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{{infobox

|title=Geek Wisdom

|reviewer=Zoe Page

|genre=Popular Science

''There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't''

''Geek Wisdom '' (subtitle: ''the sacred teachings of nerd culture'') is a collection of mini-essays, and I do mean mini, with each no longer than one page. Picking out quotes from a wide range of sources, each one explains the context for what was said, and tries to extrapolate how it applies to the bigger picture of life in general. Perhaps most interesting for me was to find out where said quotes came from in the first place, so it's handy that the speaker and their film / show / whatever are referenced each time.

''I love it when a plan comes together''

There must be in the region of 200 quotes in the book, but the definition of ''nerd culture'' is clearly personal to the selection of authors who feature as it includes some source I wouldn't have considered, while omitting others in a perhaps surprising way. ''Hamlet'', ''The Silence of the Lambs'' and ''Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'' fall into the former category while I guess ''Blake’s 7'' was a little too British for them (though ''Hitchhiker’s...'' and ''Doctor Who'' both feature). Beyond the actual choice of quotes comes a further area that could cause disagreement: the interpretation of the words of wisdom might be entirely at odds with how you've always seen them before. For something to shake up your view of the universe so radically is quite an accomplishment, but if there's anything we’ve learnt from those comic book store scenes in ''Big Bang'' it's that nerds love a good argument, so perhaps it's no bad thing after all.

''Specialization is for insects ''

In some ways, this was never going to be a cohesive read due to its fragmented structure, which can only be addressed so far by vague groupings into chapters (wisdom about the self / relationships / humankind / conflict and so on). Adding to this is the different approach shown by the different authors (though with chapters presented anonymously, it's impossible to tell who contributed what). For example, the ''Worst Episode Ever / Bazinga'' entry spends a great deal of time focusing on the character whose catchphrase consists of the second part, even drilling down as far as his favourite strategy game (rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock), though this doesn’t have much to do with said catchphrase. In other words, the title merely serves to introduce us to the character, who we then look at in more detail. In contrast, later on in ''I can kill you with my brain'', the interpretation is much more abstract and fails to make reference to the specific character who said it (and the not unrelated fact that she was telepathic). Even the footnote segues into an anecdote about another of Firefly’s actors, utterly ignoring River Tam / Summer Glau.