Physicists can’t just say, “What we do is beyond your comprehension, foolish mortal” … “if you really understand something in physics you should be able to explain it to your grandmother.” … I was shocked to discover it wasn’t true.
This seems inconsistent with the rest of what your post, which argues that you can explain physics to grandmothers or Congressmen, as long as you have the opportunity to iterate back and forth to verify understanding on both sides. While the practical implications of both may be the same (“It’s not worth the time to try”), there’s a big difference between “not worth doing” and “impossible”.
Physicists can’t just say, “What we do is beyond your comprehension, foolish mortal” … “if you really understand something in physics you should be able to explain it to your grandmother.” … I was shocked to discover it wasn’t true.
This seems inconsistent with the rest of what your post, which argues that you can explain physics to grandmothers or Congressmen, as long as you have the opportunity to iterate back and forth to verify understanding on both sides. While the practical implications of both may be the same (“It’s not worth the time to try”), there’s a big difference between “not worth doing” and “impossible”.