FailForward @FailForward@qoto.org

@MomDrinksSwears Watch out! She’s closer than she appears!

@ypc_bunsen just to add: in the end I am staying on QOTO for the tech features I value. Works for me. And thanks to @freemo for the supporting admin and devel work.

@ypc_bunsen
Are you sure you are going to improve your situation by moving?

This is just an unfortunate property of fediverse. Either you are on an instance which is blocking other instances, so you don't see their content, or you are on one of blocked ones, so you can see others' stuff but cannot interact - most of the time a mixture of the two. I find it really unfortunate and tried to sort it our for myself, but finally dropped the issue. Apart from running your own instance, I wonder is there even an open instance of any significance/history which allows its users to see everything and be heard everywhere?

@freemo

@freemo and on top, now I sent you a DM and I do not see it in the DM “timeline”. What’s going on?

@piggo @piggo Right. Now I recognise it. It reminds me of caves in Germany south of Harz mountains near Nordhausen and Kyffhauser which is full of gyps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarossa_Cave). very “different” experience (in comparison to karst caves): https://www.google.com/search?q=barbarossa+hoehle&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjjtKyG-Lr7AhX1y7sIHaTmBYIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=barbarossa+hoehle&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIHCAAQgAQQGFAAWMMDYJcFaAFwAHgAgAE9iAE9kgEBMZgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=7ih5Y-OFBvWX7_UPpM2XkAg&bih=894&biw=1612&hl=en

@piggo what’s that?

@leah beautiful

@TheStrugglingScientists I agree on all your points. On the other hand, however exploitative/skewed (pick your adverb) the system is, it works. It produces new knowledge, it advances humankind, technology, in short, it creates progress. So much is certain. That it also involves more or less precarious life for PhD students (depending on the particular region), is a different thing. But I agree, trying to help to mitigate the damage “the system” does to many starting scientists is a good and worthy mission. Good luck there!

@TheStrugglingScientists This (knowing yourself well enough to enter PhD studies) is by definition almost impossible. Except, everybody starting a PhD thinks they are smarter than that and they already got all the right answers in the pocket - because these are smart folks - or so they think (no irony). How naive it almost always turns out to be!

In my experience, the thing is that, the vast majority of PhD students recruit from the material coming straight from BSc./MSc. graduation and among those typically those who are running on an “autopilot” and lack a strong direction - they are good in the craft of learning (in contrast to being good in some serious craft) and that is what makes them top of their class and therefore their autopilot heuristics steer them to more of “learning” - after all it worked fine so far, so what can go wrong? These people are primarily good in the art of “learning stuff” and only secondarily become passionate for the topic they chose to learn. This future leads to all sorts of dead ends and a few narrow paths towards a successful academic career. When not academic career (and statistics tells us only a minority gets there), there are all sorts of identity crises and disillusions in that future. So I think the main question in that list should be this: after spending 4-6 years on a meager salary and oftentimes abusive working conditions are you ready to start from zero back in “the industry”? If the answer is yes, thumbs up. Most of the time it’s not so. Typically the person starting an academic career entering PhD studies deludes themselves that they will make it, while the stats tell a different story.

And then there is a small group of people who enter PhD later in their years after already an established career in some craft. Those know better what they are doing, but are by no means immune to delusions of the above type.

Perhaps the best advice to get on this topic is contained in an old book by P.J. Feibelman: A PhD Is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science from 1993 and still very valid (!) https://www.amazon.com/PhD-Not-Enough-Survival-Science-ebook/dp/B004EHZDE8 Peruse at your own risk and peril.

@pony Neither did I. Which is quite extraordinary. It seems my family is just fine at 17degs room temp - my kids even run around in T-shirts, that’s somewhat crude for me already. Last year we’ve had 18-19 the whole winter. If it goes like this in a decade we’ll be OK just above zero. Hmmm.

@piggo

@keithzg @mathias Yes, I agree, creativity gets flowing when people need to re-adjust their lives (including my own every now and then). It just takes time.

@mathias and they probably have mortgages to pay too. plus given their previous level of salaries probably also no time to lose on jobs which pay less. and there is not a large number of suitable ones - of course depending on the particular geography. anyway, you get the point.

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@pony it’s implemented this way in many countries indeed. Wikipedia lists it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_police. Clearly, UK is rather an exception in Europe with not having it. @vfrmedia

@piggo congrats! Myself, I don’t even want to be verified - whatever that means - I value my little privacy by obscurity too much.