A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
I was one of those people in college, the only reason I even graduated was because I found tutors to get me through my required math and science credits. I'm smart enough to know that there are many things I don't understand so I listen to who do understand them to not do that is like going to a lawyer and explaining the practice of law or to a mechanic and telling them how to fix your car.
None of the basic bio taught in American or Western schools is enough to actually understand mrna and how modern immunization works. Physics has ONLY been helpful to me racing cars.
The issue is tearing down institutions that serve as experts.
I'm so glad that people finally start to grasp, how bad excessive specialisation really is.
society is healing
Once I was doubting the need for higher levels of mathematics. Now as an engineer I realize the utility of this knowledge.
What made my change my mind? Well it's definitely not my intelligence nor my age, it's the practical application of that theory which got me here. Reading in between the lines can only happen if you like what you're doing.
I have a similar relationship with math. Only that I learnt to admire it through 3D and shaders.
Check out Shadertoy.com
People there create works of art from something, that's usually perceived as "cold". I'm still in awe of how people, using "cold" analythical methods achieve something so full of soul. I think it deserves to be appreciated far more than it is now. This is literal magic.
i went to 4 science classes senior year and i gotta say i agree with the one on the right
You'll never be a writer but you still learned how to write (if somewhat poorly).
Makes me think of this upcoming competition to find fossils that are not surrounded by the rocks that science expects.
I suspect a lot of people who believe (some subset of) the crazy nonsense are actually science inclined. But we (often/used to) teach science as about great people heroically defying the consensus and triggering a paradigm shift that changes the world. And that looks a lot more like vaccine denialism than pipetting samples for 50 hours. Some of the community spaces are clearly interested in thinking about the world, and there's a self-isolating effect of asking someone
"Why is there a tree that's fossilized across 5 different epochs of bedrock?"
and being told you're a crank. Then layer on the grifters.
So yes; do remember to talk people through the facts before labeling them a conspiracy theorists, and focus on the shared amazement at how weird/complicated/nuanced the data is. Ask lots of questions!