• Asafum
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    The older I get the more I kick myself for “knowing” I’m too stupid for a PhD or master’s in anything.

    I’ve always had an interest in science, I love watching something like PBS spacetime or fermilab videos (because I’m obviously a layman and won’t understand anything actually detailed), but I’ve always held this belief that I’m “wayyyy too stupid to actually do the work.” and then I hear story after story of “very smart people” simply not understanding the simplest of concepts.

    Oh well lol

    • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      7 months ago

      then I hear story after story of “very smart people” simply not understanding the simplest of concepts.

      Usually this is because their knowledge and skills go very deep, but not very wide. There is also a big divide between the practical side of things and the theoretical. Another thing I’ve noticed is that if you spend a lot of time working on very complicated problems you tend to forget that most things have simple solutions. So when confronted with a simple issue your mind kind of ‘skips over’ all the simple stuff and immediately assumes it must be something complicated.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        i like to classify this problem as an optimization problem more than anything.

        The simplest possible solution is an impossible feat, and varies depending on the requirements and shenanigans willing to be committed. The approximate simplest possible solution is very achievable, but requires a lot of thought, a very specific use case, and an established ecosystem. The most functional solution is whatever you manage to cobble together quickly enough to prove that it’s possible, only for it to be used for about 3 years, because it works finetm

        Anything else is a nightmare abomination and should never be classified, exposed to the light of day, or shown to other people. Except as a cautionary tale.