Relevant: Paul Graham, Why Nerds are Unpopular

Paul Graham argues that a nerd is anyone not primarily focused on popularity, and that nerds lose the competitive and zero-sum game of popularity to those who aren't distracted by things like studying. After nerds enter the real world, however, they can form their own special-interest communities and often do very well.

Regarding Aaronson's piece, ditziness as signaling makes sense. However, the protagonist failed to see other options: she could have "won" by making the first moves to date an attractive but passive/malleable and socially clueless boy. She could have really "won" by stringing along several passive/malleable/clueless boys. Instead, she sold her soul to stay with the next random guy who asked her out after her "realization", because being alone was more painful. She didn't realize that her understanding of evolutionary theory and rationality failed to make up for her lack of domain knowledge about dating/relationships.