Nerd pride is filling a kitchen with people playing out the game between Deep Blue and Kasparov, trying to guess the next move and trying to find a better strategy than either of them. Nerd pride is the Clam Floor Chalkboard for the Advancement of Physics and Theoretical Math (or Theoretical Physics and Math, if you ask Pramod), and proposing stupid puzzles about geometry and sardines and Elmo.
For example:
In a 4-D cube with three blocks to an edge and periodic boundary
conditions, what is the maximum number of blocks which can be painted
without three neighboring blocks being painted? (Neighboring includes
diagonals.)
Nerd pride is playing Nerd Scrabble, where typical words might be "EISA", "NANO", "PEROXIDE", or "TAUON". Nerd Pride is trying to build the coolest setup you can out of two working speakers, four dead ones, a TV that mostly works, and about half a mile of electrical cable. It's about installing a manhole cover in the floor, just because it's cool. It's about spending dozens of hours building a really cool webpage that no one will ever see since you don't have any pornography on it and you don't sell anything there. It's about being at MIT and having a sense of humor about it.
To some, everyone at MIT is a nerd. But being a nerd isn't the classical definition you might think of. Nerds can be athletic, sexy, well-spoken, and not all of them stink from three weeks of shower-fasting. Nerds can be really cool people. Hey, if you got into MIT, you're probably a nerd. :)
And before you immediately turn tail and get as far away from this place as possible, remember: it's cool to be a nerd. So until the day that our High Nerd Gerry Sussman leads us down Mass Ave all the way to the gates of Hahvard in a Nerd Pride march, hold your head up high, wear your Nerd Pride pin with pride, and if anyone calls you a nerd, laugh. Because it's fun to be a nerd.