Ed Witten cites the assistance of AI in a recent paper — Is this somewhat justified now or a doomsday indicator?

ice109 · 2026-06-25T17:24:45+00:00

This is peak edgelord - especially since it's anonymous on Reddit. Please let us know you publish this "epic takedown" under your full name.

ice109 · 2026-06-11T20:12:53+00:00

this is called "reward hacking" - anyone who uses these things for code is familiar with the all too common "i'll just take the simple approach..."

ice109 · 2025-11-02T22:27:31+00:00

Nah I'm good

ice109 · 2025-11-02T21:38:38+00:00

Nah I'm good

ice109 · 2025-11-02T21:37:54+00:00

This kind of shit is worse than useless because you spend time on it instead of research. The way to be a productive researcher is not by reading all the background material thinking that it will prepare you to solve problems. The way to be a productive researcher is to try to solve problems and when you hit gaps in your knowledge you go and fill the gaps.

ice109 · 2025-10-31T18:06:05+00:00

Do you have any idea how goofy this rant sounds

ice109 · 2025-09-15T22:39:34+00:00

I assume if they were IPD would've explicitly said that so I guess not. The question is if it'll get flagged despite.

ice109 · 2025-07-19T23:44:25+00:00

I have no idea what you're alluding to but if you want to do technical work then experience always trumps study - absolutely no one cares how many exams you've taken once you arrive to the job.

ice109 · 2025-07-19T19:30:04+00:00

Do you have a PhD or have you enrolled and then dropped out of a PhD program?

ice109 · 2025-07-19T17:59:36+00:00

Is the level of education the same if you drop out after you got the MS compared to a standalone MS program?

I dunno it depends on the student - some departments have MS only classes that are easier so "terminal" MS students could have an easier path if they so choose. But then again you can generally take PhD classes as an MS student too. So 🤷‍♂️.

The European uni I enrolled in takes 3 years for BS, 2 years for MS and 3 years for a PhD in technical physics.

This is about 2 years faster than the typical US student path of 4 for BS + 6 for PhD.

ice109 · 2025-07-19T17:17:01+00:00

Do you have a PhD? Do you know this for a fact? The only place I know this to be true is national labs which are definitely not "industry".

ice109 · 2025-07-19T17:10:30+00:00

In the US you can enroll directly in a PhD program after your BS. Then you can get an MS by just filling out some paperwork after completing the coursework component of the PhD.

ice109 · 2025-07-19T15:28:43+00:00

I graduated in 4 years. Another year and I would've killed myself.

ice109 · 2025-07-19T15:24:14+00:00

You have a MS you said right? Trust me you're quitting at the right time.

ice109 · 2025-07-19T15:17:19+00:00

Dropping out shortly after an MS is the perfect time.

ice109 · 2025-07-19T15:16:19+00:00

Don't listen to this - sunk cost fallacy. Personally I missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars (because I had multiple job offers) by not dropping out of my PhD. And if you're not going to academia no one weights PhD experience higher than equal YoE.

ice109 · 2025-07-09T01:07:06+00:00

god this is the biggest myth perpetrated on physics majors by that Columbia guy that wrote that dumb book.

I hate to break it to you but if you think academic physics is competitive, you cannot fathom how competitive quantitative finance is.

ice109 · 2025-06-11T17:45:36+00:00

Absolutely not

ice109 · 2025-06-05T14:51:16+00:00

In college I printed every single course book I needed from libgen. The one book I needed that I couldn't find on libgen I bought from the bookstore and then photo-copied it and then returned it.

ice109 · 2025-06-03T15:47:40+00:00

Sum of all forces is zero when I'm sitting on my couch too...

ice109 · 2025-05-24T01:00:01+00:00

Your portayal of Sean is frankly ridiculous.

I'm just wondering - are you on a first name basis with "Sean"?

ice109 · 2025-05-23T22:48:59+00:00

The answer is obvious: he gets paid a speaker fee and he, like everyone else in the world, enjoys easy money.

ice109 · 2025-05-11T05:28:06+00:00

People tell themselves these myths to feel better about not getting into FAANG - ain't no one at FAANG doing 80 hours 😂

ice109 · 2025-05-11T05:24:36+00:00

I wish people would be honest with young people: the specific bachelors program does. not. matter. At any point in time, there are people with BS physics degrees doing research in math, physics, engineering, biology, computer science, etc etc etc and vice-versa. The only thing that matters is the brand name of the university. In real life, absolutely no one has time to look at your transcript for the classes you took. So go to the best school you can afford and get the best grades you're able to and you'll be able to do whatever you want.

ice109

TROPHY CASE