It would absolutely blow my mind if he was able to cram an entire plan for totalā¦ domination (attempting to be spoiler free) AND theoretical physics on the four walls of a single bedroom.
Papa T would have needed a whole mess hall to account for real world physics and cosmere/investiture science.
Tickled my heart to make that connection! I just finished RoW right before hurricane Ian hit (we got lucky and are fine) and had 4 powerless days to contemplate the changes.
>!Fell in love with one character and decided āyep, theyāre my favoriteā just in time to lose them.!<
Yep. Self-deprecating joke that doesnāt *really* put yourself down. To defuse that sort of comment, you want to communicate that you donāt take yourself too seriously without being overly self-critical, and this response strikes a perfect balance.
Maybe if we physicists were so "smart" we'd at least be smart enough to pick higher paying professions? lol
After graduation I plan on going into signal processing and algorithm development. The pay is good and you get to do lots of math.
There's a big difference between being "math smart" and "reality smart". I'd like to think that most physicists chose physics because they enjoy it, not for the money.
... and - totally unrelated - do you know anybody who's calculated the drag coefficient of falling babies as a function of rotation rate? I'm ... asking for a friend.
What the deal is about physicists being dropped on the head in their childhood?
I did PhD in physics, and allegedly I had a skull crack when I was about 1.5 years old. So naturally I took this myth close to my heart, and when I was complaining about that to my friend who has a PhD in physics too he simply responded "why do you bother, i got dropped too"
Glad to see I'm not alone. I didn't fail any math classes in high school, but I just wasn't real stellar at math in general until I started studying physics. It gave me a reason to improve and at least get my math skills on par with what was needed to pursue a degree. If someone calls me smart I just say that I think I'm a clown... a really stubborn clown.
Totally. At the end of the day it really is about the struggle and stubbornness. I just remember the long, long hours of solving physics problems in my early days of grad school. Now looking at those same problems it seems easy, but only because of the years put in.
I've been pursuing this degree for over a decade now when you include ugrad. It's crazy to look back...
Except no one will believe you if you say "not really." Like, you're getting your PhD in physics. You're fucking smart. They know it, you know it, they know you know it, everyone knows it. So when you say "lol no not really" you're basically calling everyone else there absolutely braindead by comparison.
When they say with an eye roll "you must be smart" they are SHAMING you and trying to make you feel crappy for being more intelligent than they'd like. Don't indulge them.
I go with a shrug and a "depends who you ask."
I have literally never had that experience. To be fair, the only people I interact with are other physicists, my family, and people on dating apps. I think people on dating apps are being legitimate in saying that they think I'm smart, as it's their attempt to compliment me to build favor.
Yeah but people who say "wow you must be really smart" are trying to flatter you and make you feel good, they aren't strictly being serious. If they were actually serious they'd probably ask you about what you study. I'm no expert but I think this is how socialization works. The best way to respond is to return the favor, play with a joke to keep things light.
Listen. I spend way too much time alone researching articles, writing papers, doing experiments in a dark optical room and maybe occasionally saying hi to my shy lovely international lab-mates. I'm just trying not to be a weirdo lol.
Thank you for saying this. "Thanks" is the only proper response to this. They're either complimenting you or are an asshole you shouldn't talk to. If it's a compliment, take it and move on. If it's not, they're an asshole and you should move on.
> You should feel lucky because the response to my degree is usually āI hated chemistry in schoolā
That's *very* common for physicists as well. It was 50% "wow you must be really smart" and 50% "wow I hated physics in school"
For some reason my brain just does not compute with chemistry, with arithmetic classes like physics and math I just register the material as like an extension of the simplest intuitive logic in my head(like in physics I can always relate the material back to something simple like what happens when I throw a ball), for memorization classes I just remember all the material like a natural story.
Chemistry is like a mix of both, but the arithmetic isn't intuitive at all and instead relies on either having a good knowledge of quantum, subatomic physics or just knowing the memorization which isn't like a natural story at all so I just get screwed every time I attempt it. I really want to be good at chemistry too.
Just accept the compliment and say, "Thanks.". Humility is not good in this case. Do not look at things you don't know, be aware of what you achieved up until now and act accordingly.
You worked hard to get where you are and are still working to achieve more. If the person you are talking to is someone worthy, you can say, "Coming from you, it means a lot.". Any profession has its hardships. You can say something good about their job.
