Comment by Jach
4 days ago
At least you are aware of the lies. I'm reminded of Feynman's refusal to lie about the nature of magnets (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1lL-hXO27Q): "You'd soon ask me about the nature of the [rubber] bands." Even in his digression about "why" questions, in giving a very high level reason for why ice is slippery he adds "they say", since I suspect he knew at the time the usual explanation had problems, and only recently do we have better explanations (https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-ice-slippery-a-new-hyp...). But at the same time, I've thought, it can be fun to try and come up with nice sounding lies, or analogies, or oversimplifications, especially for some types of people who won't leave you alone about something until they think they've understood something (even if a lie), or who want something repeatable to tell their friends about so they can brag about you. Still I think honesty is a better policy, even if it's not as satisfying, and if departed from at least making sure both sides know there are convenient lies and oversimplifications. As a student I would be (and have been) very put out if the goal is to understand something on a technical level and the teacher starts with lies.
From the U(1) gauge invariance symmetry in QED by Feynman's work to magnets sticking to refrigerators, there are like 7 or 10 intermediate steps. Each one add a few approximations and simplifications and perhaps a few experimental constants. I guess a graduate in physics would need half a semester to take a comprehensive course explaining again all the steps.
The main problem is that research is mostly about very specific details. Let's imagine the rounding of metallic nuts for screws, in a society where nobody has seen a nut or a screw. So when people ask, you have to say something like "I make bridges, actually a small part that keep them tight, actually I don't make them but I study how they are more resistant for exaple to corrosion. You are asking what is corrosion? Corrosion changes the color of bridges and they get weak an may fall apart." Notice that I never mention "rounding"! I probably need like half an hour to explain the relation between the rounding of the nut, the alloy, the salt in the sea breeze, the daily heat and cold cycle, and perhaps other things that may be relevant in my totally fictional example.
> Still I think honesty is a better policy, even if it's not as satisfying, and if departed from at least making sure both sides know there are convenient lies and oversimplifications.
Yes, you can call my description an oversimplification. It's hard to keep a balance and make a nice explanation that last less than 30 seconds before people get bored.