> I had a high school student come into my office on campus one day. He
> had been encouraged by his mother to come visit the physics department
> to discuss his ideas because she thought he was brilliant. The
> department chair, in his infinite wisdom, sent the young man to me.

> For a half hour, the lad drew pictures on my chalkboard of a new
> unified field theory. No math, mind you, just a lot of enthusiastic
> description and squiggly figures and semiplausible notions.

> Still chewing on my sandwich, I stopped him at one point and asked him
> to calculate something ... anything ... with his model -- or at least
> set it up so that I knew in principle the calculation could be done.

> He looked at me in all earnestness and said, "Oh, I view myself as sort
> of the Einstein type. I come up with the Big Idea, and then I let
> everyone else work out the details."

> I stopped chewing, swallowed carefully, and composed my thoughts.

> For the next half hour, we discussed what it really meant to be a
> physicist, how Einstein had to study the state of the art for years
> before even being ready to work on a Big Idea, and what would be
> required of this young man on his journey to becoming a theoretical
> physicist, which is what he wanted more than anything else in the
> world. Unquestionably, he was shaken. He had no idea that it took more
> than just intelligence and a blinding stroke of insight.

> I have no qualms about having directed him this way. Any profession in
> the world requires an extraordinary amount of work to become tops in
> the field, and much of it is grinding toil. Physics is no different.
> Anyone who enters into such a field should not be shielded from this
> information, lest the moment of disillusionment come after years of
> wasted, dreamy ignorance. The good ones will embrace the challenge.

> The other aspect of this, though, was my alarm at his perception of how
> Einstein worked, how he did what he did. Few of the everday Einstein
> fans recall, for example, that the same year he was publishing his
> seminal papers, he was struggling to get his PhD thesis approved, and
> he was working at a side job because no one at the university could
> find money to support him. In this 100th anniversary of some of his
> singular accomplishments, I think it's worthwhile reminding people
> about how much hard work, how much formal training, and how much time
> spent simply learning, went into those accomplishments.

PD <pdra...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I had a high school student come into my office on campus one day. He
>had been encouraged by his mother to come visit the physics department
>to discuss his ideas because she thought he was brilliant. The
>department chair, in his infinite wisdom, sent the young man to me.

> In article
> <1110391716.864567.112...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
> PD <pdra...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>I had a high school student come into my
>> office on campus one day. He had been
>> encouraged by his mother to come visit
>> the physics department to discuss his
>> ideas because she thought he was brilliant.
>> The department chair, in his infinite
>> wisdom, sent the young man to me.

> I'm not sure what to say about this story,
> but feel that it should at least be
> acknowledged.  I wonder how many
> people really think the greats of physics
> work by daydream and let others handle
> all that math stuff.

>Dear Gregory L. Hansen:

>"Gregory L. Hansen" <glhan...@steel.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote in
>message news:d0nhvg$vmu$1@rainier.uits.indiana.edu...
>> In article
>> <1110391716.864567.112...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
>> PD <pdra...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>I had a high school student come into my
>>> office on campus one day. He had been
>>> encouraged by his mother to come visit
>>> the physics department to discuss his
>>> ideas because she thought he was brilliant.
>>> The department chair, in his infinite
>>> wisdom, sent the young man to me.

>> I'm not sure what to say about this story,
>> but feel that it should at least be
>> acknowledged.  I wonder how many
>> people really think the greats of physics
>> work by daydream and let others handle
>> all that math stuff.

>You can thank or blame popular press for that.

<jmfbah...@aol.com> wrote in message

> In article <hvIXd.3917$uk7.457@fed1read01>,
>   "N:dlzc D:aol T:com \(dlzc\)" <N: dlzc1 D:cox
> T:n...@nospam.com> wrote:
>>Dear Gregory L. Hansen:

>>"Gregory L. Hansen" <glhan...@steel.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote in
>>message news:d0nhvg$vmu$1@rainier.uits.indiana.edu...
>>> In article
>>> <1110391716.864567.112...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
>>> PD <pdra...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>I had a high school student come into my
>>>> office on campus one day. He had been
>>>> encouraged by his mother to come visit
>>>> the physics department to discuss his
>>>> ideas because she thought he was brilliant.
>>>> The department chair, in his infinite
>>>> wisdom, sent the young man to me.

>>> I'm not sure what to say about this story,
>>> but feel that it should at least be
>>> acknowledged.  I wonder how many
>>> people really think the greats of physics
>>> work by daydream and let others handle
>>> all that math stuff.

>>You can thank or blame popular press for that.

> Bullshit.

"Chris Dams" <chr...@gamow.sci.kun.nl> wrote in message

> Dear all,

> "N:dlzc D:aol T:com \(dlzc\)" <N: dlzc1 D:cox T:n...@nospam.com>
> writes:

>>>>> I wonder how many
>>>>> people really think the greats of physics
>>>>> work by daydream and let others handle
>>>>> all that math stuff.

>>>>You can thank or blame popular press for that.

>>> Bullshit.

>>That was a substantive comment.  Who raises
>> the kids these days, the parents?

> One might also suspect that kids with an
> interest in physics are likely to encounter
> some "popularized physics" at some point.
> This is mostly written by physicists.

> Are these kids getting a good impression
> of what doing physics is about from
> "popularized physics"? I think this is not
> the case.  Perhaps we should not
> immediately start blaming others.

>> One might also suspect that kids with an
>> interest in physics are likely to encounter
>> some "popularized physics" at some point.
>> This is mostly written by physicists.
>Please support this statement.

>Most popularized physics is
>written by non-scientists, tangentially to the path of a
>particular physicist (or branch of study).  "Einstein's
>Universe",  "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", etc.  Hawking's works
>nothwithstanding...

>>>> I wonder how many
>>>> people really think the greats of physics
>>>> work by daydream and let others handle
>>>> all that math stuff.

>>>You can thank or blame popular press for that.

>> Bullshit.
>That was a substantive comment.  Who raises the kids these days,
>the parents?

>Dear jmfbahciv:

><jmfbah...@aol.com> wrote in message
>news:F6-dnaWuC8Bnqq3fRVn-vA@rcn.net...
>> In article <hvIXd.3917$uk7.457@fed1read01>,
>>   "N:dlzc D:aol T:com \(dlzc\)" <N: dlzc1 D:cox
>> T:n...@nospam.com> wrote:
>>>Dear Gregory L. Hansen:

>>>"Gregory L. Hansen" <glhan...@steel.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote in
>>>message news:d0nhvg$vmu$1@rainier.uits.indiana.edu...
>>>> In article
>>>> <1110391716.864567.112...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
>>>> PD <pdra...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>>I had a high school student come into my
>>>>> office on campus one day. He had been
>>>>> encouraged by his mother to come visit
>>>>> the physics department to discuss his
>>>>> ideas because she thought he was brilliant.
>>>>> The department chair, in his infinite
>>>>> wisdom, sent the young man to me.

>>>> I'm not sure what to say about this story,
>>>> but feel that it should at least be
>>>> acknowledged.  I wonder how many
>>>> people really think the greats of physics
>>>> work by daydream and let others handle
>>>> all that math stuff.

>>>You can thank or blame popular press for that.

>> Bullshit.

>That was a substantive comment.  Who raises the kids these days,
>the parents?