For Physicists who do not think they talk like a Physicist

If I had a quarter for every time somebody asked me “Do physicists really talk different?”, then I would have .. ok, I will have enough money to buy something really really nice from a dollar store.

Here is a special note for physicists who think they do not talk like a physicist:

You are a physicist, and perhaps most of your friends are physicists. It is unlikely that you will notice it if you talked in a special way. I have been there – I spent full time doing physics for more than 10 years, wrote 30+ papers, edited a book on blackholes and wormholes, and I am married to a physicist.

I didn’t think I talked differently, although I always knew that I “thought” differently. Different thinking process was what made me a physicist.

Since then I have had numerous opportunities to do varied things, mingle with people whose passion is in different arena. I have been an attorney, a business person, a VC and I have even *owned* a satellite!

I find myself saying things and muttering thing that only physicists would do. The limited success that I have had has been purely because I think and yes, because I still “talk” like a physicist.

Now, when a business plan is presented to me for funding, I still do order of magnitude calculations and I continue to refute arguments based on my own back of the envelope calculations, I routinely tear apart excel sheets using nothing else but the first order approximations to the problems and I ask a lot more “why” questions.

The purpose of the Talk like a Physicists day is to revive the art of “being a physicist”; asking a lot more “why” questions, when everybody is obsessed with “how” question.

I also believe that we do not honor the scientists among us nearly enough. There are more streets named after local politicians then there are after renowned scientists.

As for adding more content on the site; this is the first year and the first attempt at getting something together in a short time. It will grow, Jennifer of Cocktail Party Physics originally suggested the idea and in a year or two after enough physicists have been polled, the new dictionary will emerge.

I also guarantee you that you will not forget about the Talk Like a Physicist day soon. Next time when you are talking to a non-physicist, you will use words that only physicists use, words like “canonical variables” and words like “non-trivial” instead of saying difficult. You will know that you too Talk Like a Physicist; and thank god for that, we love you precisely because you talk like a physicist!

We have started an FAQ on how to talk like a physicists with non-zero entries and hopefully you will contribute to the list soon. If you prefer to email, please send it to sunny at talklikeaphysicist.com

Talk Like a Physicist