The Nerdist Way
Author: Chris Hardwick
Release: November, 1, 2011
Tagline: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Humor, Self-Help
ISBN-10: 0425243540
ISBN-13: 978-0425243541
Synopsis: Nerd superstar Chris Hardwick offers his fellow “creative obsessives” crucial information needed to come out on top in the current Nerd uprising.
Declassified by Agent Palmer: The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick is Self Help that Reads like a Friendly Nerd Conversation
Quotes and Lines
No human ever became interesting by not failing.
Be the warden, not the prisoner.
The what-if game is largely pointless and stems from panic and irrational fear, i.e. Lizard T. Brainworth
Strive for excellence in something you love.
Why share my failures and deeply personal issues with you? Because I want you to feel better.
I am not a professional therapist. I am just a guy who tends to get this delightful brand of brain jolts, so I am merely sharing what I have learned for myself through trial, error, countless hours of therapy, and autodidactic research.
To grow, you must stretch your boundaries.
The reality you experience is almost wholly shaped by your perception of it. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHOOSE WHAT YOU NOTICE.
Shape your reality. Don’t be a pawn for the darkness.
Things You can Say to Your Brain in Response:
“The Universe doesn’t work that way. To the Universe, positive and negative values only matter when referring to particle charge, not human events.”
“Yes. It’s foolish to think we exist here to toil in misery.”
“That will only be true if you decide to believe that, but it doesn’t have to be.”
“The right thing to do is to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Sweat-fruits, I call them, for no reason I can recall. Honor your work as if it were a person you respected.”
Having been socially ostracized since early childhood, most Nerds are very comfortable with rejection. Not that we love it or anything, it’s just that it’s familiar.
Beware! Because Nerds tend to experience rejections from a young age, they tend to skew a little on the crazy side when they finally achieve success and power. Go easy on the little-brains.
I think pursuing happiness is the wrong approach. That idea puts it into the future, and therefore the wrong tense. You just need to BE happy–in the present–with who you are and what you have.
The Nerd mind is a powerful and complex machine.
…years and years of sitting at computers or in front of video games have created the standard binary slouch. In other words, any device that has a binary-based system will almost always make you hunch over to interface with it.
…I take umbrage with the concept of “being content with oneself.” It’s bullshit. You should be HAPPY with yourself. Contentment is a sedentary state.
We love to talk about the butterfly effect in terms of time-travel movies: “If you change even the SMALLEST of things in a system, its long-term effects can be dramatic.” Why can’t the same be true for lifestyle changes?
(Babies–or “crypods” as I call them–would be SO AWESOME if you could set them on “vibrate”.)
(PS-you should have a shredder to protect your identity from sentient garbage rats.)
Policing yourself is easy when you have a goal.
Nerds make great evil genii. An evil genius is nothing more than a Nerd with a tragic revenge story.
Evil geniuses work their way up. They are not afraid to plan big and take chances that most of the populace would deem “maniacal.” They also take setbacks as motivation and retooling opportunities. In their mind, failure is simply not an option.
Evil Geniuses
Are highly motivated
Have a goal
Have a strong point of view
Never give up
Undergo incredible transformations
“turn their paper into bytes (scan them) and then bits (shred them)!”
…sometimes I see red flags more as pretty decorations than as warnings that should be heeded.
Nerds have comic-book-inspired “hero syndrome,” where we want to swoop in to the rescue so people like us can then tell other people, “Hey, that dude/lady is RAAAAAAD!”
When presented with a project, ask these three questions:
Is this in the wheelhouse of things I normally do?
Would taking on this project REALLY change my life?
As objectively as possible, do I really have the time to give this project the attention it deserves.
“No is a very powerful word.”
I firmly believe, especially in today’s financial climate, it is IMPERATIVE to spin mutliple plates. It’s actually RISKIER to only have one job…
Clock in for YOU.
The truth is, if you try too hard to be doing EVERYTHING, you don’t ever really focus on the most important thing, which should be the quality of your work.
In order to get, you must first give.
Never forget that you yourself are a commodity.
“Niche” used to be primarily one-dimensional. Now you almost have to measure the amount of content mashups with String Theory. [I.E. Find your niche]
Information avoidance leaves you in this purgatory of inactivity because you’re too afraid of the unknown.
JUST FUCKING DO IT. No more excuses. Every minute you’re not pursuing a creative passion in some capacity, be it hobby or career, you are wasting valuable time on this planet.
Achieve, be grateful, move on.
It’s not about reaching a goal; it’s about what you become in the process.
If the one thing that you take away from this book is that you cultivate the gift of being kind and respectful to yourself, your money will have been well spent.
It’s very easy to attack ourselves. Even comforting in its familiarity, but you must resist this urge at all costs.
You deserve every wonderful thing you want in this life. There is no merit in toiling in a sadness dungeon.