an extrovert has in climbing the social ladder for the brilliance and ingenuity that a closet eccentric has, would you do it?

If you have a nerd or a geek in your life and are struggling to understand him or her (this presupposes that you yourself are not a nerd or geek, otherwise you would already intuitively understand), then you can get a leg up and read Caring for Your Introvert and The Nerd Handbook.

Good luck, he or she will give you a lifetime of mysteries, but if you make the effort, you’ll be rewarded with lifelong love and friendship.