What Makes Mass Essential in Understanding Physics?

[humanino]

I think your point here is that, if someone hasn't had a passion for physics since the age of 16, then they will never develope it. This I have to disagree with.

Every person is different. Every life goes in different directions, discovering different passions at different times and for different reasons. You find no value in layman books, I find tremendous value in them. Science and math classes can be very dry and boring for me. It wasn't until I entered college at 23 that I was able to enjoy them (I went for 2 years then had to abandon it). If not for the layman books, I might never have taken science in college and I would never have known what I was missing.

Thanks for clarifying. Yours is an experience quite different from mine, which I have never witnessed. One should mention against myself the example of Ed Witten, who seem to have come to physics after quite some twists and turns, and undoubtedly contributed enormously. Yet again, I am unsure whether "layman books" played any role in that story.

Also, I do appreciate "layman books" every now and then, and I do think they are important. I am simply unsure they can trigger genuine passion, the sort of which people devote their life to.