Post #2253154

2026-04-18 17:42 UTC

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.

Replies (4)

@mcnees@mastodon.social 2026-04-18 17:46

It was not *the* medal -- he kept that at home. Apparently when you get a Nobel Prize you are also given a replica of the medal for display. It was a funny moment, though, when he saw the look on my face and could tell right away that I was not sure if I was allowed to touch it.

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@alan@mindly.social 2026-04-18 17:47

@mcnees@mastodon.social I prefer "A clean desk is the sign of an empty mind." I have a photo of my uncle's office, a professor of biology, with a botany focus. There were notebooks stacked 1.5+ m high everywhere.

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@kpdooty@mastodon.social 2026-04-18 17:50

@mcnees@mastodon.social oh gosh I still remember that time when I was a physics undergrad a bunch of us walked past Owen Chamberlain's office and saw the mess!

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@bstacey@icosahedron.website 2026-04-18 18:20

@mcnees@mastodon.social Desk clutter is the price of wisdom. This is demonstrably true, since the price of wisdom is above rubies (Job 28:18), and I have lost ruby crystals under the papers on my desk.

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