Physics is very muddled again at the moment; it is much too hard for me anyway, and I wish I were a movie comedian or something like that and had never heard anything about physics!
Interpretation
The quote expresses frustration with the complexity of physics and a longing for a simpler, more entertaining profession.
Wolfgang Pauli humorously reflects on the challenges and frustrations of understanding advanced physics, admitting that it feels overly complicated for him. His wish to be a movie comedian instead highlights a desire for a simpler, more enjoyable life, contrasting the heavy intellectual burden of scientific inquiry.
In practice
Use this quote to highlight the challenges faced in advanced studies during a seminar.
The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality.
That's not right. That's not even wrong.
The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable.
What really matters for me is ... the more active role of the observer in quantum physics ... According to quantum physics the observer has indeed a new relation to the physical events around him in comparison with the classical observer, who is merely a spectator.
I confess, that very different from you, I do find sometimes scientific inspiration in mysticism ... but this is counterbalanced by an immediate sense for mathematics.
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.
It's hard to imagine anything more interesting than learning how we're woven into the enormous tapestry of existence. Where did our universe come from? How special is our world, and how special are we? We allocate tens of billions of dollars annually to NASA, NSF and academia in search of the answers.
It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty.
It used to be thought that our genes were historically immutable and that it was not possible to imagine a conversation between culture and genetics.
Many investigators feel uneasy stating in public that the origin of life is a mystery, even though behind closed doors they admit they are baffled.
It is shameful that there are so few women in science. [...] In China there are many, many women in physics. There is a misconception in America that women scientists are all dowdy spinsters. This is the fault of men. In Chinese society, a woman is valued for what she is, and men encourage her to accomplishments yet she remains eternally feminine.
As a theoretician, I am proud to be part of a counter revolution... discovering that quantum field theory language was not dead and finished but had not really been explored thoroughly enough.
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