Context of Tepid
It is worth noting that the geometric interpretation of general relativity hasn’t been universally popular. The late physicist Steven Weinberg whom I admired deeply, wrote in his 1972 textbook on the subject that “the geometric interpretation of the theory of gravitation has dwindled to a mere analogy, which lingers in our language in terms like ‘metric’… but is otherwise not very useful. I laughed while writing this up because, of course, I have just told you that calculating the metric — the distance measure — is the most important thing in general relativity, and here is a Nobel laureate saying it is a tepid analogy. In my defense, Weinberg goes on to say his views are “heterodox” and that most people would disagree with him.
–New Scientist