there are nerds, but then there are real nerds

Today I learned that when I first read the New York Times article about societal undervaluation of math nerds in the US, I didn't realize it also included science and engineering nerds in that category. I thought they were talking about pure math nerds, whom I consider to be about the same breed as theoretical physicists. You let them do their thing, and they come up with neat stuff, but otherwise you may as well stay out of the way because a decent proportion of them are kind of weird. Your applied types - most engineers - are what I consider to be regular people, and your experimentalists into basic research are fairly cool with some goofiness in the mix. They are quite different from math nerds.

I conclude that the New York Times article was written by an English major who, with a laughably pathetic math background, failed to make these obvious distinctions. It's sad when they let people like that graduate.