52. Nerdos vs Thymos 🔗
September 21, 2020
In which I argue that if something is worth doing for free, it's worth nerding out on obsessively — that 'nerdos' is more powerful than 'thymos' — and playfully claim the Greeks feared it, the Middle Ages banned it, and that the devil truly does hide in the details.
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If something is worth doing for free, it’s worth doing nerd-out obsessively-compulsively for free.
“Free” implies the purest kind of surplus leisure energy. It should be unshackled from ordinary ROI thinking. You’ve already accepted zero returns. So why hold back?
“Free” implies the purest kind of surplus leisure energy. It should be unshackled from ordinary ROI thinking. You’ve already accepted zero returns. So why hold back?
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I don’t mean doing it with excellence. Excellence only applies to non-free things. It’s a point on a price performance curve.
True free things (not free samples or loss leaders or freemium or charity) don’t belong on that curve.
Nerd-OCD = qualitatively absurd level of caring.
True free things (not free samples or loss leaders or freemium or charity) don’t belong on that curve.
Nerd-OCD = qualitatively absurd level of caring.
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Anybody who would only do something comparable for money should react like “I wouldn’t put that much effort into this if I were being paid a million dollars”
Money cannot but nerd-OCD levels of caring about a thing. In fact it will discourage it. You’d be caring too much.
Money cannot but nerd-OCD levels of caring about a thing. In fact it will discourage it. You’d be caring too much.
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Note that we’re NOT talking talent, genius, or exceptional intelligence being inputs. Only demented, quixotic levels of caring, and irrationally absurd levels of time/attention investment but with perfectly ordinary abilities.
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This is why most examples are from things like fan theories or hobby projects. Domains where talent is not expected, ROI-logic is suspended by default, and the work is its own reward.
Labor of love stuff, but love is the wrong word.
Labor of love stuff, but love is the wrong word.
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Psychologically what’s going on is that you’ve triggered a network effect in your head that generates seemingly limitless reserves of attention and engagement with the subject. That’s nerd-OCD. You become a perpetual motion machine of sorts.
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The Greeks called it “nerdos” and feared it. It’s where we get the word “nerd.” 🤓
They feared it because they knew it was more powerful than “thymos” and will-to-power 😎
That’s why they tried to ban it. Nerdos was viewed as devil energy in the Middle Ages.
They feared it because they knew it was more powerful than “thymos” and will-to-power 😎
That’s why they tried to ban it. Nerdos was viewed as devil energy in the Middle Ages.
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That’s why we have sayings like “the devil hides in the details” or “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
Religious fear of ocd-nerd energy that trashes ROI formulas, the concept of money, and the supposed value of striving for recognition in thymos contests.
Religious fear of ocd-nerd energy that trashes ROI formulas, the concept of money, and the supposed value of striving for recognition in thymos contests.