Why Eric Kaler may NOT be a nerd

Last month, I wrote a post called Why Eric Kaler is a nerd. It was focused on a section of a Tim Post article that recalled how Kaler, the incoming president of the University of Minnesota, wooed his wife by talking about his research.

Post wrote:

In a move that should give hope to nerds everywhere, Eric Kaler wooed Karen with talk of micro-emulsions, surfactants and small angle X-ray scattering.

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

Quite charming, really.

But recently I ran across the funny Venn Diagram above, which shows the difference between a nerd, dork and dweeb.

From what I've seen of Kaler, he's not technically a nerd by the standards of the diagram. (We may not necessarily agree with those standards, but that's another discussion.)

Kaler obviously has intelligence, but he doesn't (at least from what I've seen) suffer from social ineptitude -- a key factor in nerddom. His need to talk research while dating? Yeah, that might qualify as obsession.

And inteligence + obsession = geek.

So there we go.