How do professional physicists deal with lay people who try to discuss with them their (the lay people's) ideas on the grand unified theory or something similar?

If a stranger sends me a letter or email about their theory, I simply don't answer. 

If someone brings up their theory in person, I'll listen awhile, ask some questions, bring up some relevant evidence, suggest a few papers or books they might want to read -- and then change the subject. The length of time I'll spend on the topic correlates pretty strongly with how well I know the person in other contexts. After all, I do like to ask friends questions about their areas of expertise and I bet some of my ideas regarding literature, law, and biology are a bit outside the mainstream.

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Elizabeth H. Simmons on Quora:

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