Friday, April 07, 2006

Why are Scientists Jerks?

For the usual I'm smarter than you stupidity that runs through the rift of theory and experiment in scientist, I point to Computational Complexity. Goo it just makes me mad, why can't they just say that some people are interested in other things rather than assuming that since they are not doing the same thing they are just stupid.

Same thing goes for Democrats and Republicans. Except their bickerings will always affect lives, scientists ... not so much.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not only what you are interested in, it is also what you *can* do (given your background).

I have met several students that tried to do theory, and after failing, they moved to another field of computer science (where they succeeded).

I'm not claiming that theorists are "smarter". They just have different abilities than practitioners.

Andy R. Terrel said...

Yeah I guess that it does matter if you can do something as well. I like to believe that if you are really interested in something you will dedicate enough time to do it well. But alas I have found since coming to the UofC this is not always possible.

Elizeu Santos-Neto said...

This is a very interesting discussion.

I strongly agree with the point that one should not label others as stupidy just because they are not fluent in her field.

Like people personalities, their abilities are also different and this is a fact for several reasons. Something that one group can do faster and better another group might not do so.

Furthermore, I believe that in the community level people would gain more if they started acting in collaborative mode (as a team).

Heterogeneity (e.g. different opinions, backgrounds and abilities) is one aspect that should used in favor of the community instead of being a reason for imaterial disagreements about "who is smarter".