How to Find a Gift for a Self Proclaimed Nerd or Geek
Do you know someone who calls him or herself a class ‘A’, dyed-in-the-wool, true-blue nerd? Nerds come in all shapes and sizes, and proud super-nerds usually have unique preferences when it comes to gifts. Here’s how to find the perfect token of affection for the geeky genius in your life.
Steps
- Know the difference between a geek and a nerd. To the common people, they may be the same. However, to someone who is a geek or nerd, will find it quite rude to call them that which they are not.
- Find your nerd friend’s passion. Geeks are generally very smart with computers. You might even say they know “way too much” about the topic for any kind of practical application (e.g. memorizing about 300 digits of pi). A self-proclaimed geek’s passion should be rather obvious (self-proclaimed geeks specialize with computers, whether it be hardware or software, programming languages or operating systems). Some common examples of nerd-like passions include chemistry, comic books, stamp or coin collections, math, Shakespeare, Tolkien, classical music, and writing.
- Think of a gift relating to that passion. Keep in mind that nerds, whether they be math nerds, chemistry nerds, or whatever, will enjoy something that either relates to something obscure about this subject, something that alludes to their obsession with it, or flatters their deep knowledge of the subject. As an example, let’s try a common nerdy obsession: Math. What would a math nerd consider a cool gift? Well, the best nerd gifts are ones that relate to something obscure about this subject, particularly something very unique. For example, you can get any book in the universe about math, and a math nerd will probably gobble it up…But get them an autographed book by their favorite mathematician, and you’ll score major bonus points. Or, what about a clock that, instead of the numbers one through 12, has the unit circle? Posters, thank-you cards, a math puzzle that you have written, or anything else that lets math nerds surround themselves with their own intellectual obsession make thoughtful gifts as well.
- Search high and low for gifts related to their passion. There are millions of websites now that have classic nerdy stuff. Some good gifts are available from well known providers like eBay and Amazon. There are also a number of “geek stores” dedicated to satisfying specific geek needs (see the external links below for some examples).
- Add an extra touch. The more thickly you can pour it on, the better. Be creative with the wrapping, the card, etc., in ways that, again, refer to his or her passion. For a geek, find wrapping paper that looks like a circuit board. For the science nerd, hand them some safety goggles while they opens the package. For the math nerd, make a mathematical scavenger hunt to get to their gift. There are hundreds and hundreds of possibilities; explore them…Your friend will love you for it!
Tips
- Remember that, though ideal, a gift doesn’t have to have a lot of real-life practical application in order to be a great gift. Take, for instance, an alarm clock that gives the time in binary instead of decimal. Sure it tells the time, but why would one want to go to the extra effort of translating the binary into decimal just to know what time it is? This is the coolest gift in the universe for a math nerd (or geek) because it flatters his/her understanding of binary and his/her ability to transfer numbers from one base to another.
- An obscure or esoteric ‘toy’ is almost sure to pique their interest. Example cool gifts for a physics/math nerd would include: a super-egg, a snail-ball, orbitz soda (hard to find), a home-brew holography kit, fog zero-blaster, and a glass klein bottle. These are great because they give nerds an opportunity to explain the gift to their friends.
- If your friend is one of those people who seems to be reading a book per week, you could get them a gift certificate for the local bookstore; but also consider paying off their library fines, if they’re the disorganized type. If they like writing, try a calligraphy set. If they like playing the piano or another instrument, get them a gift certificate for somewhere that sells sheet music. Or if you want to be more expensive, buy them a variation of their instrument of choice: if they play flute, you could give them a piccolo, for example.
- If you have a well known university in your area, chances are it will have a few very well known professors in a specialized field. Most profs enjoy talking about their research and are very good about signing books that they’ve written regarding a particular subject.
Warnings!!!
- If one thing is for sure, nerds like the fact that they know a lot about certain things that others know very little about. A big no-no on a gift, then, is to get him something generic that refers to his obsession. For example, even though a math nerd loves math, don’t get them a calculator. EVERYONE has a calculator, and so it’s not a compliment to their unique position in society as the person who has “nerdy” math stuff. Nerds are interested in gifts that identify them as a nerd. Geeks are interested in gifts that identify them as a geek. Which would you think pegs someone as a math nerd: “He has a calculator” or “He has a clock that is the unit circle instead of the numbers 1 through 12?”
- Buy a gift of appropriate complexity for the recipient. Don’t embarrass a geek with “Windows XP for Dummies”. Conversely don’t buy a PhD level book on TCP/IP for a sixth grader.
- If your nerdy friend is only semi-self-proclaimed (i.e. only their closest friends know of their nerdyness) make sure not to give them the gift in front of a large crowd, thereby making their sort-of-secret passions known to the world.
- Be careful about buying electronics and specialized gifts or anything that will “be of use” to the geek. Even something like a wireless mouse may require careful consideration for a computer geek and very important not get “the wrong one.”
- Star Wars and Star Trek are NOT the same thing.
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