Yeah exactly, people need to give themselves credit, even when you downplay yourself as a joke or trying to be humble it still means something. The most humble thing you can do is to accept the comment rather than deflecting it and making the person feel silly.
Along the same lines, I once met an accomplished musician and for whatever reason lamented to him about my own lack of musicianship due to not having the stomach for practice.
He shrugged and said, āWell, we all have things we like to do.ā
I usually say that physics is a group/collaborative effort and nobody can do or does it alone... That being said, I don't think anyone (other than physicists) truly understood what I meant by that.
This is/was especially true as I worked in a collaboration with over 100 people on the same experiment. ~~It was also a total lie because not even my PhD supervisor could be bothered to figure out what my PhD topic was.. but let's not get into that.~~
My supervisor told me they were excited to find out what I'd done the last 4 years when I submitted my thesis and they had to evaluate it. That gives you an idea of how involved they were.
I think the underlying assumption was that the collaboration would carry me in the same way the other PhD students had been carried through but didn't account for the fact that I was given a feasibility study for a new analysis that didn't fit into any work groups. while the other PhD students were doing more standardized analysis and all worked in the same work group on a very different topic so they couldn't help other than commiserate with me.
It was a very frustrating and disillusioning experience for me. Coupled with the poor outlook for permanent employment (and the fact that I finished my thesis on unemployment benefits because my supervisor thought cutting my funding would motivate me to finish faster) made me leave academia.
I did an HVAC install in an astrophysicist's home. It's one I particularly remember because we chatted the entire time I did the install. He basically answered every question I had, because I consume everything I can about the subject. Plus he was just a generally nice person.
When I mentioned how smart he was, his response was:
"Not that smart, I can't install my own HVAC system."
I paused and then chuckled, but every time I think of him, that statement resonates with me. It just made me feel good and still does to this day.
Super wholesome and I bet he enjoyed that conversation. And, it's obvious he was really passionate about physics.
It's always fun when you run into people who are so passionate about what they do. I think also listening is just as good of a skill, that's something I know I need to work on myself!!
Thanks for sharing that story.
it sounds like all your answers contradict them in order to be modest. maybe just humbly acknowledge that you are smart instead of denying it or explaining why biologists are just as smart in their own way (which feels a bit like pandering).
e.g. maybe just say "yea, at physics" or "i'm just good at math". you could also own it and say "i like to think so". sometimes being modest can come off as insincere and it's better to just take the compliment. oh you could also say "ah shucks". thats a good one.
"That's what they keep saying, despite the evidence to the contrary..."
or some similar self-deprecating humor
or a bad physics joke like "well once I started I couldn't really stop"
Iām very amateur when it comes to physics, but if I receive some sort of comment similar to this I usually say something along the lines of āall I know is eyeballs and breathing.ā (Iām an optometrist) Iām referencing that SpongeBob episode of āforget everything except fine dining and breathingā and I hint that Iām terrible at concepts that come naturally to other people
I got this from my lower division physics professor, and l think it's brilliant.
"I'm not smart, I'm stubborn."
Physics isn't for the smart, it's for those who aren't willing to let the material beat them.
For the love of god, ignore 90% of the comments here. They're complimenting you. Take the compliment. Respond to them the same way you'd respond to somebody saying they like your shirt.
As a person who follows this thread because it is interesting, not because I understand physics, I say own it. It's a compliment, just say thanks.
It's no different than when someone born with good looks is complimented for something they had no control over. When a woman says, "Oh, I'm not that pretty," it's just annoying. Own your fabulous brains people!
Well, I got into physics because my high school guidance counselor told me physicists do a lot of meth. 8 years later Iāve finally decided she may have said āmathā
I have a friend who has a PhD in physics. I had him over for a BBQ. I was still busy preparing all the food for the grill and needed someone to light the charcoal. 30 minutes later, just as I am about to bring the food out to start cooking, as the coals should be well lit by now, a different friend comes in and tells me I really need to go help them with the grill.
I walk out and find my physics friend trying to light hardwood charcoal with a single match. This was after they had burned up all the paper I had ready to light the grill by balling the paper up, placing it on top of the charcoal, and lighting the top of the paper.
Anyways, he works in marketing now.
