Attempts to balance social life/ physics

[JasonJo]

I really think it's more of a how to balance my dream and my social life. Successful athletes put in enormous amounts of training time, same thing with mathematicians, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, etc. I really think a huge component is just sacrifice. How much are you willing to sacrifice? It's safe to say the more you sacrifice, the better your chances are of success.

I like to hang out with friends, in a much more casual environment. I'm not huge on binge drinking since it totally ruins my weekends and I'm so unproductive. We all need to make choices. This is a major decision for a physics or a math major, kinda like, how far am I willing to take this? You clearly have some good physics talent, so it's really up to you how far to go.

I tend to make my schedule so that my days (9am - 4/5pm) is completely dominated by going to class, studying after or before class in the library, getting started on homework or any side ideas stimulated from class or my readings. I approach it like a job. Put in 6-8 hours of intense work, with some food breaks, and then enjoy the rest of the night. This does not always work as sometimes we don't finish an assignment in the allotted time, but I generally try to stick to this.

 

[quantumdude]

tim lou, look at it this way: You're taking QFT now, so when you're a graduate student you can screw off while your office mates are slogging through QFT.

 

[tim_lou]

tim lou, look at it this way: You're taking QFT now, so when you're a graduate student you can screw off while your office mates are slogging through QFT.

I am not sure how much of that is true. I've heard that most good grad students going into theory already know QFT as a freshman (in grad school). And to be quite honest, taking a QFT class doesn't necessarily mean that I know QFT. Though getting started early is definitely a plus.

It's interesting how what JasonJo said was exactly what my prof told me (a theorist himself). He asked me how much I am willing to sacrifice for my dream. It's a tough decision, and I still don't really know the answer. He told me that he can easily dedicate a full 7 day week for his research for a couple years. I don't think I can ever pull off that kind of intense focus.

 

[ice109]

I am not sure how much of that is true. I've heard that most good grad students going into theory already know QFT as a freshman (in grad school). And to be quite honest, taking a QFT class doesn't necessarily mean that I know QFT. Though getting started early is definitely a plus.

It's interesting how what JasonJo said was exactly what my prof told me (a theorist himself). He asked me how much I am willing to sacrifice for my dream. It's a tough decision, and I still don't really know the answer. He told me that he can easily dedicate a full 7 day week for his research for a couple years. I don't think I can ever pull off that kind of intense focus.

what is so dreamy about research? it's just a fun job that and that's it. i think we tend to hype up what being a scientist is. it's not being a rockstar, or superstar athlete, or even astronaut. it's just a job that for some reason we're built to enjoy. i dream of climbing mount everest, jumping out of a plane, driving a ferrari, and falling in love. i definitely do not dream of calculating some correction to some expectation value for some perturbed system. i enjoy doing that, mind you sometimes, but there's nothing sensational about it.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

You can be like Julian Barbour, an independent researcher.