Is it ok to be an African Nerd

Do African nerds have to hide their nerdiness to be accepted. If you show too much interest or knowledge about something should we encourage it.

Nerds can achieve a lot of things. If your African child loves cars a lot, should you subscribe them to a cars magazine or suggest another interest? Should you reach out to parents with children who love cars so that your child can get a chance to be part of a community that can nurture their intense passion? A love for cars can turn to a love for designing uniquely African cars if it is nurtured in the right manner.

Sometimes it seems like as Africans we value well roundedness so much that we discourage intense focus that can lead to breakthroughs. In fact too much interest in one thing often makes people wonder if you are not going crazy. 

As soon as my mother realized my love for reading she bought me a lot of books. I read all of them till they were torn and she bought more. I read so many books that by age 11, I told my parents I wanted to publish my own book. Most parents would laugh at this. My parents took me to a writers' group at the University of Botswana. I met with established writers and they were so positive and encouraging. This experience taught me not to be afraid to pursue any interest because people will think I am nerdy because the established writers were really keen to encourage my interest. I have moved on to other intense interests and my parents have never stopped being supportive. Writing, codes, theories, blogs, medicine, publications and games they keep up and never make me feel like I am too much.( I am a bit much but bless them, they never say it to my face :) )

Find out what your little siblings, son, daughter, niece or nephew is into and see how you can encourage them to pursue it. Most Nobel prize winners for science say an adult bought them a chemistry set at a young age and that encouragement sparked a lifelong focus on science. What is nerdiness if not intense focus on one or few interests.

If you are an African nerd, come out of the shadows and pursue your interest intensely to see where it may lead. You might fail but you might also succeed. I have failed pursuing some interests but you dust yourself up and re-focus.

Smart

(First blog post in a long time. Writing has always been a hobby and when the inspiration to write hits, you can't ignore it forever.)

The word of the week in tablets is ......SMART... (See photo of four bit code at my fb page, the amateur writer invents a word game, no surprises there!)

Smart is a very interesting word. We all have an idea of what it means but if you think about it, it is actually a vague word. It basically means you do well in school. Do people do well in school for the same reasons? Not really. I have met different kinds of 'smart' people.

The Hardworker - Loves working hard and passes because they put in the effort. If they do not study hard, they fail. Beginning of university may derail them if they get into a party loving group. Must maintain focus. They are my favorite kind of smart people because I think hard work is to be valued. Not every hard worker does well in school though so you do need to be able to retain the material you learned and knowing what to work hard on helps. If someone works hard and gets no results, there may be a need to get study tips or to find out if there is an underlying learning or memory problem.

The Gifted - There are many kinds of academic gifts. Some people have one while some have a combination of gifts. Hard work enhances any gift so gift or no gift, I hope you value hard work. The gifts include:

The auditory genius - Remembers most of what they hear, may pass by just going to lecture with no reading.

The conceptual genius - No need to explain hard concepts to them twice.

The photographic memory genius - basically a ticket to Harvard or thereabouts if lucky. However may struggle in math, science or law if they can't analyze what they remember well no matter how perfect they remember it.

The fast processor/thinker - Excellent at chess, card games and can calculate the bill with the tip added at restaurants fast. The most extreme I met was a humble friend at Stanford who could calculate the total for several items at the till with tax added fast enough to replace the cash register if it broke! Had MIT in his background, no surprise there. If they are in medical school the fast processor with conceptual abilities might struggle with memorizing heavy subjects like Micro and Pharmacology because these subjects require hard work and this type of smart person may be used to passing with no effort. Best suited for computer science where solving technical problems fast and handling loads of information fast are great advantages and impress bosses.

Unfortunately for me, I am the hard worker type for the most part. Definitely not a fast processor since I am terrible at chess and all fast paced card games. Do not even try to teach me. I like to think slowly, take my time, philosophize look for interesting patterns, theories, codes etc so I am more on the conceptual side. I let my fast processor friends handle the bill and tip at restaurants unless there is a calculator handy.

Medical school has been great because once I get to know people I slowly discover the gifts that got them here. Fascinating for someone interested in many aspects of human behavior.

Medical school also interestingly pushes all kinds of gifts to their limit such that hard work is required of people of all types from those with no gifts to those with many gifts. During the basic science years the amount of information is enough to overload any gift.

This is just about book smart types. There are many people who do ok in school but are smart in other areas e.g street smart, people savvy, business savvy, sports savvy etc. That's for another post.

What kind of smart are you or are you too modest to say? Fair enough.