Over 25 years ago I was doing ny final thesis on string theory for my Masters degree. The more I read, the more I went ”this could not possibly be right”. I ended up taking a break to work to get perspective on things and decide whether I wanted to continue pursuing a career in theoretical physics. I never went back. And given that in this field, things have been stagnant for those 25 years, it seems my impressions were quite on the mark.

Having so many things required to make it work, that we could not verify always rubbed me the wrong way, as was the ability to always be able to add just one more patch to make it outlive each experimental or theoretical setback.