Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

staff.science.uu.nl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–36 of 36 posts

Re: How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

#31

Post by bane »

omnibrain wrote: post #16

This depresses me a lot. It depresses me because it is something I may (the may is the first problem here) want, but I feel I can never achieve it. When I was a child I wanted to become an astronaut. But from the age of 8 or 9 onwards I was always a fat kid, and fat kids can't become astronauts, so I quickly buried this dream and stayed the fat kid, instead of becoming lean and pursuing it. Don't get me wrong: I neve…

What you've described is very much the classic "curse of being gifted". Breaking out of the curse is really quite hard and I think there's really two ways to go about it.

1) Give up, just be a normal, non-gifted person. Do normal non-gifted people stuff and enjoy life.

2) Realize that you're smart, and if you're so smart, figure out a way out. For any problem you have, use your smarts to figure it out. Figure out how to study, how to motivate yourself, use your gifts on yourself. Then once you've figured yourself out, turn your new skills outward and use your gifts properly.

It sounds obvious, but people "cursed" with being gifted don't often realize they have the single gift they can use to get themselves out of their mess. Instead they simply coast on it like a ship adrift at sea rather than using it as a ship of exploration that can take them anywhere.

Re: How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

#32

Post by officialjunk »

jakebian wrote: post #17
officialjunk wrote: post #7

this site isn't exclusive to theoretical physics. most of the material is broad. It's not until the later topics that it becomes more theoretical: general relativity, super gravity, string theory... physics may also interest those who don't want to be come any type of physicist, hence the popularity of television shows like Cosmos, etc. for those that want to dive into something a little more technical, but very appr…

I disagree, general relativity is not any more or any less theoretical than, say, electromagnetism.

i say this because most the people i know that are doing graduate studies focused on general relativity are in theoretical physics. we're not at the point, technologically, where experimental physics can cover the full range of what general relativity describes. it would be nice to have a black hole in a lab that is not an analogue, though. and one day, we probably will. so, i agree that eventually it will be on par with electromagnetism, but for now it describes a lot that is still very theoretical.

Re: How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

#33

Post by jakebian »

officialjunk wrote: post #32
jakebian wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, general relativity is not any more or any less theoretical than, say, electromagnetism.

i say this because most the people i know that are doing graduate studies focused on general relativity are in theoretical physics. we're not at the point, technologically, where experimental physics can cover the full range of what general relativity describes. it would be nice to have a black hole in a lab that is not an analogue, though. and one day, we probably will. so, i agree that eventually it will be on par…

But EM as a subject, as its usually taught, is still theoretical. Experimental EM would be better known as either electronics or statistics. You make it sound like theoretical means lacking experimental support, perhaps that is what the word means in, say, politics, but certainly not in physics.

Re: How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

#34

Post by drjesusphd »

bane wrote: post #31
omnibrain wrote: post #16

This depresses me a lot. It depresses me because it is something I may (the may is the first problem here) want, but I feel I can never achieve it. When I was a child I wanted to become an astronaut. But from the age of 8 or 9 onwards I was always a fat kid, and fat kids can't become astronauts, so I quickly buried this dream and stayed the fat kid, instead of becoming lean and pursuing it. Don't get me wrong: I neve…

What you've described is very much the classic "curse of being gifted". Breaking out of the curse is really quite hard and I think there's really two ways to go about it. 1) Give up, just be a normal, non-gifted person. Do normal non-gifted people stuff and enjoy life. 2) Realize that you're smart, and if you're so smart, figure out a way out. For any problem you have, use your smarts to figure it out. Figure out how…

Have you known people to have successfully gone down path 2? Any stories or tips to share?

I'm in a similar situation. Despite having been moderately successful, I lacked passion. Now I'm a 30 year old graduate student, working three times as hard and making a third the money that I used to, but I couldn't be happier.

My most difficult project remains mastering myself. I'm doing okay now, but I know I can be much better. I'm worried I won't be able to master myself and will be stuck with mediocrity because I'm my own worst enemy after decades of terrible work habits.

I often spend too much time on "self-hacks", and not actually doing stuff that needs to get done. It feels like paralysis by analysis, so that's why I'm questioning this advice.

Re: How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

#35

Post by sriku »

aik wrote: post #21
omnibrain wrote: post #16

This depresses me a lot. It depresses me because it is something I may (the may is the first problem here) want, but I feel I can never achieve it. When I was a child I wanted to become an astronaut. But from the age of 8 or 9 onwards I was always a fat kid, and fat kids can't become astronauts, so I quickly buried this dream and stayed the fat kid, instead of becoming lean and pursuing it. Don't get me wrong: I neve…

You have two options: Change your mindset or continue burying/ignoring your ambitions. Burying your ambitions can make you relatively satisfied in life, but I believe they will always haunt you regardless of how hard you try. You can change your mindset by developing habits that turns your mind into a force for achieving your ambitions, instead of an obstacle that prevents you from achieving your ambitions (which it…

I'm guessing that this is likely to be more depressing.

I like to consider myself as one of those amateur physicists who Hooft talks about. .. but instead of the deep academic physicist researcher kind, I prefer to be the playful kind. I've filled a notebook with such play. It is likely to be of no use to a professional physicist, but I certainly had fun thinking about things.

A couple examples -

1. I tried to work out a formula for refractive index of a material assuming that photons get slowed down by it through repeated absorption and re-emission.

2. I asked "what if gravity obeyed maxwell's equations?" Iirc some approximate calculations based on it turned ou something like newtonian laws would hold if we're living on the inside of an exploding blackhole (or something like that).

I don't know whether I went anywhere with those, but they were interesting to think about when I knew enough math to do them.

I'm quite sure such play is well within the reach of amateur theoretical physicists even if you may not end up solving the domain's pressing problems.

Re: How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

#36

Post by bane »

drjesusphd wrote: post #34
bane wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you've described is very much the classic "curse of being gifted". Breaking out of the curse is really quite hard and I think there's really two ways to go about it. 1) Give up, just be a normal, non-gifted person. Do normal non-gifted people stuff and enjoy life. 2) Realize that you're smart, and if you're so smart, figure out a way out. For any problem you have, use your smarts to figure it out. Figure out how…

Have you known people to have successfully gone down path 2? Any stories or tips to share? I'm in a similar situation. Despite having been moderately successful, I lacked passion. Now I'm a 30 year old graduate student, working three times as hard and making a third the money that I used to, but I couldn't be happier. My most difficult project remains mastering myself. I'm doing okay now, but I know I can be much bet…

I don't know, I think the answer is to figure out what motivates you.

It took until the point that I was so irritated at my station in life that I finally had to just stir myself into action. I couldn't handle the crap pay I was receiving, and watch people who were clearly not at my level (or so I believed) surpassing me in basic life accomplishments without major effort, like making enough money to pay for the gas I used commuting to/from work. So for me, anger and frustration worked pretty well.

I also got heavily involved in some very physically demanding martial arts and really learned what my limits were, mentally and physically. I think it helped me both work off the anger and get some perspective in a constructive way while I started planning how I was going to get out of my rut. I also was incredibly physically fit during that time too, which wasn't bad. One thing I learned, I really need a coach barking at me to do my crunches, or get back in the ring or run another lap or whatever. So one solution I learned is to optimize my life so I have a motivating person keeping me moving forward.

In my case, I found a wife who's been incredible. I'm more afraid of her than I am of failing. So having an ever present challenger has helped push me along.

But ultimately, you have to use your smarts to figure it out yourself.

Post reply on HN