I’ve always appreciated the allowance for a self-deprecating culture in physics and math. This -- brave positioning of ideas with nonchalant retraction—is what the allowance is for. Personalities can be ‘big’ in these fields but everyone is the same size compared to objective truth. This in contrast to other (also important) professions where social influence is more necessary and you’re not doing your job correctly if you’re not selling your ideas (and standing behind them) well enough.
I’ve always appreciated the allowance for a self-deprecating culture in physics and math. This -- brave positioning of ideas with nonchalant retraction—is what the allowance is for. Personalities can be ‘big’ in these fields but everyone is the same size compared to objective truth. This in contrast to other (also important) professions where social influence is more necessary and you’re not doing your job correctly if you’re not selling your ideas (and standing behind them) well enough.