Now that they're the popular ones, I imagine many nerds find the taste of victory to be surprisingly bitter. Raging against the jock machine is a lot more fun than being the machine.
This is just a sign that you're trapped in the adult nerd bubble. Spend some time with the normals, and you'll see that mainstream culture in 2014 is no less vapid than it was in 2004, 1994, or 1984.
Millions and more millions of cash, more than your average rock band...
Well, you'd be surprised. Even if the majority cared about "tech startup founder-programmers" (which remains to be proven), it would be for the money and prestige involved, not the nerd factor. It's just this decades version of the Gold Rush, not some cultural shift.
As for comic books and Reddit, those are, as you say "completely mainstream", so they are not a differentiating factor between nerd and not nerd anymore. (Plus, the former are mostly mainstream due to Hollywood -- sales of comics have not really skyrocketed, and even events like Comic-Con are 80% Hollywood and TV these days).
Plus, nerds are not just startup founding hackers. Millions of programming nerds will never start their own startup. And there are tons of other kinds of nerds besides: book nerds, chemistry nerds, physics nerds, etc. And I can assure you they are as far from "rock stars and professional athletes" as ever.
And that's just for society in general. In high school it's same as ever, and one's ambition to "create the next Facebook" does not make him popular or get him laid at all.
Suggestive evidence of this cultural shift? Have a look at the sitcoms/shows that are airing as of late. For the most part, the nerd/engineer/scientist is almost always highly revered, rarely ever viewed as 'sub-par' in any way.
Contrast this with the 90's, (anecdotally) where nerds were often portrayed as the loser that no one wants to hang out with.
An example that comes to mind, is Fresh Princes Carlton Banks character, to say Sheldon Cooper of the BBT. Very different portrayals, almost symbolic of the nerd image in each respective era.
I'll think scientists and engineers are highly revered when films about them start winning Oscars regularly (forget 'Gravity', that fell into the 'cool astronaut' category). In that sense, we've actually come backward since 'A Beautiful Mind', a film about an eccentric mathematician won four Oscars.
The nerds that (rarely) make it to the cultural spotlight are not the stereotypical nerds. More someone like DHH or some similar guy with charisma.
Treating those that made it (and are older too) as special in some dedicated articles, profiles etc, is not unique to our age. It happened with Einstein, Feynman, etc, heck even back to Edison, but it didn't mean nerds had a better time back then.
We don't ever see the equivalent of 18-yo Linus Torvalds or Woz, or some awkward introverted nerd as any kind of hero or role model. And I know from experience that most nerdy types had defficient social skills in high school / uni, and most still do outside of it.
Do popular people in real life hang around with "Sheldon Cooper" types?
And the Sheldon Cooper character was much more a portrayal of a contemporary obnoxious and vane "hipster" than a "nerd". The two male friend supporting characters were much closer to the "nerd" stereotype.
Look at the people the VCs are funding right now: frat boys and bullies (and sell-out ex-nerds who became bullies in adulthood, once one no longer needed to risk physical pain and harm in order to be a bully). Not nerds who actually love technology.
Instead of taking the nerds' lunch money, the bullies are now using MBA-school tricks, under the new banner of startup "culture" (stigniness), to work the nerds 90 hours per week for 0.03% of something. They've become better at what they do, but they haven't changed.
I attacked this here: http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/corporate-wor... . The institutional hell that, PG asserts, forms in organizations that have lost a sense of purpose (but still require a hierarchy) is, in fact, as prevalent in most corporations (even tech companies) as it is in high schools.
Raging against the jock machine is a lot more fun than being the machine.
What? That is patently untrue. People on the inside may humble-brag about how much simpler life was on the outside, but they never give up what they have.
Also, minor nit: in reality, "jocks" are rarely the same people as bullies. Athletes work too hard for that shit. Moreover, it's not the popular kids (yet another set) who pick on the nerds, geeks, and freaks. It's usually mid-range kids trying to push themselves up by knocking someone down. The worst bullies are other outsiders trying to get in to the popular crowd, but who tend to fail at it.