What is NERDMAXXING?
NERDMAXXING means going deeper because the subject keeps opening, not because the depth will become useful. It can mean studying a complete discography, learning an unnecessary technical system, adopting a nerd aesthetic or building a social life around people who care intensely about the same obscure thing.
Supposedly maxes
ATTENTION / INTERPRETATION / PARTICIPATION
Adherents believe
Depth does not need a market.
A niche becomes a world when you stay long enough.
Excessive interest is better than permanent detachment.
Specialized vocabulary is evidence that the door has opened.
The right people may be hidden inside the wrong-looking hobby.
You may already be NERDMAXXING if…
- the footnote has become more interesting than the main text
- you are completing a discography in chronological order
- your hobby has reorganized your social life
- you have developed a second vocabulary
- someone regrets asking you a casual question
Typical practices
- following footnotes and references
- completing full discographies or bibliographies
- learning unnecessary technical details
- collecting obscure recommendations
- joining specialist communities
- explaining a niche to people who did not ask