Read ages ago that at MIT or wherever they taught rocket science they would say "it's just rocket science, it's not music theory." No clue if that's actually true tho
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2026
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I always thought things like music theory and biology were harder because it's often words and classifications given to things before they were codified and then when you learn the actual theory it's like "well, this thing is named identically to that other piece of theory over there because we used to think they were the exact same but actually they couldn't be more different". Chemistry can be similar but has a much more rigid structure than music theory and biology.
Physics at least tends to start with math and connects to theory later.
Genetics is especially bad, since newly-discovered genes are named based on their function, while genes that were discovered in the early days of genetics research were instead named based on what happens to the body when they don't work, since we didn't know enough about biology back then to determine what their exact function was. This leads to situations like how one of the prominent genes featured in eye development is called "Retina and Anterior Neural Fold Homeobox," and another is called "Eyeless."
The one I always heard as a failed physicist cum engineer was "rocket science is 80% plumbing"
I've heard the same about cum engineering
It's very likely that most people that study rocket engineering can't learn music theory at all. Just like the other way around.
Actually the opposite is true in my experience. Many engineers, physicists, and especially mathematicians are interested in music theory and/or play instruments themselves.
A classmate of mine, who is like the “Kyle” stereotype of monster energy drinking gamer, is also an engineering student who happens to be a virtuoso on the cello.
I think four members of my research lab play piano, two can play the violin iirc, and our advisor plays guitar.
as a scientist myself i can guarantee you i've always looked down on music theory because it takes the fun out of it.
It’s also a very arbitrary, Eurocentric, and not grounded in actual biological or physical fact. It’s not „sounds that sound good universally across humanity“, despite how its adherents present it.
So, you have never read Hesse it seems
Pretty much the essence of at least quite some books of him is, that music and math are basically the same thing
It's just quantum mechanics, it's not a phone call.
This one trick that quantum physicists HaTE!
Or love?
Not right now thank you, maybe later
Impossible to tell until the box is opened... or something
It's just quantum mechanics, it's not DnD.
DM: "Fuck."
there was a launch, when they found a crack on the engine cone, and decided to trimm the last cm of the cone to fix it.
Officially the hardest thing ever done, literally rocket surgery
nah, cm tolerance is still osteo difficulty. brain surgery is tighter tolerances. need steadier hands
I'd say brain surgery and rocket science are harder than quantum physics because people won't die if you get the quantum physics wrong.
Even with rockets, you can test with unmanned launches. You don't really get "practice rounds" like that with brain surgery.
because people won’t die if you get the quantum physics wrong.
Well, not with that attitude!
(Okay, I guess, in pure quantum physics, nobody is going to get hurt by it. But if you venture into applied quantum physics -- quantum engineering -- then you begin to reintroduce the possibility that getting it wrong could cause serious harm in some cases.)
i'm sorry but the whole "pure" and "applied" division between physics cracks me up because drugs. I would like to buy some physics please but *dips finger* is it pure? y'all really need a better word
Well at least it's not quantum brain science.
Verbally instructed quantum rocket surgery over a phone call.
Just ignore high-energy physics, plasma dynamics, and etc.
But can they CORRECTLY:
Install a skylight?
Prune a tree?
Harvest strawberries?
"The laborer is worthy of his hire," when their expertise serves the endeavor at hand, whatever that is.
(Does not include anyone who buys companies to fire the employees and sell off the assets, or corrupts whole industries with AI and data stealing. Anyone who's bankrupted a casino and/or welched on due payments need not apply.)
If they have a few hours of training I'm sure a brain surgeon, rocket scientist, or quantum scientist could do any of those things. Lots of educated people understand that the narrow focus of their education doesn't make them good at everything else too. Unfortunately not all educated people understand that, though, and it seems like the over-confident ones get a lot more attentive.
From reports, they're much more likely to quit before the end of the day
Being able to do something, and being willing to do it for other people for minimum wage are two very different things.
Stamina is part of "being able." So pay strawberry pickers more, gotcha.
Or have the physicists alternate days picking berries. It would get them out in the sunshine with plenty of time to think, and on lab days they could stretch out their aching backs by reaching into the top corner of the whiteboard to write equations.
When you asked if they could do those things "correctly," I didn't think you meant for an entire season as a laborer. I thought you were asking if they could perform the task once without mistakes.