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As a physicist i find this quite comforting. It's good to keep in mind that even the most transformative thinkers in the history of science had reasons to exper

As a physicist i find this quite comforting. It's good to keep in mind that even the most transformative thinkers in the history of science had reasons to experience impostor syndrome. Einstein famously had a lot of trouble with math as well. No matter how good you are, physics will regularly present you with problems that you can't solve. Statistically speaking, most of the time spent doing science is spent being wrong. As soon as you figure a system out your work is essentially done and you move on to being wrong about a different problem. The psychology is very different from working problem sets, writing an app, or defending a political position, yet we don't really prepare students for these realities as we probably should.

jofer 4y ago
> "Statistically speaking, most of the time spent doing science is spent being wrong. As soon as you figure a system out your work is essentially done and you move on to being wrong about a different problem." That's a remarkably good quote. Definitely very true. I would argue that grad students prepare pretty well for that, and it's one of the main mindset shifts you're expected to make in grad school vs undergrad. Regardless, though, it's not something that gets broad appreciation.
whatshisface 4y ago
Hopefully you're not wrong but uncertain, if you were wrong you'd be confident you were right.
vient 4y ago
> Einstein famously had a lot of trouble with math as well. Isn't it a myth? http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1936731_1936743_1936758,00.html http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,288...
- sidlls 4y ago
  Most definitely a myth. The mathematics of the physics he worked on is not simple. But of course there is also the time honored and long standing friendly animosity between physicist math and "real" math, in which scant few physicists are "good at math."
- sajid 4y ago
  Einstein was not a very good mathematician. This quote from David Hilbert sums it up well: “Every boy in the streets of Göttingen understands more about four-dimensional geometry than Einstein. Yet, in spite of that, Einstein did the work and not the mathematicians.”
- antognini 4y ago
  It's sort of a yes and no. The belief that Einstein was bad at math in school is a myth. He did just fine in mathematics at school. But relative to other theoretical physicists he was not the strongest mathematician.
  - rsj_hn 4y ago
    Einstein not only "did fine" but was extremely precocious. From the wiki entry: - - - Einstein excelled at math and physics from a young age, reaching a mathematical level years ahead of his peers. The 12-year-old Einstein taught himself algebra and Euclidean geometry over a single summer.[28] Einstein also independently discovered his own original proof of the Pythagorean theorem aged 12.[29] A family tutor Max Talmud says that after he had given the 12-year-old Einstein a geometry textbook, after a short time "[Einstein] had worked through the whole book. He thereupon devoted himself to higher mathematics... Soon the flight of his mathematical genius was so high I could not follow."[30] His passion for geometry and algebra led the 12-year-old to become convinced that nature could be understood as a "mathematical structure".[30] Einstein started teaching himself calculus at 12, and as a 14-year-old he says he had "mastered integral and differential calculus".[31] - - - At age 16, he tried to skip the last two years of gymnasium and directly go to University -- to what is now known as ETH, a fantastically rigorous and selective research university -- but failed the entrance examination. He excelled at the math and physics portions, but of course did not pass in the humanities questions covering material he never studied. This is what caused many myths about him getting kicked out of school, or failing to graduate, etc. In reality, this just means he needed to attend a gymnasium to get the required secondary education in the humanities that he tried to skip. Starting with university, he did focus on physics, so compared to many theoretical physicists who had the equivalent of a dual math/physics PhD, Einstein's PhD was more physics focused, and for this reason he is not considered as strong of a mathematician as he is a physicist, but this doesn't mean he wasn't good at math, or that he received failing grades, or that he dropped out, etc.
  - mayankkaizen 4y ago
    Which other theoretical physicists were amazingly great at mathematics? I am genuinly curious. I am certainly not alluding that Einstein was great at maths. But I do think he was good enough. von Neuman is someone I think was a beast but he was more of a mathrmatician than a physicist (at least I think so).
meindnoch 4y ago
>Einstein famously had a lot of trouble with math as well This is false.
- coyotespike 4y ago
  Yes, Einstein himself directly addressed the myth, noting he'd mastered calculus by about 12. It is probably true that he was not the mathematician that many other theoretical physicists are. How would you compare him with von Neumann? But that's a different thing than the common myth that he was bad at math!
Maursault 4y ago
> Einstein Because everyone knows Einstein was the smartest person that ever lived and the best physicist ever, right? Einstein is only famous because of the press he got, because the press glorified him without knowing why, and everyone read the press. Sure he was bright, but he was also all too human. Everyone thinks he single-handedly changed physics forever while in isolation as a desk clerk at a patent office, but the truth is he stood firmly on the shoulders of giants like Poincaré and Lorentz, not to mention his teacher Minkowski and his friend Grossman. Nearly all of the ideas attributed to Einstein were actually someone elses' ideas. Neither Relativity nor the constancy of the speed of light were Einstein's ideas, and not remotely so. History just gave him all the credit.

