4 ms·

It’s really interesting to see other fields trying to explain research. Here, I feel the authors are not entirely clear who the audience is supposed to be. At

by zwaps 5y ago

It’s really interesting to see other fields trying to explain research. Here, I feel the authors are not entirely clear who the audience is supposed to be. At first, they seem to target people who need the difference between Einstein and Maxwell explained. The section is titled:“ Maxwell's equations and general relativity—what are these all about?“ Then when they reveal the missing link, the uninformed reader is presented with a logical progression that is obviously written towards somehow for whom the statement:“the Lagrangian of electrodynamics is just the Einstein-Hilbert action“ is self explanatory. You know, people who say, yes of course, if you say:“ keep the spacetime manifold Ricci-flat.“ Writing about science is hard

zwaps 5y ago
And all I, the non technical reader, want to know is which of these theories give us Warp technology by the time the Vulcans pass by the solar system
yesenadam 5y ago
That reminds me of Roger Penrose's 1100pp The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, which I was very excited about reading when I bought it years ago. Lots of lovely diagrams. Turns out I could learn almost nothing from it, although I really tried: The first half of the book was basic stuff I already knew, but I could understand nothing of the second half, it passed so quickly from the elementary to the super-advanced. I ended up wondering who it was written for—I imagined everyone would have a similar experience, whatever their level—it's stuff you already know until suddenly it's stuff you can't understand, and no way of passing beyond. It covers so much ground so quickly, with no time for enough explanation—if you didn't already understand the current topic. Maybe that was just me! But it was extremely surprising putting so much (money,) time and effort into a book with rave reviews by a leading physicist, and learning virtually nothing.
- JohnHaugeland 5y ago
  " yesenadam 1 day ago | parent [–] | on: Electromagnetism is a property of spacetime itself... That reminds me of Roger Penrose's 1100pp The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, which I was very excited about reading when I bought it years ago. Lots of lovely diagrams. Turns out I could learn almost nothing from it, although I really tried: The first half of the book was basic stuff I already knew, but I could understand nothing of the second half, it passed so quickly from the elementary to the super-advanced. I ended up wondering who it was written for—I imagined everyone would have a similar experience, whatever their level—it's stuff you already know until suddenly it's stuff you can't understand, and no way of passing beyond." This is nearly universally an answer to the request" tell me you don't understand something you think you understand without telling me that you don't understand something that you think you understand" The ramp isn't steep. It's just that if you think you're on it but aren't, then the second floor looks like a wall
  - yesenadam 5y ago
    > This is nearly universally an answer to the request" tell me you don't understand something you think you understand without telling me that you don't understand something that you think you understand" I have no idea what this means, sorry. > The ramp isn't steep. It's just that if you think you're on it but aren't, then the second floor looks like a wall I'm not sure what this is meant to mean. Could you be less cryptic? Thanks.

by zwaps 5y ago

zwaps 5y ago

And all I, the non technical reader, want to know is which of these theories give us Warp technology by the time the Vulcans pass by the solar system

yesenadam 5y ago

That reminds me of Roger Penrose's 1100pp The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, which I was very excited about reading when I bought it years ago. Lots of lovely diagrams. Turns out I could learn almost nothing from it, although I really tried: The first half of the book was basic stuff I already knew, but I could understand nothing of the second half, it passed so quickly from the elementary to the super-advanced. I ended up wondering who it was written for—I imagined everyone would have a similar experience, whatever their level—it's stuff you already know until suddenly it's stuff you can't understand, and no way of passing beyond. It covers so much ground so quickly, with no time for enough explanation—if you didn't already understand the current topic. Maybe that was just me! But it was extremely surprising putting so much (money,) time and effort into a book with rave reviews by a leading physicist, and learning virtually nothing.

JohnHaugeland 5y ago
" yesenadam 1 day ago | parent [–] | on: Electromagnetism is a property of spacetime itself... That reminds me of Roger Penrose's 1100pp The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, which I was very excited about reading when I bought it years ago. Lots of lovely diagrams. Turns out I could learn almost nothing from it, although I really tried: The first half of the book was basic stuff I already knew, but I could understand nothing of the second half, it passed so quickly from the elementary to the super-advanced. I ended up wondering who it was written for—I imagined everyone would have a similar experience, whatever their level—it's stuff you already know until suddenly it's stuff you can't understand, and no way of passing beyond." This is nearly universally an answer to the request" tell me you don't understand something you think you understand without telling me that you don't understand something that you think you understand" The ramp isn't steep. It's just that if you think you're on it but aren't, then the second floor looks like a wall
- yesenadam 5y ago
  > This is nearly universally an answer to the request" tell me you don't understand something you think you understand without telling me that you don't understand something that you think you understand" I have no idea what this means, sorry. > The ramp isn't steep. It's just that if you think you're on it but aren't, then the second floor looks like a wall I'm not sure what this is meant to mean. Could you be less cryptic? Thanks.