I have no PhD, I am almost entirely self taught. I like physics, but I think the professionals are, for the most part, completely incompetent. I have a lot of my own personal theories about physics which I like to spread online. I am unemployed and not by choice. Despite this, I consider myself to be the next Isaac Newton.
I wonder if and how the answer of a professional physicist would differ.
I’m pretty familiar with Ron Maimon, since I use Physics.Stackexchange heavily.
He seems to have other things going on in his life that prevent him from being accepted by the physics community at large, but in terms of pure knowledge of physics he’s really, really good. Every time I’ve read an answer from him that I’m competent to judge, it’s been right, or else if it has a mistake (which is rare) and someone points it out, he thanks them for noticing and corrects his answer.
When crackpots answer physics questions, they consistently steer away from the topic towards whatever their crackpot ideas are. Ron doesn’t do that. Crackpots tend to claim things that are pretty much known to be impossible, and display little depth of understanding or willingness to talk about anything other than their theories. Ron doesn’t do that. He also doesn’t claim that he’s being repressed by the physics establishment. He’ll call professional physicists idiots, but he doesn’t say that they’re trying to hide the truth or suppress his ideas. And when he sees a professional physicist who comes on the site and writes good answers, he generally treats them with respect. He leaves positive feedback on good answers of all sorts. None of this fits in with being a crackpot.
He does get into fights with people about more advanced theoretical stuff that’s over my head. But when he talks about physics that I know, he does it extremely well, and I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s more knowledgeable and insightful than most professional physicists.
The stuff other users mentioned about his bible interests and his profile description is ad hominem.
Anyway, if you are interested in what a professional physicist would say, I’m quasi-professional in that I’m a graduate student. My opinion is that the sequence, so far as I read it, is fine. I haven’t finished reading it, so I didn’t offer a comment before, but so far I haven’t found any significant mistakes (beyond those real but relatively minor ones pointed out on the thread on Phys.SE) The fact that many LessWrongers have read and enjoyed it indicates it’s not too verbose for the target audience.
Edit several people gave feedback indicating that the sequence isn’t as well-received as I indicated. I should have read more of it before commenting.
The fact that many LessWrongers have read and enjoyed it indicates it’s not too verbose for the target audience.
It appears to be one of the least-read of the original Sequences—I say this based on the low, zero or even negative karma scores and the few comments. This is evidence for the precise opposite of your claim.
Data point: I only read part of the QM sequence, but that wasn’t due to the verbosity as such, but rather because I wasn’t familiar with complex numbers and it felt like too much work to learn to use a new math concept and then work my way through the calculations.
It’s simpler than you think: you just treat i as an unknown variable where all you know is that i^2 = −1. Then if you want to, say, multiply together two complex numbers, it’s all the algebra you’re already familiar with: (a + bi)(c + di) = ac + adi + bci + bdi^2 = ac—bd + (ad + bc)i. That’s it—that’s all the complex maths you need to follow the QM sequence.
To better understand why it is used imagine a map, going right is +, going left is -, going up is i, going down is -i. Turning left is multiplying by i, turning right is multiplying by -i.
So i is used to calculate things where you need 2 dimensions.
Okay, thanks. I have only read the first few posts. On those, the karma score was higher and there was positive feedback from readers saying it was helpful to them. I should have read further in the series before characterizing it as a whole.
Thanks for letting me know—John’s point about selection effects is well taken.
It would have been better for me to say that because many LessWrongers enjoyed the sequence, it wasn’t too verbose for everyone, though clearly it was for some readers.
Um… I am not exactly knighted, so I don’t know why you would call me “sir” (except perhaps the jokey Isaac Newton business in my bio—that’s a nod to John Baez “crackpot index”, where comparison of yourself to Newton gets you 100 points).
Although, looking at a few of his other answers he doesn’t seem to get many more, and in his description of one of his theories he lists both predictions and limitations.
Ron doesn’t seem to appreciate that the audience of these posts isn’t interested in what Ron wants them to learn (which is, the mathematics of quantum mechanics), and for this audience, taking your time is not a problem.
It seems like he has unrealistically high expectations of people...
Yeah, Ron’s main complaint is that it presents Eliezer’s philosophical viewpoint, not Ron’s. Of course Ron’s philosophical viewpoint is so right that, unlike Eliezer’s, it isn’t a philosophical viewpoint at all!
To me it seemed like he was only complaining that the Quantum sequence is too easy. Something like—the first part was so obvious, that it’s a waste of time; and the second part should be shorter and full of heavy math, because those able to solve all that math would get a better understanding.
I guess the point of the sequence was to explain some confusion and mystery related to quantum physics, without having to do all the heavy math. For me, it worked. Some parts could be shorter, but I am thankful that the other parts were not shorter.
From the profile of the person whose answer is currently the most upvoted one:
I wonder if and how the answer of a professional physicist would differ.
