The fact that a lot of physicists who work outside the university setting get mistaken for engineers doesn't help. My dad's an optical physicist, so quantum mechanics is something he works with, but he will shout until he's blue in the face that there is no evidence for string theory, it's people trying to fit the universe to the math and not the other way around. The "knowledge" is still hotly debated.
My dad speaks three languages and has a passionate love for literature. He also spent some time auditing one of my master classes while we were debating the finer diplomatic points of developing and implementing missile defense technology, which is his job, which given how many people in his own field pay no attention to the ramifications of their own work, really brought it home to him why there are political scientists like me. And the guys from work who met me at work parties were extremely condescending, and when I'm there, Dad lets me rip into them in highly technical language with data to back me up, and when I'm not, he tells them to go to hell for me. They're very actively distasteful, the other guys at his work, no idea why.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-09-09 01:54 pm (UTC)My dad speaks three languages and has a passionate love for literature. He also spent some time auditing one of my master classes while we were debating the finer diplomatic points of developing and implementing missile defense technology, which is his job, which given how many people in his own field pay no attention to the ramifications of their own work, really brought it home to him why there are political scientists like me. And the guys from work who met me at work parties were extremely condescending, and when I'm there, Dad lets me rip into them in highly technical language with data to back me up, and when I'm not, he tells them to go to hell for me. They're very actively distasteful, the other guys at his work, no idea why.