Tangential anecdote. I like to think about physics a lot and I regularly write things down.
One time, I was so excited about the concepts I had been playing with, that I decided to go talk to a Stanford physics professor (who I had never met).
I just went to campus, started walking around the physics buildings and ran into him. He was gracious enough to let me walk with him for about 10-15 minutes while we talked. At the end he said my stuff was interesting, but it would take a lot of time to develop, that he was too old to help me and that instead I should talk to a younger professor at Caltech (he gave me his name).
I thanked him for his time and help, then looked up the professor he mentioned, saw a phone listed for his office and called. The Caltech professor picked up the phone, I explained the situation to him and then he told me I had been pranked.
He said that it was a running joke between them to “send” the clueless/crazies to each other.
Needless to say I felt like crap. At the same time it made me realize how unnecessarily cruel some people can be.
These were super recognized professors in their fields, one of them a Nobel prize winner. Both probably incredibly busy/demanded people. Yet, they go out of their way to make others feel shitty.
That's fucking funny. I would be so amused if that happened to me. But then the second guy called you clueless/crazy, so I guess it depends on how the perpetrators executes the prank.
Might be funny from the outside. But I put myself out there, felt very vulnerable and then they just made fun of me.
They could have told me that whatever I was saying didn’t make sense, they could have pointed the way to books/classes/papers, but instead they just bullied me.
I can recognize this prank and others. Also love harmless fun. What about circulating a paper around his other peers, asking for feedback, adding the professor name as co-author?
One time, I was so excited about the concepts I had been playing with, that I decided to go talk to a Stanford physics professor (who I had never met).
I just went to campus, started walking around the physics buildings and ran into him. He was gracious enough to let me walk with him for about 10-15 minutes while we talked. At the end he said my stuff was interesting, but it would take a lot of time to develop, that he was too old to help me and that instead I should talk to a younger professor at Caltech (he gave me his name).
I thanked him for his time and help, then looked up the professor he mentioned, saw a phone listed for his office and called. The Caltech professor picked up the phone, I explained the situation to him and then he told me I had been pranked.
He said that it was a running joke between them to “send” the clueless/crazies to each other.
Needless to say I felt like crap. At the same time it made me realize how unnecessarily cruel some people can be.
These were super recognized professors in their fields, one of them a Nobel prize winner. Both probably incredibly busy/demanded people. Yet, they go out of their way to make others feel shitty.
I wonder how they treat their students.