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On your way towards becoming a bad theoretician, take your own immature theory, stop checking it for mistakes, don't listen to colleagues who do spot weaknesses, and start admiring your own infallible intelligence.

— Gerardus 't Hooft

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More quotes by Gerardus 't Hooft

The usual no-go theorems telling us that hidden variables are irreconcilable with locality, appear to start with fairly conventional pictures of particle systems, detectors, space and time.

Quantum mechanics as it stands would be perfect if we didn't have the quantum-gravity issue and a few other very deep fundamental problems.

Deterministic underlying theories for QM are possible. They are still difficult to construct, but simple "toy models" are possible. These models are not good enough to replace today's existing quantum theories.

If you really want to contribute to our theoretical understanding of physical laws — and it is an exciting experience if you succeed! — there are many things you need to know. First of all, be serious about it!

This is used by some to state that no additional interpretation prescriptions for quantum mechanics are necessary. Yet we insist that the axioms for any "complete" quantum theory for the entire cosmos would present us with as yet unresolved paradoxes.

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