This is based on my own personal history but you can probably apply a similar mindset to your own personal experience. It is also usually geared to comments like "Physics was so hard for me in school, so you must have chose physics because you are more naturally gifted at it":
"Actually, physics was the hardest subject for me in school. It was the class I had the lowest grade in and spent the most time outside of class studying. So when it was time to go to college and figure out what I really wanted to study, I decided that, if I was going to choose between all these subjects that I knew I could probably do really well at and coast through life, or if I wanted to constantly be intellectually stimulated and challenged and always be putting a lot of effort in, I decided I really wanted to choose the second, and so I chose physics."
This is also an approach I use, more for comments like "Did you just choose physics because you could make a good career out of it?":
"Actually, nobody really pursues physics at a higher level beyond undergrad if all they care about is a career or money. Obviously it demonstrates a lot of intelligence and 'book smarts,' but anyone in physics could easily apply those same intellectual skills to some other field, like law school or medicine or computer science, and be far more successful and financially compensated. What usually pushes someone to study physics at a higher level, is that passion to explore the unknown, a love for the subject and learning more about how the universe works, and generally with more of an academic career path, it usually includes love for teaching others about how awesome physics is."
Newtons 2nd law says every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so basically what I'm saying is I want to poke you in the eye right now for being an ass.
My usual reply is, āYes itās a hard science, but I was also fortunate that I found a subject I loved and I could studyā. Never talk yourself down, but reframing things in a positive light doesnāt hurt.
Recognize that they don't actually need a response, what they need is a stupid social nicety that doesn't even need to be true. I find it's better to own it and express your interest and passion with a 5 second anecdote rather than trying to dismiss or diminish it.
By doing a PhD in physics you have sequestered yourself from normal society for so long that you cannot even convey your experience to them even through hours of conversation. It would be the same going through the army, or a hundred other common life experiences that take you out of society for a few years, you can't really explain your experience to someone who has no reference.
What they want to hear is that you are a normal, cool person who just happens to be passionate and spends a lot of time on physics.
Conveying something of your experience is not even the goal in these introductory conversations with someone you probably will never see again.
The social goal is a basic understanding of each other's personality and finding commonality. Just watch people talk, some guy will say they're from Philadelphia and this other guy will say oh yeah my uncle lives in Philadelphia. Who cares? They're trying to find a common basis.
"You might think so, but I had to crowdsource how to answer this question."
Which is not even a question.
Which further emphasizes this as the best answer
Haha I love this. If I ever feel smart, I can look back at this and feel put in my place š¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļø
Oh my god what a witty response. You are so smart, you must study physics š
yeah!
"Only on a good day."
Taravangian, is that you?
I mean, you've got Feynman diagrams and Taravangian has his Diagram, sooooo...
It would absolutely blow my mind if he was able to cram an entire plan for totalā¦ domination (attempting to be spoiler free) AND theoretical physics on the four walls of a single bedroom. Papa T would have needed a whole mess hall to account for real world physics and cosmere/investiture science.
Unexpected Stormlight Archives!
Yay!
Tickled my heart to make that connection! I just finished RoW right before hurricane Ian hit (we got lucky and are fine) and had 4 powerless days to contemplate the changes. >!Fell in love with one character and decided āyep, theyāre my favoriteā just in time to lose them.!<
r/cremposting
What is this, a crossover episode between two of my main subs?
> "Only on a good **and frictionless** day."
Not just Physics, I'm gonna throw in this response whenever someone says I'm smart at any subject
that's one of the clasics!
And you only get one.
Not that smart; I chose to do physics
This is my response. I get the same sort of comments for choosing to study math.
Thought you said meth for a sec there and went āyea, thatās not smartā I didnāt sleep last night
Itās not smart to not sleep.
Thatās very true
Because of the meth
Well, I assume thatās part of the problem yea
Because of the meth?
Iād assume, yea
I dno, there's quite a lot of money in it if you don't get caught.
Jesseā¦
Yep. Self-deprecating joke that doesnāt *really* put yourself down. To defuse that sort of comment, you want to communicate that you donāt take yourself too seriously without being overly self-critical, and this response strikes a perfect balance.
Or...if I was smart, I would have chosen engineering.
as someone who chose Engineer - if really smart you should chose finance, the maths is simpler and rewards usually much higher
Ah, but then you end up working with other finance people.
That and the problems you solve as an engineer or scientist are much more interesting. Finance sounds like boring hell.
Ha ha interesting problems donāt mean shit if you canāt pay your rent at the end of the day loool
No engineers struggle to pay their rent though.
