how do theoretical physicists even cope with the fact that Ed Witten exists? it's been like 35 years since he became the smartest dude around, and anyone who's come after 1990 just needs to do meme stuff instead (Nima-amplituhedron. Randall-warped extra dimensions. Maldacena-muh AdS5-CFT correspondence that only works for imploding universes with 4 space dimensions. Polchinski-was good but his brain self-destructed, poor Joe.)

honestly, Ed is too based for anyone to do anything, until he dies. i think the best route for aspiring theorists at this point is to try and find a genius waifu to mate with and hope that your children will inhabit a post-witten world where they aren't completely dominated from birth. BTW sabrina is still single.