this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
793 points (98.8% liked)

Science Memes

17384 readers
1630 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

You've gotta either interest someone with the knowledge to pursue it or actually go to the college and gain the knowledge yourself. Because the truth is, unless you can motivate someone to do your thing, your thing isn't going to be as interesting to others as it is to you, even if it would be revolutionary. There's a good chance the idea relies on phenomena that only exist because of a lack of understanding (if you aren't able to go from idea to proof of concept), or maybe require a solution to a very hard problem just hiding below the surface.

Plus, even with the motivation, if you don't know enough to do the thing and aren't in a financial position to control the operation's finances, there's a good chance you'll be discarded once you are no longer needed, which in this case is once they understand your idea. That "sorry, not interested" might actually be a "go away, this is interesting but I don't think you'll add anything more to this, so I'll do it alone".

So instead of thinking "this is cool but I have no idea how", think, "what do I need to learn to better understand my idea and its execution?" Hell, even being able to break it up into discrete and complete steps would be a great start because then you can start hiring out those different steps if you can't do them, without having to give away the whole thing.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The difference between genius and insanity is paper thin.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

People love to repeat this as a way to self-validate feelings of being rejected or less educated than people who put in the commitment and time and energy to learning actual science.

But most great scientists and researchers and pioneers have had a very strong work ethics and were committed, focused, patient and excruciatingly obsessed with detail, reason and accuracy, not necessarily the hallmarks of the insane.

Everyone rather be Rick Sanchez than Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar because it seems more fun.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›