Nerd Virtues
Follow an absorbing interest into real understanding, and make that understanding worth sharing.
A question catches you: why does this game rule work, where does that story contradict itself, how did this tiny script award a point to nobody? You follow it past the quick answer. Nerd Virtues is for the pleasure of going deep—into code, games, fiction, puzzles, collections, model railways or whatever keeps giving you better questions.
13 virtues to practice
- 01
Diligence
Work through the awkward part; let the details count.
- 02
Patience
Give a difficult idea time to become your own.
- 03
Humility
Let a good question improve your understanding.
- 04
Curiosity
Follow the question that reaches beyond your specialty.
- 05
Intellectual Honesty
Keep the result that makes you revise the theory.
- 06
Perseverance
Return to the inquiry with something learned.
- 07
Generosity
Give another enthusiast a useful way in.
- 08
Temperance
Leave your interest ready for a good return.
- 09
Attentiveness
Look at what is there before naming it.
- 10
Exactitude
Keep the distinction that makes your explanation true.
- 11
Integrance
Join the pieces without smoothing away their differences.
- 12
Self-Command
Understand the question before scoring the point.
- 13
Compassion
Meet the person before adding another explanation.
The pleasure of finding out
An absorbing interest offers more than a store of facts. There is joy in recognizing a pattern, getting a stubborn project to work, spotting the reference a friend will love and discovering that a familiar subject still has surprises. These virtues help that pleasure grow into understanding worth sharing.
Diligence and Patience carry you through the part that resists easy understanding. Curiosity finds an unexpected neighbor to the familiar subject. Intellectual Honesty and Exactitude keep a satisfying explanation answerable to what it describes. Integrance brings the pieces together without erasing their disagreements.
Depth also has company. Generosity gives another enthusiast a way in; Humility lets their question improve your account; Compassion notices when the person needs something besides an answer. Temperance and Self-Command help keep the interest at home in a life with other values and other people.
Nerd Virtues in ordinary life
The project with an awkward result
Keep the failed example, investigate it carefully and return with a better method. Intellectual Honesty, Diligence and Perseverance do different work within one inquiry.
The story that contradicts itself
Distinguish the versions, compare the evidence and leave the unresolved link visible. Exactitude and Integrance can make disagreement part of the fun.
The question in the group chat
Read what was asked, offer a useful way in and notice when the person needs company rather than another explanation. Self-Command, Generosity and Compassion keep knowledge in good company.
An optional rhythm
The thirteen virtues form a thirteen-week cycle. Four optional cycles take fifty-two weeks. Public reading and the exercises require no enrollment; a named program and My Virtues are separate optional choices.
Choose your own interest
For anyone who enjoys going deep into an interest, whether or not you call yourself a nerd.
Practice this collection
Choose this approved collection as an optional workbook program, or select individual virtues in My Virtues.