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I should have loved biology

jsomers.net

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Re: I should have loved biology

#21

Post by pm90 »

Eridrus wrote: post #14
eindiran wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are a few problems that result in this sad state of affairs, and unfortunately they are not constrained to biology (eg 'why isn't mathematics taught with wonder?'). 1. Teachers are required to do evaluations, and the way we have settled on doing evaluations is giving students giant, shitty tests. In order to pass these tests, lots of rote memorization is required. 2. Five years of being forced to teach-…

I'm somewhat skeptical of this explanation since I went to a private secondary school in Australia where these pressures did not apply, and had the exact same experience with Biology where what we were taught was to memorize taxonomies that made me abandon the subject as early as possible.

One experience doesn’t disprove systemic reasons for the outcomes we’re seeing. Even if hypothetically all teachers were very well paid and the job was regarded as high status, there would be a nonzero chance that some kids still end up with shitty teachers.

Re: I should have loved biology

#22

Post by kernoble »

This is why I loved biology before I learned what biology research is really like. What I wanted was to recreate life from scratch, an impossible task with todays technology; the logical sequence of steps behind our biological origins is not hard to see and become enamored with, but I will never get the satisfaction of learning all its secrets.

With programming and computers this is so much closer, because these things are made my humans. Millions of man-years of effort, but still man-made. So, at least with computers I know I can learn how it's all done, and I know the steps needed to make all this technology are also known.

Re: I should have loved biology

#23

Post by sudosysgen »

pm90 wrote: post #19
ampdepolymerase wrote: post #17

Ah yes, the recurring obsession hacker news has with biology - except that no startup would pay a biologist a software engineer's wage. Talking about biology is nice. But what's nicer is dismantling the elephant in the room.

Aren’t salaries determined by the market? Just to be clear, this isn’t snark. I’m curious how salaried are determined.

They are determined by the market - mostly - so how much you are paid is going to a function of how replaceable you are, and how much more money the company makes with your position filled or empty, notwithstanding dirty tricks that are somewhat rare.

Re: I should have loved biology

#24

Post by kernoble »

m463 wrote: post #2

I read this and it it fills me with so much melancholy. I took biology 101 in college and what I thought would be really interesting turned out to be SO unexpectedly meaningless. Now years later all I recall is the memorization of phylums and kingdoms on one test and cell structures on another test and sitting in a large auditorium looking at the map and not the territory. The course was so much about WHAT and never…

I excelled at AP biology, but college biology was a total drag. Honestly, it's just the teachers, my high school teachers taught with passion in college it was a chore for my professors. At least software has more jobs and better pay, even if it's less fundamentally interesting.

Re: I should have loved biology

#25

Post by ludamad »

ampdepolymerase wrote: post #17

Ah yes, the recurring obsession hacker news has with biology - except that no startup would pay a biologist a software engineer's wage. Talking about biology is nice. But what's nicer is dismantling the elephant in the room.

Even one's with a biologist as a founder? (Also not snark)

Re: I should have loved biology

#26

Post by hnmm23 »

I've been struggling with this same thought recently too, namely because my partner who I love so dearly is struggling with diagnoses that most physicians are just not too informed on yet, let alone the underpaid, overworked public hospital system we're dealing with.

It took us years and years and years, tons of shot gun approaches by doctors with treatments, diagnoses, and medications that treat the symptoms but not the underlying cause til we finally figured out what could possibly be wrong with her!

And that was only after she started working in the health field herself and had physicians and specialists that care about her take into consideration everything about her and run expensive tests.

All this to say, I've been researching others' experiences with what my partner is inflicted with and those who are doing better or have some understanding had to figure a lot of it out on their own with countless medical research and studies they pore over - a lot of these success stories are from physicians inflicted with these diseases themselves!

But, how am i supposed to understand the studies, and papers, and drug mechanism of action sheets?

Do I start at ground 0 and start learning biology? What are some good resources?

And how do I know where to go from there?

All this is really troubling me and i feel so powerless.

Re: I should have loved biology

#27

Post by minhaz23 »

Beside the links provided in the article,

does anyone have any other articles, books, courses, lectures, youtubers, key people, papers, journals, interesting links/talks/podcasts/quotes they'd like to share to help others on their journy to understand biology better?

Thank you!

Re: I should have loved biology

#28

Post by Upvoter33 »

This is a great article. I had the same realization some years back - this stuff is amazing! Why didn't I get into it when I had a class on it? Of course, it's easy to rail on high school classes for failing to dazzle; maybe it was just my mind not quite being ready or willing to learn. But damn, biology is amazing. How does it all work??!!

Re: I should have loved biology

#29

Post by postingpals »

pm90 wrote: post #19
ampdepolymerase wrote: post #17

Ah yes, the recurring obsession hacker news has with biology - except that no startup would pay a biologist a software engineer's wage. Talking about biology is nice. But what's nicer is dismantling the elephant in the room.

Aren’t salaries determined by the market? Just to be clear, this isn’t snark. I’m curious how salaried are determined.

Salaries are determined by the market, but no one ever mentions how the market determines it... which is usually some combination of scarcity, quality, and, more realistically, how many connections you have, etc. These things give you bargaining power which you can use to negotiate salaries.

(This is all very basic stuff but it's more fleshed out than just saying 'the market determines salary'. The market isn't a magical entity, it is run by human behaviour.)

Re: I should have loved biology

#30

Post by vostok »

eindiran wrote: post #9
m463 wrote: post #2

I read this and it it fills me with so much melancholy. I took biology 101 in college and what I thought would be really interesting turned out to be SO unexpectedly meaningless. Now years later all I recall is the memorization of phylums and kingdoms on one test and cell structures on another test and sitting in a large auditorium looking at the map and not the territory. The course was so much about WHAT and never…

I think there are a few problems that result in this sad state of affairs, and unfortunately they are not constrained to biology (eg 'why isn't mathematics taught with wonder?'). 1. Teachers are required to do evaluations, and the way we have settled on doing evaluations is giving students giant, shitty tests. In order to pass these tests, lots of rote memorization is required. 2. Five years of being forced to teach-…

If you look at education as a luxury good: I really liked learning economics from an economics Nobel prize winner, math from a Fields medalist, and I'm sure I'm forgetting other luminaries.
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