Project-Nerd’s Nerd Rule #1: Be Excellent To Each Other

We at Project-Nerd want to share a simple idea with all of you. It is inspired by a simple line from a silly movie. And right not we’re all letting the heroes of that movie down pretty spectacularly.

I think that both Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan would be very disappointed in us right now. First, many reading this may not know who those two individuals are. Second, those same readers have never used a phone booth and many may now know what one is. And last is that we are not being excellent to each other.

We watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and we all focused on the wrong part of their famous quotes, “Be excellent to each other.” and “Party on, dudes!” We’ve partied on, that we’ve done that part well. Now it’s time for us to focus on the first part.

Our two intrepid explorers of time and space gave us an easy charge: be excellent to each other. In the movie this simple maxim allowed humanity to advance greatly and prosper beyond our wildest dreams. To keep the duo from getting broken up and ending humanity’s hope of prosperity, the future sent our two heroes a phone booth so they can go back and learn from history.

But we failed to learn the lessons that we should have from Bill and Ted. We need to be excellent to each other now more than ever. The internet and our connected devices allow us to travel anywhere in time and space, much like the phone booth for Bill and Ted, but instead of using it to unite and unify, we use it to divide.

We are mean to total strangers simply because they shared an opinion that we might not agree with. We say vile and terrible things to one another all the time. The anger and hatred that used to be kept among a relatively small number can now be spread to untold millions with the power of the internet.

We need to be excellent to each other more often. Like, all the time actually.

The next time you’re at a con give someone a compliment. “Hey, that’s an awesome Dragon Ball Z shirt!” and just keep walking. Think about how that little compliment might make their day. Think about how someone might have given them crap about not knowing everything about DBZ while they were standing in line and how they weren’t enjoying their con experience because someone had to be “that guy”.

South Park Season 4 Episode 11

It can start with you, yes you reading this, go out today and be excellent to someone. Go that extra mile. If you hear someone not being excellent to a person in your chat while you’re gaming, say something. If you’re on a message board and things are getting nasty, step in. Don’t let your friend be a jerk to someone because they don’t know the number of original episodes in Star Trek: TOS (now if they’re having an intellectual conversation about whether 2-part episodes count as a 1 episode show in two parts or two separate episodes, that’s another story).

Here at Project-Nerd, we’re calling all you nerds to lead the charge. The things we love have gotten us made fun of, or bullied, or looked down on. And now that all those things are popular we’ve become the bullies or the people who look down on others, and all because we think it’s fair. That has to stop.

As nerds our number is legion and we can change the world if we want to. Wil Wheaton said, “Don’t be a dick.” But we can do better than that. It’s not enough to just “Don’t be a dick,” we can actually Be Excellent to someone. Don’t wait for someone else to do it, start to Be Excellent. Right now. Every day.

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