Comments on: A small Peter Woit ?

By: Science is naturally unattractive « Reasonable Deviations

Science is naturally unattractive « Reasonable Deviations — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:17:01 +0000

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Naturally unattractive to most people « Perfectly Reasonable Deviations — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:07:36 +0000

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By: dorigo

dorigo — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 14:22:21 +0000

Observer, I think Lubos Motl just wants to take a break from academia. I think he will be back, probably with a job in his home country…

Cheers,
T.

By: Observer

Observer — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 00:25:50 +0000

Is Lubos following in Grisha Perelman’s footsteps? that wanted to live in a “good only for me world?”; If so take note that Perelman got a Fields medal and left at least 20 or so publications and solved the Poincare conjecture (now a Theorem) so there is a lot to catch up.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:06:11 +0000

Lubos,

Delighted to hear you have been purged, because frankly, you are SO full of shit your eyes are colored brown !
The string community, despite all its troubles, has one less bummer now that you are gone.
Sayonara

By: amanda

amanda — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:15:15 +0000

I think that LM’s case is a cautionary story for all. Leaving aside all the political/climate stuff, his blog is basically devoted to attacking other people’s work. This is a very tempting way to go — when you feel that you cannot contribute anything, it makes you feel better if you can persuade yourself that the work that *is* being done is no good anyway. The end result is just to make your situation worse. [Another drawback is that your ignorance gets exposed --- LM's writings on the second law of thermodynamics make me squirm with vicarious embarrassment.] I’m glad to see that TD’s blog is not like this, he communicates his enthusiasm for his own and other people’s work, and I think that this is good for him as well as for us, his readers. Bloggers take note!

By: island

island — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 23:28:53 +0000

Those are excellent points, Jeff and Tommaso.

Each individual should find a personal way.

This is a beautiful point when new candidates are herded along a trail whose naturally questionable hurdles are already “explained”, because they end up with many assumptions about the validity of physics that they did not realize on their own without “help”.

If you follow the trend of the cosmological timeline, then you can easily see a pattern that severely deviates from it’s constant trend, in the seventies… as solutions to the flatness and horizon problems began to take on physics-bending-rules that killed first principles and causality at that level of applicability.

You have no chance to question many naturally questionable assumptions in any deviating manner if you are subject to the pressure from the groupthink of your peers, because you will be crushed, professionally, if you try. Not that many do, the ones that aren’t extremely “convinced” of their direction, like Lubos, seem to like the comfortable security of “groupthink”…!

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:11:58 +0000

Infact I didn’t suggest doing what Weinberg decided to do. I personally believe Weinberg DID do the right thing if only because he IS a well known person. What ordinary and numerous people, so-called intellectuals, for example physcists, should do is an open question. Maybe Weinberg could have done something else, but at least he DID something. I do believe that the english academia should NOT be allowed to get away with it. I do not like GROUPS and do not think the english academia should be targeted by a group intiative. Each individual should find a personal way.

By: dorigo

dorigo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:58:12 +0000

Maybe Jeff, but criticizing somebody for some ill-motivated behavior is one thing, doing the same is another. Errare humanum, perseverare diabolicum.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:41:41 +0000

Well Lubos does have a point regards anti-semitism in England. I feel the english university intellectuals have dreamt up. Weinberg set an example that not necessarily should be followed, but one way or another the english academics should be criticized for their stupid initiative.

By: dorigo

dorigo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:59:47 +0000

Alejandro, good point – I think it is indeed kind of unsatisfactory to have been a theoretician for the last thirty years, and retire (or die) before anything happens.

M, your sarcasm is hilarious but I disagree with shooting at a sitting duck. Lubos exposed his plan of leaving the Academia and we should respect him for his choices…

Changcho, I also think that one should be careful in choosing one’s enemies at least as much as one is in choosing one’s friends. Still, I do not think of Lubos as an enemy – we disagree but I respect him.

Chris, LOL! But the same thing I wrote to M above goes.

Carl, indeed Lubos is leaving Harvard, not science. He is going back to good old Europe for some deep thinking.

Cheers all,
T.

By: anon.

anon. — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:13:34 +0000

Carl, i fear that if Lubos leaves string theory, that isn’t exactly the same as leaving science, if you see my stupid little (-30 I.Q. points mentality) joke?

Maybe once Lubos leaves stringy knots behind, he will start working in science

By: carlbrannen

carlbrannen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:55:51 +0000

I have doubts that Motl would leave science. Grasping at straws, I note that he spells himself Luboš in the first post, and Lubos in the next.

By: Chris Oakley

Chris Oakley — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:49:55 +0000

Lubos leaving academia means that now he’ll be be able to tell us what he really thinks instead of having to word everything carefully so as not to offend anyone.

By: changcho

changcho — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:42:21 +0000

Congratulations Tomaso! You have drawn the ire of LuMo…which means you surely are on the right track. Thanks for your blog, it is very good.

By: M

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:34:53 +0000

hi Lubos, I hope this happens because your field no longer looks promising, not because of your exaggerated behavior. Although 90% of what you write is junk, the remaining 10% makes yours the best string theory blog. After Not Even Wrong.

By: Alejandro Rivero

Alejandro Rivero — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:27:34 +0000

Come to think of it, the theoretical field has been probably dissapointing for our seniors, people starting their careers in the early seventies, all the articles about the standard model already published. They are going to come to retirement without any change in the paradigm, and with the stress about if the big change is just around the corner and they are going to miss it. But just because of this posibility, young people should not quit. A different issue is to get a job.

By: Quantoken

Quantoken — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:56:11 +0000

Lubos:

What do you mean you are leaving academia in 2 weeks? A vacation? Or the end of your career as a string theorist as we know it?

The field is a lot less fun without you, although I suspect any important discoveries will be missing (there aint any anyway).

By: dorigo

dorigo — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:35:07 +0000

I see, Alejandro… Well we should ask him. For sure it is hard to keep a blog with controversial opinions spoken loud, and holding a job at an institution like Harvard. I myself have my share of trouble with my little uncontroversial blog and my pitiful untenured position in a rather less famous university…

Cheers,
T.

By: dorigo

dorigo — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:32:31 +0000

Ok Lubos, I am sorry to hear you leave the academia. Despite my link with notorious crackpots, and despite my belief that string theory is a nice mathematical construct with little relevance to physics, I think it is a pity if you do not progress with your studies.
In particular, I totally agree with your last sentence.

Good luck,
T.