3 ms·
I have read that in the 1800s the upper crust were being told to not allow their children to pursue a career in Physics. The commonly held view was that Newton
by lebuffon 6y ago
I have read that in the 1800s the upper crust were being told to not allow their children to pursue a career in Physics.
The commonly held view was that Newton had uncovered all the good bits and there was really nothing left to discover.
Then someone asked "What are those blue sparks I see when I take off my jumper (sweater) in a dark bedroom?"
We just need to find the next sparks. :)
- djaque 6y agoIt reminds me of a story about Max Planck [1] being told by his advisor to not pursue theoretical physics because it was only the small details that were left to work out. Of course, he went on to help start the revolution in quantum physics. > in this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes [1] https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/2129/who-said-that-essentially-everything-in-theoretical-physics-had-already-been-dis https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/2129/who-said-that-e...
- pvg 6y agoThis is an anecdote usually told about Max Planck (and may have originally been recounted by Planck!) and his adviser, Philipp von Jolly. Some decent sourcing here: https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/2129/who-said-that-essentially-everything-in-theoretical-physics-had-already-been-dis https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/2129/who-said-that-e... Electricity was a subject of intense study throughout the 19th century and before (think of the people we've named units and effects after - Galvano, Volta, Ampere, Ohm, etc)
- redis_mlc 6y agoNot much changed in 150 years: Post-2000 SV VC: So what kind of work do you do? Me: Software Engineer. Post-2000 SV VC: Oh, sorry to hear that. Software is a dying industry. You need to learn a new career.