There’s trash talking in the other direction that can be equally savage. Ever been to a research talk where someone raises their hand and says “actually, this is all trivial”? The worst thing you can hear after you spend months working your ass off on a project.
Heh, I was just listening to the Planet Money podcast today about extreme UV lithography, and how the scientist presenting felt mocked out of the room. Of course this was 2000 or so.
I’m unsure if this makes your point or disproves it. I’m leaning towards supports.
Oh I’m sure there’s still some super mean spirited stuff that happens today, but it remains interpersonal and fairly private.
The old timey stuff was more like the kind where some scientist would go out of their way to straight up publicly slander people with ideas they thought were bad.
The modern equivalent would be like scientists calling each other “smooth brained” on twitter for proposing new theories that didn’t immediately make sense.
That’s basically how science works.
Scientist trash talking used be savage af.
Nowadays though there have been enough “trashed” theories that later turned out correct, that people have learned not to discount any possibility.
There’s trash talking in the other direction that can be equally savage. Ever been to a research talk where someone raises their hand and says “actually, this is all trivial”? The worst thing you can hear after you spend months working your ass off on a project.
Heh, I was just listening to the Planet Money podcast today about extreme UV lithography, and how the scientist presenting felt mocked out of the room. Of course this was 2000 or so.
I’m unsure if this makes your point or disproves it. I’m leaning towards supports.
Oh I’m sure there’s still some super mean spirited stuff that happens today, but it remains interpersonal and fairly private.
The old timey stuff was more like the kind where some scientist would go out of their way to straight up publicly slander people with ideas they thought were bad.
The modern equivalent would be like scientists calling each other “smooth brained” on twitter for proposing new theories that didn’t immediately make sense.
“great job improving the accuracy of determining a precise meter! Now let’s get back to it and see if we can make it even more accurate!”
Umm actually, no because scientists are incentivised to be “nice” to each other for their career growth. It’s a set of circlejerks.