Hubris Memes

Posts tagged with Hubris

The Mathematical Hierarchy Of Pain
Math Academia
6 hours ago 3.1K views 0 shares
The Mathematical Hierarchy Of Pain
The mathematical hierarchy of pain, illustrated perfectly. High school math champions get obliterated by undergraduate Analysis, only to watch that same Analysis become the puny sidekick to the eldritch horror known as Measure Theory. Nothing humbles a mathematics student quite like discovering there are seven levels of mathematical hell beyond what broke your spirit last semester. The progression from "I'm so smart" to "I understand nothing" is basically the universal mathematical experience.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect In Scientific Discourse
Physics Science Scientists Academia
2 days ago 6.1K views 0 shares
The Dunning-Kruger Effect In Scientific Discourse
The Feynman quote about preferring unanswerable questions to unquestionable answers was meant to encourage scientific curiosity and skepticism. Then the internet happened. Now we've got armchair physicists who watched two pop-science YouTube videos declaring themselves the next Nobel laureate while completely missing the point. Nothing says "I understand quantum mechanics" like aggressively misinterpreting one of its greatest teachers and then refusing to study the actual math. The superiority complex is just *chef's kiss* perfect. I've seen undergrads with the same energy try to correct tenured professors. It never ends well.

The Engineering Expectation Gap
Engineering Tech Research Science
19 days ago 4.3K views 0 shares
The Engineering Expectation Gap
Every engineering project ever summed up in one banner! That inspirational quote twist is the unofficial motto of countless research labs and engineering workshops worldwide. You start with grand visions of building something revolutionary—like Mark Rober's puzzle-solving robot—convinced it'll be a straightforward application of principles you've mastered. Fast forward three months: you're debugging code at 3 AM, surrounded by empty coffee cups, wondering why that "simple" servo motor refuses to cooperate with basic physics. The journey from "this should be easy" to "why did I ever think this would be easy?" is practically the scientific method's evil twin.

Stay Humble: The Asteroid Doesn't Check Your Resume
Evolution Earth-science Astronomy Biology
1 month ago 6.7K views 0 shares
Stay Humble: The Asteroid Doesn't Check Your Resume
Cosmic reality check! Dinosaurs ruled Earth for 165 million years before a 6-mile-wide space rock said "nope." Meanwhile, humans have been strutting around for ~300,000 years thinking we're special? The Stegosaurus probably had morning coffee plans for the day after extinction. Nature doesn't care about your LinkedIn profile or how many followers you have—we're all just temporarily successful species on a rock hurtling through space.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect In Scientific Discourse
Scientists Science Academia
1 month ago 4.6K views 0 shares
The Dunning-Kruger Effect In Scientific Discourse
Nothing captures the Dunning-Kruger effect quite like this! The science enthusiast confidently dismisses religion with absolute certainty, while the actual scientist—who lives in the trenches of uncertainty—gives a hesitant "...Yes?" Real scientists understand that falsifiability is the cornerstone of scientific thinking, and the existence of a deity sits firmly outside empirical testing. The working scientist knows the humbling truth: the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. Meanwhile, the "fan" is busy constructing a fedora out of their Scientific American subscription.

The Engineering Confidence Curve
Engineering Academia Physics Math Tech
1 month ago 7.3K views 0 shares
The Engineering Confidence Curve
The classic engineering student evolution! First year you're scoffing at simple projectile motion problems thinking "I'm too good for computers." Fast forward to final year and you're on your knees begging Simulink to cooperate while staring at control system diagrams that look like someone sneezed circuit symbols onto paper. Nothing humbles an engineering student faster than differential equations and transfer functions. The confidence-to-complexity curve is basically free fall with no parachute!

People Vs Collatz Conjecture
Math Academia Science
1 month ago 5.8K views 0 shares
People Vs Collatz Conjecture
Behold, the duality of mathematical obsession. On one side, the seasoned mathematicians weeping over the unsolvable Collatz Conjecture. On the other, the blissfully naive student with a calculator who thinks they'll crack it between lunch and fifth period. For the uninitiated, the Collatz Conjecture is that mathematical black hole where you take any positive integer, apply a simple rule (if even, divide by 2; if odd, multiply by 3 and add 1), and supposedly always end up at 1. Proven for millions of numbers but never universally. Nothing quite captures mathematical hubris like thinking you'll solve what's stumped professionals for 85 years with a TI-84 and half a Mountain Dew.

Which One Of Ye Shall Doeth It?
Engineering Climate Science
1 month ago 6.0K views 0 shares
Which One Of Ye Shall Doeth It?
Engineers staring at hurricanes like they're untapped power plants is peak human ambition. Sure, a hurricane packs enough energy to power the world for a week—just minor details like "catastrophic destruction" and "complete inability to harness chaotic wind energy" standing in the way. The gap between theoretical energy and practical application is where engineering dreams go to drown... usually in hurricane floodwaters. Somewhere right now, a grad student is writing a dissertation titled "Hurricane Energy Capture: Technically Possible, Practically Insane."

The New King Of Continued Fractions
Math Science
2 months ago 5.6K views 0 shares
The New King Of Continued Fractions
The mathematical hubris is strong with this one! Our brave tweeter thinks they're dethroning Ramanujan (only one of the greatest mathematical minds in history) by... writing out the continued fraction for π using the digits of π itself. It's like saying you've mastered French because you can say "bonjour." The "(1/n)" is the chef's kiss—suggesting this mathematical "breakthrough" is just part 1 of a thread that nobody asked for. Next up: discovering that water is wet and gravity pulls things down.

This Is A Bad Idea (And Hollywood Warned Us)
Biology Evolution Science Research
2 months ago 6.5K views 0 shares
This Is A Bad Idea (And Hollywood Warned Us)
Scientists are literally creating the Planet of the Apes prequel in real life! The meme shows monkey brains being genetically enhanced with human genes, and Jeremy's comment nails it—there's an entire film franchise warning us about exactly this. Next thing you know, we'll have hyper-intelligent primates demanding equal rights and plotting revolution while we awkwardly explain "it was for science!" Somewhere, Caesar is slow-clapping at our spectacular lack of foresight. Maybe watch a sci-fi movie before designing your next experiment?

Biochemical Betrayal: Onion's Revenge
Chemistry Science
2 months ago 6.6K views 0 shares
Biochemical Betrayal: Onion's Revenge
Human hubris meets biochemical reality! The poor soul thinks they're immune to onion tears, but doesn't realize that propanethial S-oxide doesn't care about your confidence. It's the chemical equivalent of saying "what are you gonna do, stab me?" to someone holding a knife. The compound is literally a lachrymatory agent—science-speak for "makes you cry like you just watched the end of Marley & Me while chopping onions." Next time, try refrigerating the onion first or wear swimming goggles like my grad students do in the lab. Nature: 1, Overconfident humans: 0.

When Your Math Genius Status Is Temporarily Undefined
Math Academia
2 months ago 6.8K views 0 shares
When Your Math Genius Status Is Temporarily Undefined
The classic case of mathematical hubris meets basic integration. Student thinks they're outsmarting the professor by taking a different approach to find f(x) when given f'(x) = 2x. Instead of recognizing this as a straightforward x² + C situation, they perform some creative calculus gymnastics, invert the function, and somehow conclude f(x) = -1/x². The professor's "WTF???" and "Idiot" annotations are basically peer review in its rawest form. Nothing humbles a self-proclaimed math genius faster than discovering the fundamental theorem of calculus actually works.