jofer 4y ago

> "Statistically speaking, most of the time spent doing science is spent being wrong. As soon as you figure a system out your work is essentially done and you move on to being wrong about a different problem." That's a remarkably good quote. Definitely very true. I would argue that grad students prepare pretty well for that, and it's one of the main mindset shifts you're expected to make in grad school vs undergrad. Regardless, though, it's not something that gets broad appreciation.

whatshisface 4y ago

Hopefully you're not wrong but uncertain, if you were wrong you'd be confident you were right.

vient 4y ago

> Einstein famously had a lot of trouble with math as well. Isn't it a myth? http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1936731_1936743_1936758,00.html http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,288...

sidlls 4y ago
Most definitely a myth. The mathematics of the physics he worked on is not simple. But of course there is also the time honored and long standing friendly animosity between physicist math and "real" math, in which scant few physicists are "good at math."
sajid 4y ago
Einstein was not a very good mathematician. This quote from David Hilbert sums it up well: “Every boy in the streets of Göttingen understands more about four-dimensional geometry than Einstein. Yet, in spite of that, Einstein did the work and not the mathematicians.”
antognini 4y ago
It's sort of a yes and no. The belief that Einstein was bad at math in school is a myth. He did just fine in mathematics at school. But relative to other theoretical physicists he was not the strongest mathematician.
- rsj_hn 4y ago
  Einstein not only "did fine" but was extremely precocious. From the wiki entry: - - - Einstein excelled at math and physics from a young age, reaching a mathematical level years ahead of his peers. The 12-year-old Einstein taught himself algebra and Euclidean geometry over a single summer.[28] Einstein also independently discovered his own original proof of the Pythagorean theorem aged 12.[29] A family tutor Max Talmud says that after he had given the 12-year-old Einstein a geometry textbook, after a short time "[Einstein] had worked through the whole book. He thereupon devoted himself to higher mathematics... Soon the flight of his mathematical genius was so high I could not follow."[30] His passion for geometry and algebra led the 12-year-old to become convinced that nature could be understood as a "mathematical structure".[30] Einstein started teaching himself calculus at 12, and as a 14-year-old he says he had "mastered integral and differential calculus".[31] - - - At age 16, he tried to skip the last two years of gymnasium and directly go to University -- to what is now known as ETH, a fantastically rigorous and selective research university -- but failed the entrance examination. He excelled at the math and physics portions, but of course did not pass in the humanities questions covering material he never studied. This is what caused many myths about him getting kicked out of school, or failing to graduate, etc. In reality, this just means he needed to attend a gymnasium to get the required secondary education in the humanities that he tried to skip. Starting with university, he did focus on physics, so compared to many theoretical physicists who had the equivalent of a dual math/physics PhD, Einstein's PhD was more physics focused, and for this reason he is not considered as strong of a mathematician as he is a physicist, but this doesn't mean he wasn't good at math, or that he received failing grades, or that he dropped out, etc.
- mayankkaizen 4y ago
  Which other theoretical physicists were amazingly great at mathematics? I am genuinly curious. I am certainly not alluding that Einstein was great at maths. But I do think he was good enough. von Neuman is someone I think was a beast but he was more of a mathrmatician than a physicist (at least I think so).

meindnoch 4y ago

>Einstein famously had a lot of trouble with math as well This is false.

coyotespike 4y ago
Yes, Einstein himself directly addressed the myth, noting he'd mastered calculus by about 12. It is probably true that he was not the mathematician that many other theoretical physicists are. How would you compare him with von Neumann? But that's a different thing than the common myth that he was bad at math!

Maursault 4y ago

> Einstein Because everyone knows Einstein was the smartest person that ever lived and the best physicist ever, right? Einstein is only famous because of the press he got, because the press glorified him without knowing why, and everyone read the press. Sure he was bright, but he was also all too human. Everyone thinks he single-handedly changed physics forever while in isolation as a desk clerk at a patent office, but the truth is he stood firmly on the shoulders of giants like Poincaré and Lorentz, not to mention his teacher Minkowski and his friend Grossman. Nearly all of the ideas attributed to Einstein were actually someone elses' ideas. Neither Relativity nor the constancy of the speed of light were Einstein's ideas, and not remotely so. History just gave him all the credit.