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As an unfamiliar, I find it interesting how you specifically called out physics grads in the pre-LLM era. Is that just snark or is there some widespread truth /

As an unfamiliar, I find it interesting how you specifically called out physics grads in the pre-LLM era. Is that just snark or is there some widespread truth / stereotype of that behavior?

dhbradshaw 5d ago
It might be a reference to this: https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/
- jltsiren 5d ago
  I prefer the SMBC version: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21 https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21
harvey9 5d ago
I suspect the person you replied to only happened to see that from physics grads. I have seen it in all sorts of people and I sometimes did it myself when I was young (I am not a physics grad).
francoisdevlin 5d ago
Not the parent, but it's half joke half truth. Anyone who's done a lot of "first principles" work falls into this trap a bit, it's an issue across stem fields. Most grow out of it, or at least learn to qualify their statements for the audience.
acomjean 5d ago
Its snark/stereotype, but there is some truth. But my take, is physics sort of took over a lot of chemistry, biology.. and to them its the answer to all questions, because in the end it just molecules. There is some truth to that but..
- skinfaxi 5d ago
  Obligatory xkcd, everything is math. https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/
torginus 5d ago
If you are very smart, and/or have an incredibly high tolerance for pain/repetition, you can solve amazingly complex issues, with awful code. Both of these statements are true for physicists
fidotron 5d ago
Physics, and to a large degree pure mathematics, has attracted a critical mass of the personality type that needs to feel like the smartest person in the room in any given situation. It has given them a slightly notorious reputation in academia.
- neutronicus 5d ago
  From a one-time physics grad student, I do think there advantages to being ... like this. The flip side of being confidently wrong sometimes is that we treat understanding new systems as something approachable. So, yeah, it's annoying that we don't stay in our lane, but, from my boss's perspective, I'm the only one who's actually willing to just read code, investigate, possibly read a paper, and figure out what's going on instead of punting and saying it's someone else's turf I'm blocked until they get back to me. Like, ultimately you can't be a knowledge worker by just waiting for answers and instruction from experts and relaying them back and forth. Eventually you have to understand something. And part of that process is being wrong and annoying people.
  - grey-area 5d ago
    It is quite possible to be wrong and not annoy people, and it's not even terribly difficult to learn. It does require a bit of humility and introspection though. You don't have to not stray into areas you don't understand, but be humble when doing so - if you think something is being done in a stupid way, you probably don't understand it yet.
    - neutronicus 5d ago
      I agree! Missteps are inevitable, though.
  - fidotron 5d ago
    Like your sibling comment I saw this mainly with physics people doing data science: > Eventually you have to understand something. And part of that process is being wrong and annoying people. There is nothing more frustrating as a colleague than having a smart person walk in, insist you're all wrong, and then burn all the energy and goodwill in the organisation having to rebuild absolutely everything from the principles they currently understand because they refuse to listen to the experience that has built up already (in the entire field, let alone the organisation), only to produce something worse on every dimension than what already existed.
moregrist 5d ago
It’s a very common experience that people in the physics-adjacent sciences have. It’s so common that there’s an xkcd about it: https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/
saghm 5d ago
It's common enough to have an xkcd for it at least (then again, what doesn't?) https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/
HWR_14 5d ago
It's a widespread stereotype at least: https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/

As an unfamiliar, I find it interesting how you specifically called out physics grads in the pre-LLM era. Is that just snark or is there some widespread truth / stereotype of that behavior?

dhbradshaw 5d ago

It might be a reference to this: https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/

jltsiren 5d ago
I prefer the SMBC version: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21 https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21

harvey9 5d ago

I suspect the person you replied to only happened to see that from physics grads. I have seen it in all sorts of people and I sometimes did it myself when I was young (I am not a physics grad).

francoisdevlin 5d ago

Not the parent, but it's half joke half truth. Anyone who's done a lot of "first principles" work falls into this trap a bit, it's an issue across stem fields. Most grow out of it, or at least learn to qualify their statements for the audience.

acomjean 5d ago

Its snark/stereotype, but there is some truth. But my take, is physics sort of took over a lot of chemistry, biology.. and to them its the answer to all questions, because in the end it just molecules. There is some truth to that but..

skinfaxi 5d ago
Obligatory xkcd, everything is math. https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/

torginus 5d ago

If you are very smart, and/or have an incredibly high tolerance for pain/repetition, you can solve amazingly complex issues, with awful code. Both of these statements are true for physicists

fidotron 5d ago

Physics, and to a large degree pure mathematics, has attracted a critical mass of the personality type that needs to feel like the smartest person in the room in any given situation. It has given them a slightly notorious reputation in academia.

neutronicus 5d ago
From a one-time physics grad student, I do think there advantages to being ... like this. The flip side of being confidently wrong sometimes is that we treat understanding new systems as something approachable. So, yeah, it's annoying that we don't stay in our lane, but, from my boss's perspective, I'm the only one who's actually willing to just read code, investigate, possibly read a paper, and figure out what's going on instead of punting and saying it's someone else's turf I'm blocked until they get back to me. Like, ultimately you can't be a knowledge worker by just waiting for answers and instruction from experts and relaying them back and forth. Eventually you have to understand something. And part of that process is being wrong and annoying people.
- grey-area 5d ago
  It is quite possible to be wrong and not annoy people, and it's not even terribly difficult to learn. It does require a bit of humility and introspection though. You don't have to not stray into areas you don't understand, but be humble when doing so - if you think something is being done in a stupid way, you probably don't understand it yet.
  - neutronicus 5d ago
    I agree! Missteps are inevitable, though.
- fidotron 5d ago
  Like your sibling comment I saw this mainly with physics people doing data science: > Eventually you have to understand something. And part of that process is being wrong and annoying people. There is nothing more frustrating as a colleague than having a smart person walk in, insist you're all wrong, and then burn all the energy and goodwill in the organisation having to rebuild absolutely everything from the principles they currently understand because they refuse to listen to the experience that has built up already (in the entire field, let alone the organisation), only to produce something worse on every dimension than what already existed.

moregrist 5d ago

It’s a very common experience that people in the physics-adjacent sciences have. It’s so common that there’s an xkcd about it: https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/

saghm 5d ago

It's common enough to have an xkcd for it at least (then again, what doesn't?) https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/

HWR_14 5d ago

It's a widespread stereotype at least: https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/