TL;DR 5 Sentence Summary - How To Be a Good Theoretical Physicist

Let's first limit ourselves to the absolute minimum.

All necessary science courses are taught at Universities naturally, the first thing you should do is have yourself admitted at a University and absorb everything you can.

More than rudimentary intelligence is assumed to be present, because ordinary students can master this material only when assisted by patient teachers.

Try to reach the stage that you discover the numerous misprints, tiny mistakes as well as more important errors, and imagine how you would write those texts in a smarter way.

Try to outsmart the authors, but please refrain from mailing to me your alternative theories until you have studied the entire lot; if you do this well you will discover that many of these authors were not so stupid after all.

Source: Some School

I came across this and thought it was amusing in how the author's arrogance pierced through the monitor and slapped me in the face. However, I suppose if you're a theoretical physicist, you have the right.