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Physicists are one hell of science and engineering badasses. I know many physicists who became hardware engineers and even software engineers when they needed
by thesz 10y ago
Physicists are one hell of science and engineering badasses.
I know many physicists who became hardware engineers and even software engineers when they needed it. I know no software/hardware engineer who became physicist.
- adrianN 10y agoI'd become a physicist if there were jobs for physicists doing actual physics.
- thesz 10y agoMe (and you) can do theoretical work. Even nanomanipulators are DIY: http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2011-07/you-built-what-scanning-electron-microscope http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2011-07/you-built-what-sca... or http://hackaday.com/2015/01/13/cheap-diy-microscope-sees-individual-atoms/ http://hackaday.com/2015/01/13/cheap-diy-microscope-sees-ind... (ESM can be used to manipulate atoms) Yet I haven't had time or courage. Or badassness.
- PeterisP 10y agoTo work on theoretical physics, you anyway do need a job in physics or win the lottery - doing it as a hobby for 15 hours a week after a job doesn't count, to get anywhere you do need to be able to work on it full time for a few years.
- thesz 10y agoAnd this is what I call lack of courage.
- mac01021 10y agoFor some, that's because they're not badass enough. For many, it's because they never needed it.
- musgravepeter 10y agoDepending on what "being a physicist" means, I did. Went from EE undergrad to physics PhD. Then worked in s/w but still tinker on physics projects on the side. GRTensorIII (https://gitlab.com/grtensor/grtensor/wikis/home https://gitlab.com/grtensor/grtensor/wikis/home) An iOS/Android app for Three Body simulations (Three Body) and a Unity gravity simulator (Gravity Engine). I would have loved to make a living wage in physics but the post-doc path is badly paid.
- thesz 10y agoYou have not spent couple of tens of years building EE career and then turn to physics. I am speaking of fully developed specialists in the field - well into their thirties and even forties.
- madengr 10y ago"I know no software/hardware engineer who became physicist." Sure, due to the premise of the article; no pay in it.
- thesz 10y agoEven wealthy ones can't. John Carmack was wealthy enough to afford spaceship company. This is closest one get to physicist. And yet - no quantum or particle physics, theoretical or experimental.
- BeetleB 10y agoWere he alive, John Bardeen would want to have a word with you.
- thesz 10y agoHe was not a career hardware engineer turning to be physicist. He was physicist from the beginning.