Geek Wisdom

THE GEEKS HAVE INHERITED THE EARTH. Computer nerds are our titans of industry; comic-book superheroes are our Hollywood idols; the Internet is our night on the town. Clearly, geeks know something about life in the 21st century that other folks don’t—something we all can learn from. Geek Wisdom takes as gospel some 200 of the most powerful and oft-cited quotes from movies (“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads”), television (“Now we know—and knowing is half the battle”), literature (“All that is gold does not glitter”), games, science, the Internet, and more. Now these beloved pearls of modern-day culture have been painstakingly interpreted by a diverse team of hardcore nerds with their imaginations turned up to 11. Yes, this collection of mini-essays is by, for, and about geeks—but it’s just so surprisingly profound, the rest of us would have to be dorks not to read it. So say we all.

New York Times Bestseller A breakout teen author explores the true meaning of popularity and how to survive middle school in this hysterically funny, touchingly honest contemporary memoir. “I was inspired by [Maya's] journey and made a point of saving a copy of ‘Popular’ for my sister, who starts middle school this fall. Maybe if I had read it when I was her age, it could have saved me from a world of hurt, or at least put that world in perspective.” —Maude Apatow, New York Times Book Review Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help a shy girl become popular? Maya Van Wagenen is about to find out. Stuck near the bottom of the social ladder at “pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be here,” Maya has never been popular. But before starting eighth grade, she decides to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. The real-life results are hilarious, painful, and filled with unexpected surprises. Told with humor and grace, Maya’s journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence, along with a better understanding of what it means to be popular.

In 2004, Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist, moved to India to start a new research group for Microsoft. Its mission: to explore novel technological solutions to the world's persistent social problems. Together with his team, he invented electronic devices for under-resourced urban schools and developed digital platforms for remote agrarian communities. But after a decade of designing technologies for humanitarian causes, Toyama concluded that no technology, however dazzling, could cause social change on its own. Technologists and policy-makers love to boast about modern innovation, and in their excitement, they exuberantly tout technology's boon to society. But what have our gadgets actually accomplished? Over the last four decades, America saw an explosion of new technologies – from the Internet to the iPhone, from Google to Facebook – but in that same period, the rate of poverty stagnated at a stubborn 13%, only to rise in the recent recession. So, a golden age of innovation in the world's most advanced country did nothing for our most prominent social ill. Toyama's warning resounds: Don't believe the hype! Technology is never the main driver of social progress. Geek Heresy inoculates us against the glib rhetoric of tech utopians by revealing that technology is only an amplifier of human conditions. By telling the moving stories of extraordinary people like Patrick Awuah, a Microsoft millionaire who left his lucrative engineering job to open Ghana's first liberal arts university, and Tara Sreenivasa, a graduate of a remarkable South Indian school that takes children from dollar-a-day families into the high-tech offices of Goldman Sachs and Mercedes-Benz, Toyama shows that even in a world steeped in technology, social challenges are best met with deeply social solutions.

It takes a starship to raise a child. Or a time machine. Or a tribe of elves. Fortunately, Geek Parenting offers all that and more, with thoughtful mini-essays that reveal profound child-rearing advice (and mistakes) from the most beloved tales of geek culture. Nerds and norms alike can take counsel from some of the most iconic parent–child pairings found in pop culture: Aunt May and Peter Parker, Benjamin and Jake Sisko, Elrond and Arwen, even Cersei and Joffrey. Whether you’re raising an Amazon princess, a Jedi Padawan, a brooding vampire, or a standard-issue human child, Geek Parenting helps you navigate the ion storms, alternate realities, and endless fetch quests that come with being a parent. Includes parenting experts from across time and space, such as: Luke and Vader Korra and Tenzin Wednesday and Morticia Addams Frodo and Bilbo Rose and Jackie Tyler Carl and Michonne Thor, Loki, and Odin Starbuck, Apollo and Adama Stewie and Lois Sarah Manning and Mrs. S. T'Challa and T'Chaka Spock, Sarek, and Amanda Claudia and Lestat San and Moro Perseus and Zeus Dorothy and Auntie Em Bruce Wayne and Alfred Buffy and Giles Meg Murry and Aunt Beast Orpheus and Morpheus Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica Kal-El and Jor-El Chakotay and Kolopak Scott and Dr. Evil Diana and Hippolyta Alexander and Worf

Packed with tips, articles, and how-tos on everything from performing Jedi mind tricks to creating your own cosplay gear to wooing the geek of your dreams, Stuff Every Geek Should Know is an indispensable guide to life, the universe, and everything geeky. Featuring content from Quirk's nerdiest titles plus all-new, never-before-seen good stuff from the geekiest bloggers in the known universe. Chapters include: GEEK SKILLS FROM POP CULTURE: How to survive a haunted house, perform the Vulcan nerve pinch, decode ciphers, and master other survival skills. GEEKS IN ACTION: How to make amazing YouTube vids, create comic books, handle yourself in an online multiplayer game, and generally get your geek on. THE GEEK GATHERING: How to have the best convention experience of your life. GEEK LOVE: How to craft an online dating profile, plan a geeky marriage proposal, pass on geek wisdom to your kids, and otherwise enjoy the human emotion of "love."

And the GEEKS shall inherit the earth! Although it may not be good for their pasty white skin, Geeks these days are enjoying a moment in the sun. From Pop Culture to High-Tech Everything, Geeks rule and everybody else, well, drools. Drawing on his own knowledge of being a geek for almost 30 years, author Alex Langley provides essential advice for growth and survival for the modern Geek, including the top five games to play on your phone while listening to boring graduation speeches. There are also quotes and anecdotes from classic Geek gods such as Bill Gates, Sheldon Cooper, Felicia Day, "Weird" Al Yankovic and Dr. Who, that inspire all geeks to embrace not only your iPhones and Xboxes, but who you are. Let's face it, sometimes being the smartest person in the room isn't enough. And when it's not, The Geek Handbook can help. You'll discover: • Basics on social interaction, both online and off. • Fashion: just because you can wear socks and sandals doesn't mean you should. • Making friends, making dinner, making babies. • Warning signs your appliances might secretly be plotting against you. • Geeky charities that give a +1 to your Light Side score. • Geek girls: tips on interacting with or becoming one of these burgeoning beauties. So get your Geek on, and keep it on with The Geek Handbook.

This collection examines the nerd and/or geek stereotype in popular culture today. Utilizing the media—film, TV, YouTube, Twitter, fiction—that often defines daily lives, the contributors interrogate what it means to be labeled a “nerd” or “geek.” While the nerd/geek that is so easily recognized now is assuredly a twenty-first century construct, an examination of the terms’ history brings a greater understanding of their evolution. From sports to slasher films, Age of the Geek establishes a dialogue with texts as varied as the depictions of “nerd” or “geek” stereotypes.