This week, I’m going to discuss a blog post written by social media strategy expert Danny Brown this past October 2018.
The first thing that caught my eye about Brown’s post was the display photo for the journal entry. It is a picture of the gorilla character called Winston from the wildly popular Blizzard game called Overwatch. The title of his blog post is “Aren’t We All Nerds in Some Form or Other?”, which resonates with me due to my lifetime identity as someone who nerds out about everything she can get her hands on. Whether it was my interest in classical music, theatre, medieval reenactment, or video games, I’ve always held the opinion that we can be nerds about anything we like. While I have struggled with self confidence issues throughout my life due to the high standards for female appearance in the media, I have never struggled with confidence about who I am as a person specifically because I’ve never been bored with myself. I can always find something new to be interested in and learn about, which is why Danny Brown’s blog post resonated with me so well.
In his post, Brown tells the story of how his aunt used to take him on weekly train rides throughout the summer to Burntisland. He describes how, as a kid, he’d see trainspotters but didn’t understand why they found trains so fascinating, since it’s “just a piece of metal that takes us from one place to another”. I can relate to this sentiment, since I remember as a kid feeling very confused as to how anyone could find interest in things like sunsets, hot-air balloons, or computers.
As I grew up, I went through some real hardships with health, love, and loss. Through a lot of soul-searching, I came to the conclusion that everything can be interesting. According to Brown, “everything is amazing”. He became fascinated by museums, movies, soccer, and and comic books…anything he could get his hands on. He even developed an interest in the construction of a particular bridge across River Forth in 1833. Brown uses his journal entry to illustrate how anything can be amazing and that we all need to be trainspotters. One of the things I appreciated most about his post is that he pointed out how we have only explored maybe 7% of the world’s oceans. This is an exact sentence I used to say to people when discussing my propensity for curiosity in the world and exploration. My exploratory nature is part of why I love video games with expansive worlds.
Just the other day, I found a tiny nuance while exploring Azeroth. I was doing a world 
quest in the region of Dustvar and went to go kill an elite mob inside a small house. When I was killing the mob, I looked over at the wall and noticed that there was a portrait of a character. Once I was done, I walked my character over to the wall and saw that the eyes on the portrait moved depending on where I was standing. I immediately messaged a friend about this and asked if he had noticed this portrait and he hadn’t. I was blown away by the small details in the game and wondered what kind of coding it would take to design such a detail.
World of Warcraft is full of small details that people don’t always notice. Our world is the same way. What I love about Danny Brown’s point is that we can all be nerds about anything and at least appreciate the nerd in one another.
VITAMINPEE 