this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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Science Memes

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A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



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[–] PotatoPie@lemmy.zip 123 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Both sides are just people with interests, i never understood the smart/dumb distinctions, there's just interests, dedication and morals

[–] lath@piefed.social 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was once interested in time travel. My dedication was boundless and my morals were questionable. I only got smart enough to know I'm too dumb to make it work.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Good news, I figured out the secret to time travel. I'm now travelling forward in time by a second, every second! Pay $999 to learn My secret!

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Pff amateur, I can even travel forward in time by slightly less than a second every second!

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

PFFFFFT to you!

I travel forward in time 1000 mileseconds every second!!!!!

Plus its only 995€ for my secret!

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[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 week ago

Clearly you have never met stupid people. Lucky you.

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Lots of upvotes, but that's simply not true. It is true that people can be gifted in one area and not in others, but those people can excel in those areas more than someone even more passionately interested could ever hope to.

I knew a guy named Joe Rohde. You can look him up, he ended up being a head of imagineering at Disney. When I knew him, he was a high school art teacher, and then just starting at Disney. His aptitude for art was off the charts, and his mom said that was true when he was four and able to draw 3D renderings when his peers couldn't do stick figures. Sure, he practiced and developed skills, but his ability to hold a 3D image in his mind, tweak and rotate it, and then put it on paper, is something innate. He was absolute crap at math.

I spent 40 years at a company that mostly made rocket engines for NASA and the DoD, working with literal rocket scientists. I met all sorts of very smart people. Some were the stereotypical scientist that were geniuses in a particular area but had no skills outside of it, but others were just simply brilliant at anything they turned their mind to. Many of them defied the stereotype and also has great social skills.

It might be nice to think that anyone can be truly great at anything they put their mind to, but I've seen too many people who are truly great at things to believe it. Some people are just wired differently.

Edit: and none of the above mentions gender because gender doesn't factor into it.

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[–] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You've never met someone who's just plain dumb? I have bad news.

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[–] yesman@lemmy.world 65 points 1 week ago (7 children)

The reason chess is a segregated sport is because the male players couldn't cope emotionally with co-ed.

Not only was their the sex-pest harassment stuff, but men who lost to women would become hysterical, hostile, and aggressive.

Women just needed clam, rational, and stoic people to play with, so they had to exclude men.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

May be a gross oversimplification, simply because, ignoring everything else around professional chess, the world championship is technically open for all genders...

But considering how FIDE makes women gain ELO by taking it from other women in mixed tournaments, its 2023 ruling on transgender players, and how former World Champion Garry Kasparov reacted to losing to a women, it might as well be the truth.

[–] Folstar@lemmus.org 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In Kasparov's eventual defense, he did say this after losing to Polgar:

“I was wrong about women playing chess. I gave an opinion a long time ago that I no longer believe.”

and later in his book wrote:

‘I won’t hide from the fact that I did make regrettably sexist remarks about women in chess around this time. In that 1989 Playboy interview I said men were better at chess because “women are weaker fighters” and that “probably the answer is in the genes”. The possibility of gender brain differences aside, I find it almost hard to believe I said this considering that my mother is the toughest fighter I know.’

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[–] Triumph@fedia.io 22 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I especially like playing chess with clam people.

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[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank goodness online adaptations allow people to play without having to consider the identity of their opponent (because I don't mind who I play against).

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[–] Anivia@feddit.org 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, almost every sport where men are actually at an advantage allows women to compete in the "men's" leagues as well. Only when they actually start winning against the men do the rules start excluding them

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What are the examples for the second sentence? Climbing?

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Pretty much every shooting sport (excluding poundage-categorized archery because of draw weights), at very least.

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[–] Omnipitaph@reddthat.com 58 points 1 week ago (10 children)

There are a few comments here that are sexist as shit, misandry and misogyny both. It boggles me that intelligent people who know that sweeping generalizations are bad when it comes to race and nation lose their fucking mind when it comes to biological sex.

[–] Folstar@lemmus.org 12 points 1 week ago

Wait until you learn about "generations".

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[–] sheetzoos@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago

Spatially smart

[–] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

the school system grades you on conformity, not wisdom and neither of these people are correct and most ivy league grads are literally just there because theyre epstein-class legacy members

theyre just two people with different interests and goals, thats it

[–] Azzu@leminal.space 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Yeah making this into a man vs woman thing is stupid, I took the original post just as a person saying "people can have different kinds of intelligence, everything should be respected"

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Spoken like someone who was bad at school and bad at toys smuglord

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also, a lot of "stupid" behavior people do is a direct result of them being stressed, scared, tired, hungry etc. The more stuff you have on your mind to begin with because the world sucks the harder it is to pay attention to what you're doing.

[–] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 11 points 1 week ago (4 children)

and children have these emotions amplified 10x and dont know how to control it and the school system thinks that they forget stuff and dont get good grades because theyre EVIL

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[–] Equinox1289@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 week ago

you won't believe this but I bet the guy on the right could write a Python script to solve it in 4-6 business weeks

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It says "chess enthusiast" on the left, but shows a chessboard on the right. Sounds like these two have more in common than they see.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

It also says chess enthusiast on the anime boy. Might just be a watermark.

[–] AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago
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[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I like both. I get the sentiment, but it is really sad that men and women's strengths and/or weaknesses are being used to wage a stupid war that serves no one.

In my home we compliment each other super well. My weaknesses are evened out by his strengths and my strengths even out his weaknesses. It's great. Almost like that's the whole point of having a functioning society.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

stupid war that serves no one.

It's standard divide and conquer, definitely serves the people in power.

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[–] VinegarChunks@lemmus.org 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Works hard smart

vs

lazy, doesn’t try for more than 5 minutes, gets repeatedly told “you have so much potential if you would apply yourself” “smart”

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[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Me, offscreen to the right: internet argument smart

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Me, offscreen to the left: imaginarily smart.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

The duality of lemming.

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[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Looks to me like it's saying there two types of chess enthusiast and I'm not sure it's saying one is better. If you're trying to make the woman look dumb, would you include 110/100 grades..?

[–] krull_krull@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Somehow i don't see the "meme" as sexist until i read the comments

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[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

FYI: Sipnayan is a Tagalog word, originating from a 1969 attempt by a Filipino language committee to replace the Greek/Latin-originated matematika with low level of success, much like courriel etc. pushed by the French Academy

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (4 children)

What kind of smart am I if I'm not particularly good at academia, or math puzzles, but, like, I really wish I was smart while still holding the exact same beliefs.

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[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why is there chess enthusiast on both sides, and chess on the right side

[–] NoPanko@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I feel like thats a watermark from either the original creator or some repost down the line

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[–] anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Oh, oh honey, no. Academia requires years of dedication, hard work, and money. Lots and lots of money.

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