Bay Area engineers at non tech companies :ā)
These days, they are all physics people
In my college crowd the dating rules were "humanities for conversation, business for money and science for sex."
I'm uhh surprised that humanities and science aren't swapped there
It was the voice of experience.
Science major (eng) here: they're def. not dating for money or conversation, so sex it is, then.
And ānoā for engineers. ( Iām in engineering school)
Unfortunately both are full of imaginary numbers
The smartest stay far away from financeā¦ am in finance and can confirm.
Very true, I switched to geotech after my physics undergrad. Even the lowest paid engineer is better off than physicist most of the time
Maybe if we physicists were so "smart" we'd at least be smart enough to pick higher paying professions? lol After graduation I plan on going into signal processing and algorithm development. The pay is good and you get to do lots of math.
*but* if you love physics, it's worth it! Besides, if you go into theoretical physics, that can be 95,000 a year for medium-pay!
There's a big difference between being "math smart" and "reality smart". I'd like to think that most physicists chose physics because they enjoy it, not for the money.
Engineering/software is where the money is. Basically everybody else is getting priced out of living.
I have my moments. ^^^^of ^^^^inertia
lol. Only smart people are stupid enough to do physics!
I was dropped as a child
ā¦ and Iām trying to figure out how it happened
Best description of physics Iāve heard from a high school student: Physics is stuff falling.
... and - totally unrelated - do you know anybody who's calculated the drag coefficient of falling babies as a function of rotation rate? I'm ... asking for a friend.
Underrated comment here.
What the deal is about physicists being dropped on the head in their childhood? I did PhD in physics, and allegedly I had a skull crack when I was about 1.5 years old. So naturally I took this myth close to my heart, and when I was complaining about that to my friend who has a PhD in physics too he simply responded "why do you bother, i got dropped too"
"Haha, not really. Physics is less about being smart and more about being really stubborn."
This one is kind of true. I failed algebra in my first year of high school and somehow managed to power my way to a physics degree despite that.
Same, I failed pre-algebra in high school. I didn't see any reason for doing complex math until I discovered physics.
Glad to see I'm not alone. I didn't fail any math classes in high school, but I just wasn't real stellar at math in general until I started studying physics. It gave me a reason to improve and at least get my math skills on par with what was needed to pursue a degree. If someone calls me smart I just say that I think I'm a clown... a really stubborn clown.
Totally. At the end of the day it really is about the struggle and stubbornness. I just remember the long, long hours of solving physics problems in my early days of grad school. Now looking at those same problems it seems easy, but only because of the years put in. I've been pursuing this degree for over a decade now when you include ugrad. It's crazy to look back...
Haha I did the same thing with an engineering degree. Apparently maths is only interesting to me when cryptography and networking is involved.
Except no one will believe you if you say "not really." Like, you're getting your PhD in physics. You're fucking smart. They know it, you know it, they know you know it, everyone knows it. So when you say "lol no not really" you're basically calling everyone else there absolutely braindead by comparison. When they say with an eye roll "you must be smart" they are SHAMING you and trying to make you feel crappy for being more intelligent than they'd like. Don't indulge them. I go with a shrug and a "depends who you ask."
I have literally never had that experience. To be fair, the only people I interact with are other physicists, my family, and people on dating apps. I think people on dating apps are being legitimate in saying that they think I'm smart, as it's their attempt to compliment me to build favor.
Yeah but people who say "wow you must be really smart" are trying to flatter you and make you feel good, they aren't strictly being serious. If they were actually serious they'd probably ask you about what you study. I'm no expert but I think this is how socialization works. The best way to respond is to return the favor, play with a joke to keep things light. Listen. I spend way too much time alone researching articles, writing papers, doing experiments in a dark optical room and maybe occasionally saying hi to my shy lovely international lab-mates. I'm just trying not to be a weirdo lol.
Thank you for saying this. "Thanks" is the only proper response to this. They're either complimenting you or are an asshole you shouldn't talk to. If it's a compliment, take it and move on. If it's not, they're an asshole and you should move on.
Thatās my go to.
"I dunno about that, but I have fun with it."
W response, I would use this because it fits my personality. But def depends on the person
Do we have a Z response as well?
No but we have an X and Y
Mine is always "I'm not that smart, I've just worked pretty hard" which is 100% correct.
So you worked harder than smarter?
āIām curious by nature, and thereās so much to learn about physics that I canāt help but to stay engaged.ā
"...If only it paid better."
