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Sabine Hossenfelder has some good cosmological, quantum, and other heavy science topic videos. This is one of the best. People like to point to science as an ivory tower in which truth is sought above everything else – but the reality of how string theory the last 50 years has shown us quite the opposite. Like many human endeavors, it’s a field of egos, iron-fisted required orthodoxy of thought, and funding.

String Theory dominated a lot of science for decades. Yet, problem after problem arose and every time a string theory prediction was proven wrong they either simply changed the math or said that the ‘next larger experiment’ would prove them right. Each new test failed to prove any predictions of string theory and string theory got more and more convoluted for almost 50 years. The end came with the construction of the Large Hadron Collider. Thousands of scientists (such as Sabine Hossenfelder herself) wrote thousands of papers about which parts of string theory would should be proven by the Large Hadron Collider – only for LHC experiments to show none of the things string theory predicted were true. In fact, it proved to high degrees of certainty there was no evidence of supersymmetry and other predicted effects. Any of the fix-ups this time involved things like 10^500 simultaneously true models – none of which could describe proven observations made by the standard model. There were no more places to run. People that got enamored with the beautiful math of string theory found they weren’t chasing science, they were chasing science fiction.

But what makes this whole story so painful is the ugly reality of the academic and scientific community. Scientists has made whole careers out of string theory. Some of the most cited scientists became superstars in the scientific and academic circles. Even worse, professors and scientists could not get tenure or funding unless they were exploring string theory. Exploring string theory got you funded, exploring other alternatives could end your academic or scientific career. Sabine herself could not bring herself to work with string theory and says she ‘threw away any chance at tenure.” because of it. People in the video’s comments talk about how their academic and scientific careers were ended by not jumping onboard string theory. Anyone that started pointing out the increasingly glaring problems became the target of vicious personal attacks. But in the end, the emperor had no clothes – as Richard Feynman originally thought.

This isn’t the first time. The Big Bang theory, first proposed in 1927 by Catholic priest and physicist Georges Lemaitre, was vilified by anti-religious sentiment in the existing scientific community that believed the universe was static. The ‘Big Bang’ theory was given as a derogatory term for the theory by pundits. Yet Lemaitre was proven right. (side note: it’s also worth noting that science and religion is NOT at odds. Straight from paragraphs 159 and 2293 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

It makes one think of many other fields of science that are likely going through the same kind of ram-rodding of orthodoxy today. I would guess that you’d find the worst culprits in fields/research areas that have high government funding along with a very pervasive, viciously defended, single explanatory theory for the entire field.

Phoenix Resale interviews lots of gaming business owners. In this episode he interviews Mark from Dynamo Collectables and we get an absolutely fascinating interview of a guy that got out of being a restaurant server and into selling video games. The interview is packed with lots of real numbers and interesting wisdom:

1. He started at home with a simple Twitter social media post: “I’m buying video games”. He put his money on the line ($25k) and bought everything. He started working 7 days a week, 70 hour workweeks selling on eBay until his house was packed floor to ceiling.
2. Experiment, try things, and when you find something that works – double-down. He was doing video games, then picked up a few Pokemon cards. They sold out instantly. So now he buys and sells Pokemon cards.
3. Buy low, sell fast. Focus on velocity over margin.
   • Be willing to buy a game for $30 and sell it right away for $40 vs buying at $20 and wait 8 months to sell for $50-$60.
   • He sold slightly below eBay/competitor prices. This caused lots of friction with other sellers. His attitude: lets sell it a little lower and both still make money.
   • Instead of gouging for fully charged handheld games after a recent hurricane, he discounted them and sold everything he had.
   • Buy slightly above Gamestop/similar competitors, sell slightly below them. This creates volume and customer velocity/word of mouth you buy higher and sell lower. The velocity more than makes up for it. It’s more like doing right by people as opposed to looking at them as targets to extract money.
   • This strategy means you’re not nickel and diming all the time and fret about pricing and selling at just the right moment. Just give customers a good deal if you’re buying or selling and you’ll keep growing.
4. Emphasis on quality games people want vs a shovel load of sports games that never sell.
5. Don’t get overly attached to your copy of Earthbound. Buy and sell everything without attachment.
6. They have flea market nights and let customers buy and sell their own things in the store certain nights. It turns into people buying and selling to the store for the things they can’t find or just browse through.

He also talks about the proper attitudes you have to have. You have to mind it like a business first. Running it like a clubhouse for friends to play games with you usually ends with the store closing in a year or two. Focus on customer service and experience – because a lot of other game retailers are bad at. You are not selling games – you’re really selling nostalgia and an experience (which he learned from server background).

He also talks about the time and money requirements. $25k was not enough for them to really start and he didn’t make any money for 4 months. You should know this business is a roller-coaster and constant anxiety is par for the course.

Finally, there is very real personal costs. Without a very understanding wife and family, this would not work. He works 7 days a week and regularly puts in 70 hour weeks with only major holidays off. He has to work conventions and meet with sellers on birthdays and holidays. If he’s not running the store, he’s doing marketing or connecting with people who may need to liquidate an estate sale that day.

In my own opinion, it seems like he’s working an unsustainable pace that he knows will have to end at some point. His hope seems to be to work hard for a decade or two in order to enjoy family and time off later. I think this is a very risky strategy. As old construction workers will tell you – if you’re sacrificing your health now it is unlikely to be there later when you want it.

There are only certain times in your life you can enjoy certain things. I had the energy to do massive road trips and climb mountains as a 20 something. But those activities are much harder on me now. Your kids only grows up once. Once they are adults and move out – you can’t get that time back. Your wife is living her life too – and would like to live it with you. Finally, none of us are guaranteed a long life. You may never reach that goal of retirement. If you’re working yourself dangerously hard, you may find yourself dead of a heart attack due to overwork, an unexpected cancer diagnosis, or even a car accident. Even when pursuing your dreams, you need to make time to live and enjoy what you’re given. Life IS the journies, not the destinations.