Post #2253153

2026-04-18 17:38 UTC

As most physicists will tell you, a clean desk is a sure sign of a sick mind. This is the ideal academic desk. You may not like it, but this is what peak desk looks like.

Replies (6)

@mcnees@mastodon.social 2026-04-18 17:42

A true story. When I was in grad school I was in Steven Weinberg's research group. I was also the grader for his cosmology course, and sysadmin for the group's little network. So I spent a lot of time in Big Steve's office. He had two desks in there and both were disasters. One time I was trying to fix a problem on his ancient PC. I had to push a stack of papers out of the way, and there on the desk behind all the clutter was a Nobel Prize medal.

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@CStamp@mastodon.social 2026-04-18 17:47

@mcnees@mastodon.social And don’t dare move a thing because we’d know. (Folk with messy desks.)

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@schamschula@mastodon.social 2026-04-18 18:06

@mcnees@mastodon.social These days you would also want to look at the physicist’s computer desktop. On campus I keep a part of my work desk tidy, so I can interact with students during office hours. The same cannot be said about my computer desktop!

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@randomized@masto.bike 2026-04-18 18:07

@mcnees@mastodon.social I disagree, peak desk would obviously feature a cat. #caturday #CatsOfMastodon #Chamedi

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@LillyHerself@mastodon.social 2026-04-18 19:55

@mcnees@mastodon.social This is very comforting to hear, as pretty much my whole house looks like this.

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@tautology@infosec.exchange 2026-04-18 22:57

@mcnees@mastodon.social my usual statement is that a person's desk represents their mind. So a clean desk shows an empty mind...

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