I’m pretty familiar with Ron Maimon, since I use Physics.Stackexchange heavily.
He seems to have other things going on in his life that prevent him from being accepted by the physics community at large, but in terms of pure knowledge of physics he’s really, really good. Every time I’ve read an answer from him that I’m competent to judge, it’s been right, or else if it has a mistake (which is rare) and someone points it out, he thanks them for noticing and corrects his answer.
When crackpots answer physics questions, they consistently steer away from the topic towards whatever their crackpot ideas are. Ron doesn’t do that. Crackpots tend to claim things that are pretty much known to be impossible, and display little depth of understanding or willingness to talk about anything other than their theories. Ron doesn’t do that. He also doesn’t claim that he’s being repressed by the physics establishment. He’ll call professional physicists idiots, but he doesn’t say that they’re trying to hide the truth or suppress his ideas. And when he sees a professional physicist who comes on the site and writes good answers, he generally treats them with respect. He leaves positive feedback on good answers of all sorts. None of this fits in with being a crackpot.
He does get into fights with people about more advanced theoretical stuff that’s over my head. But when he talks about physics that I know, he does it extremely well, and I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s more knowledgeable and insightful than most professional physicists.
The stuff other users mentioned about his bible interests and his profile description is ad hominem.
Anyway, if you are interested in what a professional physicist would say, I’m quasi-professional in that I’m a graduate student. My opinion is that the sequence, so far as I read it, is fine. I haven’t finished reading it, so I didn’t offer a comment before, but so far I haven’t found any significant mistakes (beyond those real but relatively minor ones pointed out on the thread on Phys.SE) The fact that many LessWrongers have read and enjoyed it indicates it’s not too verbose for the target audience.
Edit several people gave feedback indicating that the sequence isn’t as well-received as I indicated. I should have read more of it before commenting.
Or else the audience is self-selecting so that the people who read it don’t find it too verbose...
Good point, thanks. Konkvistador indicates it was too verbose for him/her.
It appears to be one of the least-read of the original Sequences—I say this based on the low, zero or even negative karma scores and the few comments. This is evidence for the precise opposite of your claim.
Data point: I only read part of the QM sequence, but that wasn’t due to the verbosity as such, but rather because I wasn’t familiar with complex numbers and it felt like too much work to learn to use a new math concept and then work my way through the calculations.
It’s simpler than you think: you just treat i as an unknown variable where all you know is that i^2 = −1. Then if you want to, say, multiply together two complex numbers, it’s all the algebra you’re already familiar with: (a + bi)(c + di) = ac + adi + bci + bdi^2 = ac—bd + (ad + bc)i. That’s it—that’s all the complex maths you need to follow the QM sequence.
Alright, thanks.
To better understand why it is used imagine a map, going right is +, going left is -, going up is i, going down is -i. Turning left is multiplying by i, turning right is multiplying by -i. So i is used to calculate things where you need 2 dimensions.
Okay, thanks. I have only read the first few posts. On those, the karma score was higher and there was positive feedback from readers saying it was helpful to them. I should have read further in the series before characterizing it as a whole.
I’ve found them too verbose.
Thanks for letting me know—John’s point about selection effects is well taken.
It would have been better for me to say that because many LessWrongers enjoyed the sequence, it wasn’t too verbose for everyone, though clearly it was for some readers.
He is probably more like Isaac Newton than you think. For instance, he seems to spend a lot of time “correcting” modern translations of the Bible.
Goodness, that’s quite a few of Baez’s checkboxes ticked. Is there any chance he’s making fun?
Yep, he says so explicitly here: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/22578/can-black-holes-be-created-on-a-miniature-scale#comment52219_22601
That’s a few points on the crackpot index.
Although, looking at a few of his other answers he doesn’t seem to get many more, and in his description of one of his theories he lists both predictions and limitations.
Ron doesn’t seem to appreciate that the audience of these posts isn’t interested in what Ron wants them to learn (which is, the mathematics of quantum mechanics), and for this audience, taking your time is not a problem.
It seems like he has unrealistically high expectations of people...
Yeah, Ron’s main complaint is that it presents Eliezer’s philosophical viewpoint, not Ron’s. Of course Ron’s philosophical viewpoint is so right that, unlike Eliezer’s, it isn’t a philosophical viewpoint at all!
To me it seemed like he was only complaining that the Quantum sequence is too easy. Something like—the first part was so obvious, that it’s a waste of time; and the second part should be shorter and full of heavy math, because those able to solve all that math would get a better understanding.
I guess the point of the sequence was to explain some confusion and mystery related to quantum physics, without having to do all the heavy math. For me, it worked. Some parts could be shorter, but I am thankful that the other parts were not shorter.
I think that he basically nailed it.
EDIT: I suspect that what he means by positivism is actually postpositivism.