The most profound thing that the internet can do for the world is create a single monolithic repository of documents that is designed to take a dedicated reader from basic principles of math to a high degree of understanding in any subject. This is such an easy task compared to all of the other projects that happen on the internet, it is astonishing that we don't have anything like it yet. Wikipedia comes close. Khan Academy might become what I just described after they add more content. But nothing really hits the nail on the head yet. If Facebook spent a few billion on it then we would have it. It's so fucking simple. I would trade in Instagram many, many times over in exchange for such a repository. It is one of the easiest things to do and out of all the things we could do has the greatest impact on society and yet it has not been done. Amazing.
How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
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Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#22I love this kind of site. Not that you can't scour up the content yourself using Google, but here's the thing... when you're trying to "teach yourself" something complex, one of the challenges you run into (in my experience) is understanding the order of the dependencies for prerequisites and sub-topics. And nothing is more frustrating than trying to read a book or a paper and feeling totally lost because you're miss…
Bingo. This is in complete contrast to visiting wikipedia where, for example, if I go to any mathematical concept, I seem to tumble down a series of holes that usually falls out somewhere much more abstract that what I need (usually topology). This is not to say topology is not important, but clearly becoming an expert topologist before learning wavelets (for example) would not be the most efficient way to learn the latter.
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#23This is awesome. I like his no-nonsense approach.
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#24Man, t'Hooft is upping his design game! It looks mutch nicer than the previous versions which looked like they predated his nobel prize.
Yep. For everyone interested, this is the old version:
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#25Wow!!
I can tell you of my own experiences. I had the extreme luck of having excellent teachers around me. ... It helped me all the way to earn a Nobel Prize.
But I didn’t have internet. I am going to try to be your teacher.
It is presently set up only for those who wish to become theoretical physicists, not just ordinary ones,
but the very best, those who are fully determined to earn their own Nobel Prize.
This is a site for ambitious people.
I am sure that anyone can do this, if one is gifted with a certain amount of intelligence, interest and determination.
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#26As a Philomath, this site is an oasis on the Internet. True, you may be able to grasp what this page tries to accomplish with enough determination.
But, someone sharing their knowledge and path in a no-nonsense approach, sure helps a lot.
Are there any other similar guides for other fields?
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#27I find it strange that no one in this discussion seems to notice the dripping sarcasm...
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#28Wow, I originally clicked on the article thinking it was tongue-in-cheek, but it's fantastic! Glad to see that someone is taking time to help others (like me)
Same here. It's actually a really good post! Regarding his comment about hearing from amateurs who think they've solved the world, that is something I've heard from a lot of physics professors, that they get a lot of emails with crazy stuff like this: http://i.imgur.com/QTt6ZTq.gif Why does that happen in physics and not chemistry, bio, econ, comsci or any other subject?
It happens in math and theoretical CS all the time. Proofs of P != NP (or the opposite!) are particularly popular.
In applied CS, instead of emailing professors people just post their stuff on the internet. Sometimes it gets wildly popular. How do you think PHP came around?
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#29As a Philomath, this site is an oasis on the Internet. True, you may be able to grasp what this page tries to accomplish with enough determination. But, someone sharing their knowledge and path in a no-nonsense approach, sure helps a lot. Are there any other similar guides for other fields?
I'm personally interested in a guide like this for economics... if anyone knows of one. It can be a book I guess...
Re: How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist
#30Man, t'Hooft is upping his design game! It looks mutch nicer than the previous versions which looked like they predated his nobel prize.
Yep. For everyone interested, this is the old version: http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/theorist.html
Wow! That reads like a Dr. Bronners bottle.