> They are as a rule extremely competitive — more competitive, I'd say, than highly competitive non-nerds.

I’m a somewhat non-traditional ‘nerd’ having grown up with sports and competitive recreational activities.

One thing that gets taught over and over again in youth sports and even adult competitive activities is the importance of sportsmanship. People who display poor sportsmanship are admonished, shamed, penalized, or even excluded from competition. Everyone learns one way or another that poor sportsmanship is bad, or at minimum that it is a risk to their reputation and ability to compete.

I’ve had to learn the hard way that many of the most competitive ‘nerds’ in industry have no such sense of sportsmanship. They are out to win and to become the alpha nerd at any cost. Anyone who gets in their way can end up in the crosshairs and the tactics can be exceptionally dirty. In most cases this translates to nasty office politics, but I’ve also witnessed some ‘competitive nerds’ try to engineer character assassination of their enemies or, in the wildest case I’ve ever seen, fabricate a literal crime and try to pin it on their workplace peers (that person got caught and went to prison).

Now when I come across ‘competitive nerds’ I’m extra cautious to not appear to be too threatening to their assent to alpha nerd status, lest I end up in their crosshairs in the next round of office politics. Only after I’ve worked with someone long enough to understand their intentions will I risk entering friendly competition with a peer nerd.