https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictures_for_Sad_Children
In some ways “outdated”, too edgy, but in some details maybe even more relevant today than it originally was.
(1/3 of humanity having no electricity is a bit exaggerated, in 2000 it was 1/5.)
I have met many tech bros who are nerds, a lot of you seem to be in denial
Those aren’t nerds dipshit, how about you confirm the coordinates before launching the missile
Get google imagesed with the worst quality screencap I can find
Don’t fucking put that shit on nerds. The artist isn’t describing nerds, they’re describing capitalism and it’s adherents. This isn’t about nerds. Eg I go through way fewer electronics and gadgetry than the average iPhone idiot specifically because I’m a nerd. My phone is like 7 years old and I’m about to put PostmarketOS on it to try for another 7. I’m painstakingly bootstrapping the firmware on my old Ikea and Hue lights so I never have to buy new ones. I haven’t bought a new computer in decades, I just franken-update as needed, not as desired. My car is a 2008 model because I know how awful the electronics are in new models and will do anything to avoid buying a new one.
Fuck this artist. They’re is a god damned coward apologist for capitalism and is throwing nerds under the bus to do it.
The comic was dumb when it came out and it’s a lot more dumb now.
I buy the latest and greatest CPU, but that’s because I’m a Rust programmer and rustc is a resource pig. Also I would gladly double my compile times for a 10% improvement in end user performance.
I have the latest and greatest CPU because I know my users don’t.
you are doing a great job.
PSA: tech bros and people who buy the lastest iphone are not nerds!
In fact nerds don’t tend to care about fashion items as status symbols and if you buy an iPhone every year, you’re very much doing it to show everyone your updated camera bump layout, as they last a long time in reality, much like modern Android flagships. And I doubt most nerds care about a 10% performance uplift enough to spend money every year. Money that could be funneled into expensive hobbies
yeah this is all i could think about reading it. The nerds are using older products, often saving them from going to a landfill. Theyre reading books. The person buying an iphone every year is the opposite of a nerd
Exactly! I collect cassettes, books, and boardgames, and 95% of the time they’re thrifted; it’s the same with my clothes and instruments.
I’m actually planning on reviving my old… i think it’s an iPod Touch 5? It’s not a very “good” device, but it’ll serve well as a music player :3
tech bros are “nerds (derogatory)”, geeks are “nerds (endearing)”
Yet another example where geeks overlap with but are very much distinct from nerds
Honestly, I’m not sure this counts as being a geek, either, but I’m a nerd; I have no qualifications to say one way or the other.
The “nerds” I know spend days getting an obscure ROM to work on a 6 year old phone they got for free from a relative instead of chasing the latest tech. Having the newest and slimmest phone is about fashion, not hacking.
Or reverse-engineering the LEGO Island source code.
Or emulating a Wii U gamepad on a Pi Zero.
Or porting applications to Windows 95.
I might have an obsession with a certain YouTuber.
I am interested now, can you give the channel name or link please?
Thank you! Turns out I saw some of the videos, but never managed to subscribe. Today that’s changed. :)
This comic confuses the nerd, who has a 12 year old laptop with netbsd on it, a flipphone, and a PSP they use to emulate a game boy advance, with those cosplaying as one by buying the newest tech gadget as soon as it is out.
The techbros pushing the singulrity are not nerds either. It’s unclear if Musk ever really read Iain Banks’ culture novels he keeps referencing, but if he did, he 100% missed their point.
Right? Using the term ‘nerd’ in this context infuriates me
Joke’s on them, I have an actual Game Boy Advance. Bud still works after all these years.
You should try a DS, the screen is usable for us old people 😁!
Wait, did you say Advance ? Best fucking handheld ever built 😍
I’m kind of repeating myself, but the comic is pretty old (before 2014), and I think the culture and words’ meanings have shifted a bit in the meantime.
No, i don’t think so. That use of the word nerd was as out of place 15 years ago as it is today.
Source: I was a nerd 15 years ago too.
Then replace the word in an image editor? Or if it’s this old try to refine it a bit?
It’s not my work, I don’t want to (and don’t have much of a right to) meddle with it. If I even thought of updating it to my tastes, I’d do everything differently, far from changing just one word. Art can’t be updated.
The interesting part is, to me, how a few details do seem not at all outdated, despite many others being grating.
I must admit, now I understand even more clearly why the author deleted all of her work off the internet…
The first half of this comic started to have a point, but kinda lost me as soon as the author started condemning the idea of having hobbies.
we’ve finally come full circle from “haha nerds are awkward losers!” through “actually nerds are fine” to “haha nerds are just straight up ontologically bad!”
The comic is from >10 years ago (ran 2007‐2014).
And was wrong then too. Extremely. Techbros existed back then too.
This is bringing real criticism of a group and blaming it on another group. It’s bad.
Some might claim it’s more relevant today than it originally was
Some would be very obviously wrong
“nerds” please, say techbro. No one that’s obsessed with computing is buying the thinnest macbook™. Nor are they incharge of making ot
Wanting a SteamDeck isn’t the same as being racist (since you brought it up). A lot of nerds like things outside of computers and phones. In fact, some of us are pretty resourceful and reusing older devices for less waste and more privacy.
Last year I gave away my Switch because I didn’t play it as much as I used to. Same with my old phone and hard drive. So spare me the self-righteous bullshit.
Also your comic sucks and is too wordy. It’s a comic draw better pictures.
It’s not my comic, see the description, it’s a decade old.
If it were me I wouldn’t post something I disagreed with.
I mean you could probably draw better than whoever made this comic since it’s barely anything, but still the message of the comic is making assumptions about nerds and calling us racist for being nerds.
The comic was pretty popular back in the day, the minimal empty style had its charm, and worked well with the themes.
I suspect the comic’s notion of “nerd” is just outdated. Or off the mark. Either way, the actual criticisms don’t apply to what we call nerds, but to something else, others have pointed out the better word would be tech bros.
this is wrong usage of nerd, it describes tech bros. the actual nerds have enough class conciousness to oppose consumptionism and capitalism
No true nerd fallacy
mrow :3
:3
I don’t own a single computer newer than 2013. I keep a stack of old hardware people who upgrade throw away to ensure I’ll ALWAYS have a supply of old computers I’ll keep out of landfill.
Normal people spent decades IGNORING the warnings of nerds and buying the bullshit of tech bros, and now the nerds who tried to warn them get blamed for this mess? Piss off.
Oh yeah! Do drag queens next! They just got their 15 seconds of fame a decade ago too!
Drags are ruining the planet! Makeup just kills kids in the third world! And fast fashion! And those lights! On the mirrors and the stage! Girl! Global warming!
Buncha rich white men wasting their lives pretending! Wigs in the trash! Cigarettes! Wanting to make everyone werk themselves to death trying to slay everyone!
