I’m a physicist by trade, not by training, and that matters | by Chris Ferrie | Jul, 2025

What a “stranger” in physics sees from within

10 min read

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12 hours ago

By training, I’m an applied mathematician. I select an interesting aspect of the world, abstract away all the details, and create a mathematical model that (hopefully) provides utility to me and others. That aspect might be traffic in the street, or it might be quantum physics.

This essay is about my journey applying mathematics to quantum physics and what it taught me about the power, and the peril, of shared belief in science. It’s about how cultures form around ideas, how they guard their borders, and how a concept like “quantum computer” can mean radically different things to different people — and still be called the same name.

But most of all, it’s about what it means to be an outsider who stays — a stranger.

Sociologist Georg Simmel once described a curious figure in group dynamics: the “stranger.” Not a visitor or outsider, but someone who “comes today and stays tomorrow” — close enough to know the customs, distant enough never to fully belong.

That’s me. I’m a stranger in physics.

This distance didn’t make me superior. But it gave me perspective.

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