Susskind Physicists Tier List 2025

The chess metaphor is painfully accurate. Fresh high school grads confidently discussing quantum physics and string theory after watching two YouTube videos, while completely skipping the foundational math and physics that scientists spent centuries developing. It's like trying to play chess without knowing how the pieces move. "Yes, please tell me more about Schrödinger's Cat while you struggle with basic derivatives." The Dunning-Kruger effect in its natural habitat—where the less you know, the more certain you are that black holes are just "space vacuums." Meanwhile, actual physicists are still grinding through the boring fundamentals decades into their careers.

Content Quantum mechanics is so mysterious and illogical... What if vou divide the Planck length in half? That double-slit experiment is so cool, I can change reality with my consciousness! Yes, the world is definitely unreal. imgflip.com

The eternal battle between physics knowledge and misconceptions, beautifully illustrated on an IQ bell curve! The folks at the extreme ends of the spectrum share the same wrong conclusion that "a charged battery is heavier" while the enlightened middle understands the fundamental truth: electron movement doesn't change mass. The conservation of particles remains intact during charging—electrons merely shift from one electrode to another, maintaining the same net charge and particle count. It's that perfect scientific irony where being just smart enough to be dangerous leads you to the same incorrect conclusion as knowing practically nothing. The Dunning-Kruger effect strikes again in the world of electrochemistry!

Physicists looking at this formula: "Magnificent! The Standard Model Lagrangian elegantly unifies three fundamental forces!" Meanwhile, gravity sitting in the corner: "Am I a joke to you?" The ultimate physics ghosting - creating a "unified" theory while completely ignoring the force that literally keeps your feet on the ground. Sure, just sprinkle in "+Gμν" somewhere and call it a day. Nobel Committee, are you seeing this?

Einstein wasn't about that sappy romance life! Why waste time writing love letters when you could be revolutionizing physics instead? The greatest physicist in history knew his priorities—scribbling sweet nothings? Hard pass! But equations that bend space and time? *chef's kiss* That's the real way to someone's heart! Next time you're feeling romantic, skip the poetry and just derive the theory of relativity together. Nothing says "I love you" like E=mc²!

The moment when your physics professor throws in air resistance after spending an entire semester solving problems in a "frictionless vacuum." Suddenly your neat little equations get slapped with drag coefficients and your perfect parabolic trajectories turn into sad deflating balloons. Left side: confidently solving idealized problems. Right side: the existential crisis when reality enters the chat. Physics students everywhere just felt a disturbance in the force.