71–80 of 150 posts
Reminds me of who were on Fourier’s doctoral defense committee: Lagrange, Laplace, and Legendre, who all have a “list of things named after” page on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Jos... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Pie... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Adr...
Having just finished the epic Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, my mind goes to a different place —- Heisenberg was at the core of the German bomb project. Speculatively, I wonder how things might have gone a different way had he been required to be a brilliant experimentalist too. Success versus failure hinged on nitty-gritty experimental details, not on sweeping theoretical insight. Probably not, but the…
Having just finished the epic Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, my mind goes to a different place —- Heisenberg was at the core of the German bomb project. Speculatively, I wonder how things might have gone a different way had he been required to be a brilliant experimentalist too. Success versus failure hinged on nitty-gritty experimental details, not on sweeping theoretical insight. Probably not, but the…
I don't know. Having the theoretical and experimental physics talent was a necessary condition for producing the atomic bomb, but was not sufficient. What was lacking was a government willing and able to commit to a crash program building the novel industrial base for isotope separation, radiochemical separation, and all the other things detailed in Rhodes' (and others books).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hes correct. It should be "verbal exam".
In fact, though, it's "oral exam." But it does sound funny.
TIL that a brilliant physicist nearly failed his physics exam (sort of). What is revealing is the broad-based knowledge that was expected of any student of those times. Unlike the super-specialities of today. A career in such fields (rather in any field) in those days required total dedication to academics. Also the importance of oral arguments and oral debate.
There are plenty of petty turds in academia today who do similar things, ruining the careers and significantly negatively impacting the lives of students. When they decide that they do not like a student (for _any_ reason), they have unchecked means to make that student's life miserable, make them jump through extra hoops, get them removed from the program, psychologically torment them, etc.
>>> he still had difficulty with it! And again, when Bohr pointed out the error, it led to emotional difficulties for Heisenberg. This resonates with me deeply - knowledge that I "should" have known but are shamed for not knowing become massively harder to learn. I think I somehow label that area as "not part of my identity" and so if I need to learn it Indont have an intellectual challenge I have to resolve past tra…
Everyone else needs to be kinder to themselves. I, on the other hand, am a worthless piece of shit who deserves no kindness.
Resolving that obvious hypocrisy would require me to accept that I'm "not special"; see, singling myself out as the sole human being who deserves to hate themselves keeps me in a special category. You already mentioned the real problem:
> identity
Yup, there it is. "Part of my identity" and "not part of my identity" are stupid and useless characterizations that we all, me included, cling to desperately. It's extremely freeing to give up parts of your own identity. I try, but it's hard. It feels like death ... but then if it works, it feels like a rebirth. Hating myself is one of the hardest parts of my identity to give up. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to.
But let's all agree to ruthlessly murder those awful "I'm just not good at math" parts of our identities, and help everyone else murder their own. It's such an easy virus to catch, and so damaging.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fact, though, it's "oral exam." But it does sound funny.
language, in fact, evolves. a rectal exam involves examining the examining the rectal cavity, so a oral exam should be reserved for examining the oral cavity.
That happens more often than you might think, plus it makes everything consistent.
I don't think that's accurate - there are usually 4 passing grades for dissertations in Germany, the lowest passing grade being "rite". It would be surprising if "cum laude", which literally means "with praise", was the lowest passing grade at Heisenberg's university (edit: Wikipedia confirms 4 passing grades for Heisenberg's dissertation: "summa cum laude", "magna cum laude", "cum laude", and "passed" [0]).
The standard grades for dissertations in Germany are "summa cum laude" (=very good with distinction), "magna cum laude" (=very good), "cum laude" (=good), "rite" (=sufficient), and "insuffizienter" (=failed). Some faculties have "satis bene" as an additional grade between "cum laude" and "rite".
[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg#cite_note-2
Having just finished the epic Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, my mind goes to a different place —- Heisenberg was at the core of the German bomb project. Speculatively, I wonder how things might have gone a different way had he been required to be a brilliant experimentalist too. Success versus failure hinged on nitty-gritty experimental details, not on sweeping theoretical insight. Probably not, but the…
Now it Can Be Told: the Story of the Manhattan Project by Leslie R. Groves
I thought it did a good job at talking about how the Army made everything happen.
I use to frequent a grad student bar that regularly held an open-mic night for people to practice their defense. It was brutal. A room full of drunk grad and post-grads would try and pick apart your presentation. Targeted academic heckling. It was great. The goal was to get over your fear of the whole process -no matter what, your actual defense would be a better experience.