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I should have loved biology too

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Re: I should have loved biology too

#131

Post by roryokane »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #128
abletonlive wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it's not an absurd take at all. The absurd take is that we "should not bend language around ignorance." That's precisely how language changes over time. Language is not a strict set of rules. It's based on understanding and consensus, so sometimes things that are "wrong" do end up being accepted. I suggest this as a great introduction into what languages are and how they evolve over time https://www.amazon.c…

I am not a native speaker, but the two words do not sound even remotely the same. How does this mistake happen so often? Can you explain people's thought process a bit? Is it just: "Something something 'seg...' ... ah I know, I will simply use another random word that starts with the same 3 letters and doesn't make sense in this phrase!"? Also this is the first time I see it.

> the two words do not sound even remotely the same

Pronounced correctly, “segue” sounds just like “Segway” – not like “seg-oo”, as you might have assumed.

Re: I should have loved biology too

#132

Post by weregiraffe »

Feynuus wrote: post #73

I had always thought of biology as 'less rigorous' than the other sciences, and consequently less deserving of merit than, say, physics (my major). Less mathematical, not as rigorous, purely memorization devoid of deep understanding,. It took me a while to shed that view. 1. There's an inherent charm and beauty to biology, and the ability to memorise is a skill. 2. The many different sub-disciplines of biology demons…

>Less mathematical, not as rigorous, purely memorization devoid of deep understanding,.

This, here, is why nobody likes physicists. It's like they are taking extra courses on Advanced Hubris.

Re: I should have loved biology too

#133

Post by AnthonyMouse »

mlinhares wrote: post #33
PicassoCTs wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those curiculums developed by sould-dead gremiums in consensus on the minimum knowledge you goto have are a blight on western civilization. Instead of giving students the ability to discover a topic, or built something they are interested in themselves and then give them a understanding and fascination with the discoverers who have gone before them. Instead they kill the subject.. I must confess, it gives my dry old…

Yes, definitely, destroying education as we know it without any plans for what the next thing is will definitely work. Developed countries really need a come to Jesus moment, because the disdain for everything that made them great places is unbelievable. People will understand, after great suffering, that destroying stuff is much easier than building it.

> People will understand, after great suffering, that destroying stuff is much easier than building it.

"It is easier to destroy than to create" doesn't tell you when something should be torn down.

You can have a house that provided shelter for your family for generations, but if it's water damaged, the floors are rotting and it's full of toxic mold, the person who shows up with a bulldozer isn't necessarily wrong.

Re: I should have loved biology too

#134

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

ramraj07 wrote: post #103
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been working my way towards a biololgy degree very slowly (can only really fit one-class-at-a-time alongside working full time). I'm maybe 70% to a bachelor's degree in it. Been writing code for ages, but I've saved enough to accept a lower salary if it means I get to work on a real problem for once in my life. So I guess I'm one of those people you're frustrated with. Do you have any advice for how to not be th…

In my (possibly not the best) opinion the most important quality will be to not delude oneself with the idea that their method or field is the most important field in all of science. Unfortunately academic structures force you to think and believe that and then proselytize that way. But if you stay above it at least in my books you're above most folks. But then I'm a lowly guy in a corner lol. Practically what this m…

I once met a scientist who spent a week traveling to where there was a powerful x-ray laser. He used it to blast a thin film of something or other that was floating on the surface of some water. He left with a flash drive full of data and some FORTRAN titled LSQREFL, which allegedly could decode the laser results. He then spent the next 6 months trying to make it actually do that. Turns out you had to have a folder with today's date on it on your desktop, otherwise the program would crash. This was documented nowhere, he just eventually puzzled it out from the code.

I offered to put it on github for him, so that at least he didn't have to be the sole caretaker for this endangered bit of software, but he was afraid of running afoul of the original author's rights, so endangered it will stay.

This was maybe an unlikely occurrence, falling neatly in the not part of your:

> More often than not it's not anything software related

But it makes me think that there is still some juice left to squeeze out there. I mean, I'm having a good time with my one-class-per-semester, I'd just prefer to not have to do it for another decade before I'm enough of a biologist to get my hands dirty.

Re: I should have loved biology too

#135

Post by fouc »

dominicq wrote: post #88
MattGrommes wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of companies will pay for at least part of whatever college classes you take, without auditing whether or not it would be good for your specific job. I encourage people to look into it, it's a benefit a lot of people have but don't use and it's leaving money on the table.