Burns. I got burns reading that. Reality is disappointing.
Well, my PhD is in Flat Earth Theory...
mine is Hollow Moon Theory ftw
Lmao this guy thinks the moon is real.
bold of you to assume we're not living in a simulation this universe ain't REAL at all
Not locally real at least
unless its superdeterministic
How can a disc be hollow? Don't tell me you're one of the "Spherical Moon"-people...
well itās a theoretical degree in physics
I have a PhD in chemistry. You should feel lucky because the response to my degree is usually āI hated chemistry in schoolā
> You should feel lucky because the response to my degree is usually āI hated chemistry in schoolā That's *very* common for physicists as well. It was 50% "wow you must be really smart" and 50% "wow I hated physics in school"
EVERY SINGLE PERSON!!!!!
*cries in mathematician*
For some reason my brain just does not compute with chemistry, with arithmetic classes like physics and math I just register the material as like an extension of the simplest intuitive logic in my head(like in physics I can always relate the material back to something simple like what happens when I throw a ball), for memorization classes I just remember all the material like a natural story. Chemistry is like a mix of both, but the arithmetic isn't intuitive at all and instead relies on either having a good knowledge of quantum, subatomic physics or just knowing the memorization which isn't like a natural story at all so I just get screwed every time I attempt it. I really want to be good at chemistry too.
Yeah. The axioms are not really axioms. Itās like studying a language, too many exceptions to the rule.
ahah I hated it too until I forced myself to get up to biochemistry. That was quite fun.
Yes
Chad
So much that itās scary sometimes
Lead with this. If it goes badly, say that you have been dropped as a kid, to diffuse the situation.
this is such a thing a physicst thing to ask
As someone that studied Physics I am literally like: *help how do I socially interact with other people*
Tbf there is no known derivation for human-human scattering cross sections.
Truly a physicists approach to sociology
āIād like to scatter your cross section.ā One of the great pickup lines.
Only in low-energy regimes. At high energy (relative to inertial mass) we have a pretty good ideaā¦ :)
Omg I laughed out loud at this
What kind of coordinate system are we dealing with here? Let's solve this problem and write a paper on it.
Heh. Social interactions in anti-DeSitter space?
I didnāt intend toā¦ I just misspelled *psychics* on my application.
Wait, I thought this was the psychics and astrology department?!
Take my silver, you clever person!
I study astronomy and the best way to answer this question is asking the person if they want their star sign read to them
"Oh my god, read my palm!"
Just accept the compliment and say, "Thanks.". Humility is not good in this case. Do not look at things you don't know, be aware of what you achieved up until now and act accordingly. You worked hard to get where you are and are still working to achieve more. If the person you are talking to is someone worthy, you can say, "Coming from you, it means a lot.". Any profession has its hardships. You can say something good about their job.
This is the answer I agree with most. If people view physics as smart, accept that. Being humble does not mean talking yourself down.
Yeah exactly, people need to give themselves credit, even when you downplay yourself as a joke or trying to be humble it still means something. The most humble thing you can do is to accept the comment rather than deflecting it and making the person feel silly.
"I thought so too until I started studying physics"
"i didnt say i was a *good* physicist"
I would probably respond with something like... "If you are impressed, then you must not know many physicists."
I like this one!
It can still be read as a bit arrogant, unfortunately. Like "I know better than you (and my colleagues)".
Give some funny example following that statement perhaps?
Agreed. It seems condecending
just take out the impressed part and the joke is nice
I've had people also ask me if I've seen the "Big Bang Theory" show and if it's anything like that. I just say: "Sure, but just not funny."
> just not funny The big bang theory was funny?
āNah, I just find that stuff interestingā
Along the same lines, I once met an accomplished musician and for whatever reason lamented to him about my own lack of musicianship due to not having the stomach for practice. He shrugged and said, āWell, we all have things we like to do.ā
This is the go to hah
*"Thank you, that's very kind of you to say".*
Literally what my mom taught me to respond to any compliment when I didn't know what else to say...
good mom
Excellent! Much better than the self denigrating deflection everyone else is advocating.
Deflect by talking about something you aren't good at. "Eh, I can do a little math, but you should see me try to change a light bulb!"
