I didn't know that Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, University of California Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology were considered 3rd class universities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Tegmark

I don't know the context of Tegmark's comments so I can't comment on what he exactly meant. I do believe that the electron is a convenient fiction that allows us to explain and control electricity and chemical reactions. Perhaps that is what he meant. He might have meant that describing the evolution of the Universe in terms pf photons, quarks, atom formation and star formation is not the best way to explain what happened in the early Universe. I also believe that the Universe most likely rebounded from a big crunch and has been rebounding forever. Tegmark also advances this theory--I had this intuitive feeling about the idea of Nature taking the easiest course and Occam's Razor supplying the most straightforward solution (i.e. no creation event). I recently watched a panel presentation at which Tegmark advanced this same feeling. What he probably meant was that if we had certain parameters as to the matter in the universe it's history might follow precise Mathematical (Physics) timelines and behavior.

"Mad Max" explain what he means in this short video.
Is Reality A Mathematical Structure? - Horizon: What Is Reality? - BBC Two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTF-hHGbQ6s
The long story.
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy57W9EtvDk

I also believe that the Universe most likely rebounded from a big crunch and has been rebounding forever. Tegmark also advances this theory--I had this intuitive feeling about the idea of Nature taking the easiest course and Occam's Razor supplying the most straightforward solution (i.e. no creation event).

You are in good company. Today many scientists are starting to think the same way.
For example https://www.quantamagazine.org/big-bounce-models-reignite-big-bang-debate-20180131/
To me it make more sense as well.
Though it's very hard to accept the concept of infinity in reality.
After all we all like to think there is a beginning and an end of everything.
But at very least it solve the Big Bang enigma "From nothing everything was created in an instance".

Yes, I'm a sheep and following different shepherds depending if it's a Tuesday or a Friday since I'm not a original thinker.
That's why I often copy 'n paste (not cut 'n paste) texts and also ideas ;)
On Saturdays I for instance usually follow the shepherd explaining that all there is, is ruled by Quantum laws. On Mondays probably someone else.
I guess it's called being open-minded instead of only narrow my search for knowledge down to our observable universe. There is more out there to understand.

Hold a book in your hand, you can see it in its entirety.

My personal opinion is this: I suppose this depends on your perspective. You, or anyone else, may very well see a book and that's all. Someone else may see it as a collection of paper and ink, among other things. If it is the latter, it might cause one to think of what it took to make this paper, ink, and other things. Then, you are not holding a book in your hand. You are holding trees, water, and the many other things that it takes to make this book. But the book is not the final product except under rare circumstances, eventually most, if not all, of that book will return to the state at which it started which is largely organic matter.

We calculate that the observable universe to be about 13.8 billion years.

Be an original thinker, not cut 'n paste everyone elses ideas being the current in-thing of the moment. Are you a sheep or a shepherd?

Again, my personal opinion on this, no accusations made or implied:

Not trying to add fuel to the fire and also to be fair to everyone, but are/were you part of this 'We' that calculated this 13.8 billion years? Or did you get this number from someone or somewhere else?
IOW, was/is this your idea as an individual or part of a team or was it someone else's idea?

As my wife is very fond of saying, "I can tell you anything."

I'm not saying you are, or anyone else is wrong, only trying to see all sides of the situation.

No one should accuse anyone else of not being an original thinker if they are not one themselves.

John T

It's funny that "Mad Max" Tegmark was part of the team that calculated the last estimation of the age of our universe:)
And that "an original thinker" could have two meanings in Swedish.
First a thinker that comes up with an idea that no one else have thought about.
Then a thinker that is weird, excentric or a fogy.
Whatever.

The Uppsala University, founded in 1477, has this motto.

"To think freely is great. But to think right is greater."
The words are a quote from the lawyer Thomas Thorild who studied in Uppsala in the 18th century. He was a provocative and controversial thinker who sparked debate in his time.
What Thomas Thorild meant is still discussed regularly. The fact that Uppsala University, at the end of the 19th century under the then rector Carl Yngve Sahlin, decided that it would be cut in over the entrance has often been criticized because the text was perceived as inhibiting.