Can you say more? What kind of company would so such a thing? Maybe I live in a bubble but that's so far outside of what I've seen that it just sounds fantastical.

I would assume most companies with 100+ office workers (essentially big enough for an HR department) usually offer something like this in western countries.

Re: I should have loved biology too

#136

Post by tsimionescu »

nosianu wrote: post #99
TinyRick wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to do something like this but simply cannot afford it. I think it is good advice but going back to school for a degree one does not plan on utilizing is not as feasible today as it was in the 80's, largely due to the sizeable increase in tuition without reciprocal increases in wages.

In this day and age, you can do this for FREE and on the side, whenever you have time! There are tons of very well-done professional level video courses on Youtube. There are more organized courses that only ask you for money for the "extras", like some tests and a certificate, but the main parts, texts and videos, are free. You could start with a really good teaching professor (Eric Lander, MIT) and his course: http…

Time and energy are also at a premium in the current economy. Good luck learning biochemistry by watching YouTube videos after 8+h of coding and meetings plus commute plus making dinner plus cleaning up.

Re: I should have loved biology too

#137

Post by juped »

abletonlive wrote: post #114
gh0stcat wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an absurd take. We should not bend language around ignorance. There is a beauty to effort. Please take a second to explore this for yourself.

Actually it's not an absurd take at all. The absurd take is that we "should not bend language around ignorance." That's precisely how language changes over time. Language is not a strict set of rules. It's based on understanding and consensus, so sometimes things that are "wrong" do end up being accepted. I suggest this as a great introduction into what languages are and how they evolve over time https://www.amazon.c…

[flagged]

Re: I should have loved biology too

#138

Post by bruce511 »

999900000999 wrote: post #122
kleiba wrote: post #2

A while ago, I taught CS for a year in a local high school. I can very much relate to the notion of "astonishing facts were presented without astonishment": as a teacher, you don't have the freedom to teach whatever you want (of course), but you're very tightly bound to a curriculum that's developed by the state government. And for CS, this curriculum was so uninteresting and uninspiring (what a surprise: 13 year old…

I basically found this in college too, I quickly gave up on computer science as a major. I'd rather just go out and learn how to build what I want to build versus hearing a 3-hour lecture about how the jvm works. The answer is it's magic and no one cares, now let's go build some games

Firstly, and this is worth pointing out, "computer science" is not about programming. It's about science, in this case specifically the science that makes computers work.

At school I thought "computer science" meant "programming" - which it doesn't. So well done for recognizing this before wasting your much time. (Seriously, not sarcastic.) programming can easily be learned outside college.

To other general readers here though I'll say that understanding the science can be really helpful over a career. It's not terribly applicable in getting that first job, but as you progress more and more of those theoretical fundamentals come into play.

Ultimately there are a small fraction of people who need to understand how it all works, all the way down, because those people build the things that programmers use to build everything else.

Re: I should have loved biology too

#139

Post by [deleted] »

gh0stcat wrote: post #111
girvo wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very much a tangent, but I think it's nearly certain that "segway" will end up overtaking "segue" as the predominant spelling for the word that is defined as: "to make a transition without interruption from one activity, topic, scene, or part to another" The "mistake" happens so often, partially because "segway" is a much more straightforward spelling if one has only heard the word said aloud, that I think it…

This is an absurd take. We should not bend language around ignorance. There is a beauty to effort. Please take a second to explore this for yourself.

[deleted]

Re: I should have loved biology too

#140

Post by girvo »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #128
abletonlive wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it's not an absurd take at all. The absurd take is that we "should not bend language around ignorance." That's precisely how language changes over time. Language is not a strict set of rules. It's based on understanding and consensus, so sometimes things that are "wrong" do end up being accepted. I suggest this as a great introduction into what languages are and how they evolve over time https://www.amazon.c…

I am not a native speaker, but the two words do not sound even remotely the same. How does this mistake happen so often? Can you explain people's thought process a bit? Is it just: "Something something 'seg...' ... ah I know, I will simply use another random word that starts with the same 3 letters and doesn't make sense in this phrase!"? Also this is the first time I see it.

The two words are pronounced identically.
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