When you, as a new comer who has just stepped into the world of physics, introduce yourself by saying that your major is physics, one of the frequent responses you may have would be like this: “Oh! you must be very intelligent to specialize in such a difficult subject as physics.” I would not argue that this kind of reaction is completely wrong, but still I would not say that it is 100% right.  And I really hope that students who are studying physics should be able to “amend” the common misguided reaction of people.
Let’s imagine the beautiful scenery of a countryside with huge trees, shiny green grass spreading out everywhere our eyes can reach. At first sight, we may be overwhelmed by those magnificent trees standing on the field. However, nobody would agree if we say that the beautiful nature is covered with those enormous trees. Rather, it would be more correct to say that the nature is more filled with smaller green grass, though less overwhelming and less conspicuous than the taller giants.
As the metaphor of the big trees and smaller grass will tell us shortly, physics seems to have been ‘long and strongly’ influenced by ‘the idol of the theatre’ in the philosophical terminology of F. Bacon. To put it more specifically, we have been long captured by the characteristic conceptual error that ‘intelligence is prerequisite to the study of physics.’
When we liken great physicists such as Newton, Einstein, etc. who had strenuously struggled to find out the secrets of nature, to “the big trees” in the world of physics, almost all of the other physicists, past and present, who have tenaciously revised and further-developed raw hypotheses, proposed theories and remarkable findings through endlessly repetitive and tiring research, should be portrayed as “the smaller grass” in the world of physics. We cannot under-estimate the smaller green grass in either world. As the green grass on the field can be said to cover the nature, so the smaller grass can be said to cover the world of physics. Quoting an English expression, we call the small grass of physics “standard geniuses.” Their highest value is not “intelligence” but “diligence.”
From now on, when you, a student of physics, are confronting a person who exclaims, “Oh! You must be very intelligent to study physics.” I really hope that you should be able to make him or her understand that you are studying physics not because you are smart enough but because you are willing to learn with as much diligence as possible. If you are ready to do this, then I would say you’ve just broken the idol of the theatre in physics.