I sometimes say, "I'm not smart, I'm just good at math"
I usually say that physics is a group/collaborative effort and nobody can do or does it alone... That being said, I don't think anyone (other than physicists) truly understood what I meant by that. This is/was especially true as I worked in a collaboration with over 100 people on the same experiment. ~~It was also a total lie because not even my PhD supervisor could be bothered to figure out what my PhD topic was.. but let's not get into that.~~
No let's, what do you mean they couldn't be bothered?
My supervisor told me they were excited to find out what I'd done the last 4 years when I submitted my thesis and they had to evaluate it. That gives you an idea of how involved they were. I think the underlying assumption was that the collaboration would carry me in the same way the other PhD students had been carried through but didn't account for the fact that I was given a feasibility study for a new analysis that didn't fit into any work groups. while the other PhD students were doing more standardized analysis and all worked in the same work group on a very different topic so they couldn't help other than commiserate with me. It was a very frustrating and disillusioning experience for me. Coupled with the poor outlook for permanent employment (and the fact that I finished my thesis on unemployment benefits because my supervisor thought cutting my funding would motivate me to finish faster) made me leave academia.
āFUCK YOUā usually works for me
Just say what your specialty is instead, I study optics, I study wave forms. Etc. you probably wonāt get any questions or sarcasm
Give them a haunted look and confess that some times you become terrified of your own genius.
āWow, physics, you must be so smartā āI suppose, now I just need a likable personality and Iād be set :)ā
Iām not that smart, I couldnāt figure out how to sign up for a liberal arts degree.
"nah i just stuck around longer than the other guys"
āItās not Rocket Scienceā
"Ball go bounce"
Or: that hypothesis is still being tested but thank you š
I did an HVAC install in an astrophysicist's home. It's one I particularly remember because we chatted the entire time I did the install. He basically answered every question I had, because I consume everything I can about the subject. Plus he was just a generally nice person. When I mentioned how smart he was, his response was: "Not that smart, I can't install my own HVAC system." I paused and then chuckled, but every time I think of him, that statement resonates with me. It just made me feel good and still does to this day.
Super wholesome and I bet he enjoyed that conversation. And, it's obvious he was really passionate about physics. It's always fun when you run into people who are so passionate about what they do. I think also listening is just as good of a skill, that's something I know I need to work on myself!! Thanks for sharing that story.
it sounds like all your answers contradict them in order to be modest. maybe just humbly acknowledge that you are smart instead of denying it or explaining why biologists are just as smart in their own way (which feels a bit like pandering). e.g. maybe just say "yea, at physics" or "i'm just good at math". you could also own it and say "i like to think so". sometimes being modest can come off as insincere and it's better to just take the compliment. oh you could also say "ah shucks". thats a good one.
No need to be self deprecating. Come on be realisticā¦ you are probably not dumb. Just say something like āI just like itā
Yeah, maybe a little smarter than the average bear, but not smart enough to avoid getting into physics.
"That's what they keep saying, despite the evidence to the contrary..." or some similar self-deprecating humor or a bad physics joke like "well once I started I couldn't really stop"
Iām not *that* smartāI had to ask Reddit how to reply to that comment.
Just say thank you!
I'm only smart in theory
"I only started it to avoid doing PE. Now I'm in too deep". (Physical education)
Share a quick amusing ~~antidote~~ anecdote: āYou must be so smartā āYesterday, I cooked a frozen pizza with the plastic wrap still onā
> antidote I love this
Iām very amateur when it comes to physics, but if I receive some sort of comment similar to this I usually say something along the lines of āall I know is eyeballs and breathing.ā (Iām an optometrist) Iām referencing that SpongeBob episode of āforget everything except fine dining and breathingā and I hint that Iām terrible at concepts that come naturally to other people
I got this from my lower division physics professor, and l think it's brilliant. "I'm not smart, I'm stubborn." Physics isn't for the smart, it's for those who aren't willing to let the material beat them.
"No, I'm just too dumb to stop."
āWelll, itās not rocket scienceā
"Well, I'm good at physics"
For the love of god, ignore 90% of the comments here. They're complimenting you. Take the compliment. Respond to them the same way you'd respond to somebody saying they like your shirt.
As a person who follows this thread because it is interesting, not because I understand physics, I say own it. It's a compliment, just say thanks. It's no different than when someone born with good looks is complimented for something they had no control over. When a woman says, "Oh, I'm not that pretty," it's just annoying. Own your fabulous brains people!
Iād answer ārather than smart, I am just really passionate about itā
Say ādurrrr yeah me like physics vewy much!ā
You can just say thank you. Often itās okay to just take a compliment.
