Career progression Memes

The three stages of a physicist's career in one pool day: Top: E = mc² - The equation everyone knows. You're floating on the surface, having fun, getting attention at parties when you mention you're a physicist. Middle: Einstein's Field Equations - Reality hits. You're drowning in tensor calculus and differential geometry while trying to explain why space-time curves. Your non-physicist friends stopped inviting you to dinner. Bottom: The Stokes-Einstein Diffusion Equation - You've sunk to the depths, sitting alone with obscure equations that nobody outside your subfield appreciates. The chair represents your academic position that's been underwater for years.