Drat, I broke my streak. (Mundanities, a timely reminder)

I had been blogging everyday since... December 28, but I missed a day yesterday. I wasn't in the mood last night, even though I was just procrastinating on a batch of raket articles to be rewritten. (Which I need to finish this morning, but I'm still not feeling like it, blech. Which is why I'm blogging right now instead of doing them.)

Well, to start off with some mundanities, I've been somewhat successful at trying to improve my diet. I've started keeping a Google Calendar, and I'm noting down what I eat, which is rather effective at making me more aware of what exactly I put into my mouth. Eating less, more often, and also eating more plant parts like leaves and mature reproductive organs. Meat from sea animals, too, unless there isn't any available. More water.

However, still haven't gotten around to exercising again. It is thought in some camps that diet >> exercise in terms of losing weight, anyway, except in the case of severe caloric restriction where you'd have to exercise in order to keep your metabolism from slowing. But overall, exercise may just yield second order effects. I forget which article I read that in, hmm. (Excuses. It'd still be better for me to get some cardio to keep the hypertension at bay.)

Mundanities out of the way, Jeanne recently linked me to this article on Cosmic Variance: The Cult of Genius. Hmm, sounds suspiciously like one of the reasons why I'm not so keen at the moment on pursuing higher education/ an academic career in physics. 

During high school or college, many aspiring physicists latch onto Feynman or Einstein or Hawking as representing all they hope to become. The problem is, the vast majority of us are just not that smart. Oh sure, we’re plenty clever, and are whizzes at figuring out the tip when the check comes due, but we’re not Feynman-Einstein-Hawking smart. We go through a phase where we hope that we are, and then reality sets in, and we either (1) deal, (2) spend the rest of our career trying to hide the fact that we’re not, or (3) drop out. It’s always bugged the crap out of me that physicists’ worship of genius conveys the simultaneous message that if you’re not F-E-H smart, then what good are you? In physics recommendation land, there is no more damning praise than saying someone is a “hard worker”.

Well, screw that. Yes, you have to be clever, but if you have good taste in problems, an ability to forge intellectual connections, an eye for untapped opportunities, drive, and yes, a willingness to work hard, you can have major impacts on the field.

Oh, whew. I don't have drive, nor am I a hard worker (most of the time, anyway), so I guess my decision wasn't too presumptuous. 

And, in any case, I suspect that I'm only having ego issues seeing other people enjoying their physics more and doing better work than I do. Boo hoo hoo. Well, guess what, self, time to buck up and move on. Tapusin mo na muna ang thesis mo bago ka magpaka-soul-searching diyan.