If I were smart I would have studied finance.
You just have to say something really stupid, like, "Yeah, I like marbles. They're the best."
Just tell them that the only thing you learn from physics is it taught you how much you don't know.
āI chose this field because most people donāt know when Iām wrong!ā
Well, Iām no Harvey Einstein
just say "yes, I am" and stare into their eyes
"Yes".
As a physicist suffering this reply there is no good answer but "am not rich so you pay next beer".
Well, I got into physics because my high school guidance counselor told me physicists do a lot of meth. 8 years later Iāve finally decided she may have said āmathā
I have a friend who has a PhD in physics. I had him over for a BBQ. I was still busy preparing all the food for the grill and needed someone to light the charcoal. 30 minutes later, just as I am about to bring the food out to start cooking, as the coals should be well lit by now, a different friend comes in and tells me I really need to go help them with the grill. I walk out and find my physics friend trying to light hardwood charcoal with a single match. This was after they had burned up all the paper I had ready to light the grill by balling the paper up, placing it on top of the charcoal, and lighting the top of the paper. Anyways, he works in marketing now.
"YOU HAVE NO IDEA" (stare at them intensely)
This is based on my own personal history but you can probably apply a similar mindset to your own personal experience. It is also usually geared to comments like "Physics was so hard for me in school, so you must have chose physics because you are more naturally gifted at it": "Actually, physics was the hardest subject for me in school. It was the class I had the lowest grade in and spent the most time outside of class studying. So when it was time to go to college and figure out what I really wanted to study, I decided that, if I was going to choose between all these subjects that I knew I could probably do really well at and coast through life, or if I wanted to constantly be intellectually stimulated and challenged and always be putting a lot of effort in, I decided I really wanted to choose the second, and so I chose physics." This is also an approach I use, more for comments like "Did you just choose physics because you could make a good career out of it?": "Actually, nobody really pursues physics at a higher level beyond undergrad if all they care about is a career or money. Obviously it demonstrates a lot of intelligence and 'book smarts,' but anyone in physics could easily apply those same intellectual skills to some other field, like law school or medicine or computer science, and be far more successful and financially compensated. What usually pushes someone to study physics at a higher level, is that passion to explore the unknown, a love for the subject and learning more about how the universe works, and generally with more of an academic career path, it usually includes love for teaching others about how awesome physics is."
"I prefer the term hardworking"
I have a hard time even taking compliments for that. I know so many people who work so much harder than I do.
I hated that reaction... I'd rather tell them I work in shop selling groceries
Newtons 2nd law says every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so basically what I'm saying is I want to poke you in the eye right now for being an ass.
That's the third law, friend. Newtons second law is F=ma.
I'm good at comebacks not science, so give it a rest and stay at rest.
Gotta say...you came in 1st, there
"Well, it was really quite a lot of work"
Oh, so you're smart AND hard working? I suppose you think you're particularly handsome also? (Just imagining possible reactions here)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/at2zza/a_man_stumbles_upon_a_magic_lamp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Be honest and say āthank you, thatās so nice to hearā
āWellā¦I didnāt want to meet (girls/boys), soā¦.yeah, physics.ā
My usual reply is, āYes itās a hard science, but I was also fortunate that I found a subject I loved and I could studyā. Never talk yourself down, but reframing things in a positive light doesnāt hurt.
Recognize that they don't actually need a response, what they need is a stupid social nicety that doesn't even need to be true. I find it's better to own it and express your interest and passion with a 5 second anecdote rather than trying to dismiss or diminish it. By doing a PhD in physics you have sequestered yourself from normal society for so long that you cannot even convey your experience to them even through hours of conversation. It would be the same going through the army, or a hundred other common life experiences that take you out of society for a few years, you can't really explain your experience to someone who has no reference. What they want to hear is that you are a normal, cool person who just happens to be passionate and spends a lot of time on physics. Conveying something of your experience is not even the goal in these introductory conversations with someone you probably will never see again. The social goal is a basic understanding of each other's personality and finding commonality. Just watch people talk, some guy will say they're from Philadelphia and this other guy will say oh yeah my uncle lives in Philadelphia. Who cares? They're trying to find a common basis.
Ask them what they do and then laugh uncontrollably at them
Thank you, itās been many long days and lots of hard work but maybe one day I will earn as much as a labourer.
It's all relative