I don't know if it's limited to tech nerds, though, I find that pretty much everyone loves to give diet advice complete with mounds of anecdotes about how it improved their life in immeasurable ways, and IF is popular with them too. Hell, my 80 year old mother lectures me occasionally on how much skipping breakfast has improved her life.

I do find it interesting that a group of people I would otherwise suspect of being more pro-science would be so enthusiastic about bro-science.