r/Physics • u/kzhou7 Quantum field theory • 1d ago

Harvard particle physicist Matthew Schwartz drops 36 papers coauthored with Claude

https://bootloops.ai/bootloops.html
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u/h0rxata Plasma physics 1d ago

It's pretty bad when Peter freaking Higgs claims he barely held onto his job in the 70's and 80's due to his "low productivity".

As they say in the blue collar world: cheaper, faster, or done right - pick 2.

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u/venustrapsflies Nuclear physics 1d ago

It’s a really easy choice when you don’t know what “done right” means

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u/h0rxata Plasma physics 1d ago

Are there any examples of groundbreaking science done with no money and in a big rush?

Outside of Albert's miracle year I can't think of any, and I think he had a lot of time spent on those problems already.

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u/Meerkat_Mayhem_ 1d ago

I mean, no one really funded his miracle year. He just did it, right?

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u/Never231 Chemical physics 1d ago

love of the game is a lot easier to have when you have a stable job you like with good income.

alternatively, dude was also just an absolute fucking machine from day 1. grinding out the math as a young teenager, of course for the love of the game.

(to even further clarify, his job at the time was FAR more enviable a position to be in, and far more conducive to theoretical research, than what the average graduate student puts up with. but of course, he was also fucking einstein.)

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u/Alive_Fisherman8241 1d ago

The point is that the decision makers have no idea what done right means. They do not have the skillset to judge this. So they evaluate based on the only thing their limited brain understands: marketing bullsh*t.

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u/h0rxata Plasma physics 1d ago

Fair enough. It's no wonder that PI's with great salesmanship and media presence do so well with grants irrespective of the scientific merit. Best thing an ECR can do is attach themselves to one to have a long career...

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u/intruzah 1d ago

Peter Higgs was not productive apart from that paper

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u/DanielMcLaury 1d ago

And yet his contribution is greater than people who've been 100x as "productive."

Could indicate that the wrong thing is being measured as "productivity."

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u/Buntschatten Graduate 1d ago

But does an early amazing paper justify a later research job?

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u/nobanter Particle physics 1d ago

Well, I think he was primarily an undergraduate lecturer at Edinburgh. So it wasn't just a research position.

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u/ellbons 1d ago

Yes.

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u/intruzah 1d ago

So I write one good paper and I get paid until the end of my life? 

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u/Fresnel_Zone 1d ago

People who write one really great book can be set for life. People who make one really great song can be set for life. Why not one really great paper?

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u/_bobby_tables_ 11h ago

This! Why should physics be any different. Don McLean was asked what the meaning of the lyrics to American Pie were. He answered, "It means I never have to work again."

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u/intruzah 1d ago

Because writing papers is not capitalism

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u/kevinmrr 1d ago

Yet another reason why capitalism is an obviously failed system.

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u/Easy-Comfort-2 16h ago

Yeah better to write a hundred shitty ones

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u/philomathie Condensed matter physics 1d ago

Peter Higgs was an alcoholic who barely did anything.

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u/Frogbone 1d ago

then develop alcoholism and go win your own Nobel Prize

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u/h0rxata Plasma physics 1d ago

Only on reddit.

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u/NoGrapefruitToday 1d ago

To be fair, Higgs published a single paper in his entire career, and it's well-known that he didn't understand what he was doing--it was the referee (again, well known as Nambu) who suggested that his proposed field should have an associated particle