Need to Know and Best Seller List
rOPINION
ALL I REALLY NEED T O K N O W . . .
David P. Srern
Recently I picked up a paperback t h a t was lying around the house, All I
Really Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten, a collection of short essays by Robert Fulghum. Years ago when it topped the best seller list, it somehow passed me by (but not my wife, who must have brought it home).
The first essay in the book stated
Fulghum's personal credo—what he really needed to know, he claimed to have learned in kindergarten.
What is a physicist's credo? What things does a physicist need to know?
I thought it over and compiled a list, and here it is. Your priorities might differ—this is the list of a theorist concerned with research. None of the items listed was learned in kindergarten; in fact, none was part of my university or graduate curriculum. It turns out t h a t all I really need to know about physics I had to dig up by myself.
A physicist's credo
Keep notes of ideas, lectures and work. Memory fades but what is written down stays yours. While young you may wing it, but once you turn 40 or 50, your notes—numbered, dated, indexed and collected in binders—make all the difference between still doing useful work and spinning your wheels.
Rough notes are but a fading latent image. Transcribe them, don't wait.
Edit what you produce, illustrate it, use neat handwriting or, better still, use a word processor. The material is hard enough; whatever smoothes its retrieval is a great help.
If it's memorable, write it down.
Keep an open notebook by the phone.
Number and date your entries.
Scan the literature and read what
David Stern, a physicist at NASA's
C o d d a r d Space Flight Center, works on t h e m a p p i n g a n d g l o b a l physics o f t h e
Earth's magnetosphere.
© 1993 Americon Instirure of Physics
is pertinent. (You aren't Feynman.)
Collect references. Be lucid and even tutorial in writing your own papers.
Take time to select the text you
ALL I REALLY NEED T O K N O W . . .
David P. Srern
Recently I picked up a paperback t h a t was lying around the house, All I
Really Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten, a collection of short essays by Robert Fulghum. Years ago when it topped the best seller list, it somehow passed me by (but not my wife, who must have brought it home).
The first essay in the book stated
Fulghum's personal credo—what he really needed to know, he claimed to have learned in kindergarten.
What is a physicist's credo? What things does a physicist need to know?
I thought it over and compiled a list, and here it is. Your priorities might differ—this is the list of a theorist concerned with research. None of the items listed was learned in kindergarten; in fact, none was part of my university or graduate curriculum. It turns out t h a t all I really need to know about physics I had to dig up by myself.
A physicist's credo
Keep notes of ideas, lectures and work. Memory fades but what is written down stays yours. While young you may wing it, but once you turn 40 or 50, your notes—numbered, dated, indexed and collected in binders—make all the difference between still doing useful work and spinning your wheels.
Rough notes are but a fading latent image. Transcribe them, don't wait.
Edit what you produce, illustrate it, use neat handwriting or, better still, use a word processor. The material is hard enough; whatever smoothes its retrieval is a great help.
If it's memorable, write it down.
Keep an open notebook by the phone.
Number and date your entries.
Scan the literature and read what
David Stern, a physicist at NASA's
C o d d a r d Space Flight Center, works on t h e m a p p i n g a n d g l o b a l physics o f t h e
Earth's magnetosphere.
© 1993 Americon Instirure of Physics
is pertinent. (You aren't Feynman.)
Collect references. Be lucid and even tutorial in writing your own papers.
Take time to select the text you