Nerds are the stars of , the HBO series about the technology industry in California. Creator Mike Judge, writer Alec Berg and actor Thomas Middleditch talk about the tech culture as the third season of the show begins.
Berg: "There's something about the personality of the engineer that pervades the tech business. Engineers are much better at things than people. If you're seven, eight, nine years old and developing an interest in computer programming, it's probably because you're not playing sports, you're not the greatest social person. You gravitate to objects or things."
Judge: "You see it affect the social world of high schools. I have daughters who are 24 and 21. I think for people their age, it's like, 'Don't pick on that kid, he might be richer than all of us, the next Zuckerberg or something like that.'"
Berg: "The difference is that 10 or 20 years ago, we were making movies about the wealthy captains of industry and they were all wearing suits and worked in banking. If you look at all the newly minted billionaires of the past 10 years, the vast majority of them are in the internet space. I think that the word 'nerd' has come to mean something different in the last 20 years. If you told somebody you could be a nerd and that would make you a billion dollars, I think a lot of people would sign up."
Middleditch: "I just grew up liking computers and stuff like that. Mainly cool stuff, like video games. But definitely being on the show has been educational. Whether or not I actually understand some of the words I'm saying, that's TBD. I can sort of understand conceptually some of the things, but when they get into the nitty-gritty math, it's way above my head. I'm not in Hollywood because I'm good at math."
Middleditch: "People who work in Silicon Valley will come up and be like, 'This show is very true to life.' Some people quote scenes and will be like, 'That has happened to me almost verbatim.' But no one's come up and been like, 'Thank you for what you've done for nerd culture.'"
Middleditch: "Some things, yes. I love that [Tesla chief executive and internet mogul] Elon Musk is trying to create essentially battery storage for the sun. That sounds great, and I think that is game-changing. I laugh at stuff like Snapchat thinking it can change the world."
Silicon Valley
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