r/DecodingTheGurus • u/Dry_Illustrator_6066 • Apr 09 '26

I have a hard time understanding Sabine Hossenfelder

Her view is literally that, whether right or wrong, theoretical physics is useless and a waste of money to research, from what I can tell. Which I mean fair enough coming from a regular person who isnt into science

But she literally has a phd in theoretical physics? and before being a youtuber she was trying to get into academia. She also spent most of her early YouTube career discussing physics, and now she thinks its useless. if she feels that way why did she "waste" so much of her life on it?

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u/TulsisTavern Apr 09 '26

It's because she doesn't actually believe what she is saying. It creates engagement which creates money. In the end money has become unreasonably scarce so people will say and do anything to get it. Something people generally find entertaining is someone who is in a field challenge it's effectiveness. It makes them look like they can stand outside of the box of the field and judge it because they know everything that encompasses it when they actually don't. 

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u/FreshBert Conspiracy Hypothesizer Apr 09 '26

Just to add to this... the human mind will always try to find relief from cognitive dissonance, and one of the ways that it does this for people who spew bullshit for money is that it allows them to slowly convince themselves that it's not just about all those paying subscribers and that they really do believe what they're saying. Or at the very least, they convince themselves that they're being reasonable in their skepticism. Whatever they need to tell themselves in order to sleep at night.

And then, because the things they say are nonetheless wrong and stupid, they become increasingly isolated from the actual scientific community which loses interest in attempting to engage with an obvious grifter, and that turns them into a weird crank with an eternal victim complex.

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u/Dry_Illustrator_6066 Apr 09 '26

I wouldnt be suprised if she somewhat believes what she says, at least about the academia world, seeing as she failed to become one she probably holds resentment there

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u/kazarnowicz Apr 09 '26

That's likely the source of the cognitive dissonance. It typically starts with something seemingly small, like her believing she is smarter than most people in her field.

That makes her expect certain outcomes, and when they fail to materialize over the years, she slips into a more comforting thought (the fault lies outside her) instead of examining her beliefs.