Geek Observes Geeks, Files Report

(PHOTO: Philip Guo

Stanford Computer Science PhD candidate Philip Guo has a section on his website entitled Observations about People. His latest report, Geek behaviors present during conversations, chronicles “common behaviors I’ve observed from my past few years of interactions with geeks, nerds, and other highly-smart technical people.”

Here’s my favorite bit:

Preferring exact numerical responses
Geeks favor accuracy and correctness over ease-of-comprehension for their listeners. If you ask a geek a question requiring a numerical answer and he knows the exact number, then he will likely repeat it verbatim rather than rounding to present an easier-to-remember response (e.g., “that camera is 4.2 megapixels” rather than “that camera is around 4 megapixels").

Philip’s full report is here.