Sometimes stereotypes exist for a reason

I have spent the week at a scientific conference. It isn't important which one or where or why. They all follow the same pattern. An auditorium full of people furiously taking notes while someone flips through a series of increasingly complex Powerpoint slides only half of which make sense to anyone in the room other than the speaker.

I don't know if it's because the meeting is particularly small, or because it includes a lot of physicists, but it seems to have attracted every bad stereotype of a scientist and, frankly, I'm appalled by my own people.

At every break, everyone seems to crack open the laptops. Tonight, at a banquet dinner, someone actually had her laptop out as the very prominent researcher next to me watched his prime rib get cold and chewy.

I could write a book on the fashion faux pas alone. Socks with sandals. A leather vest with black jeans and an Oxford shirt. Pants actually pulled up to one's armpits. And, one guy, I'm pretty sure only brought one shirt with him for a week long meeting.

Apple versus PC arguments have been breaking out everywhere. A lovely hike through a national park this afternoon degenerated into a discussion of why (one biophysicist swore) riding a bike at the same pace as one is able to walk is actually less efficient work. And this was our leisure time!

All I'm saying is that any room where I'm one of the coolest people around, is a sad room.