How to Start a Conversation with a Nerd

In the past few years I have successfully surrounded myself with nerds and geeks. These people are awesome and most of them I probably would have stuffed into their own lockers in high school. (Although, to be fair many of them would not have fit in their lockers.) For those of you just entering the realm of the geek you are probably more than a little shy. You might be wondering how to start a conversation with these interesting highly intelligent tech folks. Here's a few things all nerds have in common.

They like...

• Robots. The more, the more awesome.
• They like to think they're Ninjas. They're not, most haven't played a sport.
• Star Wars, almost the same thing as liking robots but robots in space are way cooler.
• Compliments. Ask them what they've worked on and tell them you've heard good things about it.
• My group likes Macs, hide the fact you use any non-Apple products.
• They think they are way smarter than you. They are.
• Although they can fix your computer, they don't want to.
• If they don't get your joke, don't explain it to them, just let it go.
• If you have spare schwag, give it to them. They love that shit.

Now what all tech conferences have in common:

• Tech Shirts, nerds love them, conferences have them.
• Hot Tech Chicks, there's always at least one hot chick at the conference everyone drools over.
• Long nights of drinking or werewolf.
• Talks that seem way more interesting to those around you.

Now that you know the facts, here's a few lines to start conversations with geeks at tech conferences.

• "Boy -insert speaker's name- is freaking insane, he's like the next darth vader."
• "Who's the hottie? I'd let her give my computer a virus."
• "I'm sick of beer, Steve Jobs only drinks 18 year old scotch my friend, 18 year old scotch."

So now you know the facts and have my conversation starters, go make some new friends at your next tech conference.