Tuesday, February 9, 2010

bit of a depressing thought.

(via Kottke)

As a general point of order, I think grad student should avoid comparing themselves to each other as much as possible. Jealousy is a pretty dang fast ticket to craziness, in my opinion.

That being said, this is what Einstein had accomplished by my age (25). Dayyyyy-um:

  • Fathered his first son, Hans (he had been married for over year)
  • Published hugely influential papers on Brownian motion and the photoelectron effect.
  • Wrote and defended his doctoral thesis.
  • Conceived concept of special relativity.
I, uh, also conceived the concept of special relativity in my 25th year.

By reading about it on Wikipedia.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, he must be embarrassed. I've done more than that and I'm only 24.

kerry said...

You could be married and have a first son by the time you're thirty. Get going!

milkshake said...

so young - and already you have done so little. Your contributions shall never be forgotten because no-one learns about them to begin with.

To cheer you up here is a Hausman parody:

Still alive at twenty-two
A clean upstanding chap like you?
If your throat is hard to slit,
Slit your girl's and swing for it.

Like enough you won't be glad
When they come to hang you, lad
Bacon's not the only thing
Cured by hanging from a string.

When the blotting pad of night
Sucks the latest drop of light,
Lads whose job is still to do
Shall whet their knives and think of you.

Joel Kelly said...

That-- that is amazing. I am going to post "Your contributions shall never be forgotten because no-one learns about them to begin with." above my bench.

...has anyone ever seen milkshake and Uncle Al in the same place at once?

milkshake said...

sorry I thought your school experience was cheerless enough so you would appreciate my encouragement. This reminds me: A condemned man stands in front of a guillotine, looking around nervously and then he asks the executioner: "Please, please - did you get the blade disinfected?"