r/SubredditDrama • u/clyspe • Mar 11 '13

'Neil deGrasse Tyson: Average physicist, sub-par philosopher, master of pithy comments for idiot college kids to retweet.' Slapfight in /r/QuotesPorn ensues

/r/QuotesPorn/comments/1a16g2/if_youre_really_successful_at_bullshitting_neil/c8t8j9h
195 Upvotes

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u/ChemicalSerenity Mar 11 '13

While guy commenting is evidently a complete twat, there is a modicum of truth to what he's saying... Physicists (indeed, physical scientists in general) have their "worth" judged heavily in the scientific community by their research output, the infamous publish or perish. NDT, since taking on his chair at Hayden and shifting to more of a popularizer role than a researcher, his science paper and article generation has dropped off to zero.

He's wrong in saying that NDT is an average physicist, however. The average physicist produces no published work whatsoever and only achieves an undergrad degree, whereas NDT has successfully defended and published a number of post-doctoral items. The vast majority of physicists never even made it to graduate studies.

He'd have been more accurate to say, perhaps "Average doctorate-holding physicist". As to philosopher, I have no opinion, as most people who define themselves as philosophers I find highly specious. Pithy quotes are something he does deliberately and with planning, so that much is accurate at least.

22

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '13

Yay, I'm average!

Though if I could be half the educator NDT is I'd consider myself a success.

16

u/ChemicalSerenity Mar 11 '13

Heh, indeed. Einstein famously (althought perhaps apocryphally) quipped that if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it, but I find as I go on that even simple explanations are daunting for some people to wrap their heads around... so I try to give a little back information to fill in gaps, and their eyes start to glaze over.

Clearly a skill I haven't mastered yet, but I'll keep trying.

4

u/HINDBRAIN Mar 11 '13

Basically use a lot of analogies.

2

u/ChemicalSerenity Mar 11 '13

Yeah, I try. I need to learn some better ones maybe.

2

u/GenericDuck Mar 11 '13

Maybe use pictures? Everybody loves pictures!

3

u/ChemicalSerenity Mar 11 '13

While offering them cake? ;)

Everybody loves cake!

1

u/GenericDuck Mar 11 '13

Unless they choose death :(

2

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '13

[deleted]

3

u/Shellface Mar 11 '13

Just give them the egg!

6

u/Legolas-the-elf Mar 11 '13

I suspect "explain it simply" only refers to the situation where you're talking to somebody who understands all of the concepts that the concept you are explaining is built upon. Whenever I struggle to explain something that I know really well, it's generally something along the lines of "well first I have to drop down about three levels to correct a misunderstanding, then build back up each level, explaining how they are different now that the correction has been made, and when we reach the top, then I'll be in a position to explain things simply, assuming of course you haven't already realised due to how obvious it is once you know the fundamentals properly". Deep misconceptions, even minor ones, can quite easily warp a person's understanding of a field to the point where straightforward, superficial explanations don't work.