I guess what i’m trying to say with this post is that “running off to industry” does not have to be only about the money and “selling out”, as the academics seem to assume
It’s the difference between “you’re nothing more than a calculus-teaching monkey to us” and “we’d be lucky to have you”
It’s amazing how often people–or institutions!–who tell everyone else to fuck off, explicitly or implicitly, don’t seem to understand all the off-fucking that subsequently occurs.
I don’t think I’ve told this story on here before, but when I was going into college I was seriously considering a physics major. My first semester I took linear algebra and honors physics 1.
The fact that I wound up ditching physics after that semester is primarily attributable to two things. One is that the honors physics class was terrible. By which I mean the lecturer was terrible, by which I mean he might be the most soporific lecturer I have ever heard. He told stories about Feynman pranks–he had been in grad school at Caltech when Feynman was teaching there–and made them boring. It was kind of impressive.
But more important is that I was interested in theoretical physics. And the physics department made it pretty clear that those of use who were interested in theoretical physics were not physicists and did not count and were not welcome. Because physics, you see, consists of experiments, and if you are not personally doing experiments you are not a physicist.
I had a friend who was in the same position I was, except his advisor was the head of the physics department. And this gentleman told him, and I believe this is a direct quote, “Theoretical physics isn’t really physics. If you want to do theoretical physics you should go be a math major instead.”
He was both shocked and angered when my friend changed from a physics major to a math major, and switched advisors to someone in the math department. Angered enough that he went to talk to my friend’s new advisor and explain to her that my friend was a good physicist and she needed to get him back into the physics major.
As far as I know, the physics major at my undergrad is still small and unpopular. As far as I know, the physics department has no idea why.
yellowtypophile liked this
glamazord liked this
whereofonecannotspeak reblogged this from raginrayguns
astaraeldarkrahblack liked this
fizzgigfurball liked this
wolffyluna reblogged this from socialjusticemunchkin
almostcoralchaos reblogged this from jadagul
amaranththallium liked this
jack-rustier reblogged this from raginrayguns
tante-bete liked this
glitterchance liked this
twocubes liked this
shacklesburst liked this
funereal-disease liked this
raginrayguns reblogged this from alexyar
accidentalavian liked this
ivorytowerblr liked this
wirehead-wannabe liked this
derplefurf liked this
imkelborhal reblogged this from only-transhuman
ozymandias271 liked this
bonsaisheep liked this
actuallyasisterofbattle liked this
only-transhuman reblogged this from gruntledandhinged
cromulentenough reblogged this from gruntledandhinged and added:
ilzolende liked this
pdchr liked this
rosetintedkaleidoscope liked this
nessiemonster88 liked this
wonderwomangrad liked this
future-less-vivid liked this
bariumsulfateacetone liked this
socialjusticemunchkin reblogged this from gruntledandhinged and added:
southern-belle-99 reblogged this from gruntledandhinged
kerapace liked this
lenyberry reblogged this from gruntledandhinged and added:
gruntledandhinged reblogged this from jadagul
cosmicrecollections liked this
intersectinginfinities liked this
an-awful-human-being liked this
polyarche liked this
light-rook liked this
eka-mark liked this
enformat reblogged this from alexyar