AcademicalNerd @academicalnerd@qoto.org
People are more important than wires.
Joined Jan 2021
2021-02-15, 11:45, Monday
Tensor analysis is beautiful, but heave georgian accent of my professor kinda ruins the mood.
Jokes aside, I happened to listen to some random podcast wth Ali Abdaal (yes, I am a productivity nerd; link is https://youtu.be/a28SdBZNIOc) and there was a very important concept: learning happens not through repeated exposure, but through repeated recall. The book mentioned was "make it stick", although I never read it.
There was an extreme approach to this problem: don't write notes, write questions to test yourself. This is extreme and doesn't work for math-heavy subjects, but writing questions separately is, indeed, a good idea. Especially for chemistry-related subjects that require memorization along with problem-solving skills.
2021-02-15, 08:24, Monday
So yesterday I discovered that I like cidre. And that the st. Valentine's day is not all that bad when you have someone to celebrate with.
There are a few more things I'd like to write about, but the classes will start soon. I'll probably manage to noodle something together during English, though.
2021-02-14, 09:20, Sunday
I am taking a break from my brain being violated by crystal chemistry. I don't like subjects that require a lot of route memorization, it's boring and exhausting. I'd rather do some more math, honestly.
In order to learn, brain needs to maintain a certain level of activity; at least it's the case for me. And when information density is too low and no concept are being introduced, my brain basically shuts down.
So there is a professor in my uni that managed to spend 30 minutes on Einstein's heat capacity theory... without even showing the equation. It's arguably the easiest thing you can find in solid phase physics and I am blown away by the mere uselessness af the class that is supposed to be fundamental for material scientists.
AcademicalNerd
boosted
I wrote a thing for my friends not on the Fediverse.
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2021-02-13, 16:10, Saturday
> Teach people to be articulate, because that's the most dangerous thing you can possibly be.
-- J.B. Peterson
One of the reasons I write is to sharpen my thoughts, to better articulate what I mean to others. Because this is one of the hardest skills to learn and sustain over the years of programming and learning chemistry, physics and math.
2021-02-13, 14:20, Saturday
I forgot to charge laptop before going to the cafe, and all the tables with plugs nearby are occupied... By people without laptops. Which is sad, to be honest, and slightly annoying. However, I'm getting the hang of this thing called hugo, hopefully the cite will be up and running in a week or so.
2021-02-13, 08:31, Saturday
So this is the first time I'm trying a "sabbath"-type thing. So no lab work and no studying from Friday's evening to Sunday morning. I want to spend this time with my family and working on my personal projects; maybe cleaning my room, although it is usually in order anyway.
There are a multitude of things I'd like to keep working on, like learning music theory for my guitar, ricing my linux, building a website (which probably can be done in a day or less, to be honest) and making youtube stuff. Maybe there will be something else, who knows.
Also, a surprisingly great channel on youtube I'd want to share:
@trinsec I cannot feasibly eat too much and eat healthy, since healthy eating implies no fast cards and significant amount of greens and meat. I need to eat _a lot_ just to meet my caloric requirements, and building muscle is very hard. This is just for my metabolism, though. Kinda like cheetah.
2021-02-12, 20:26, Friday
The best thing you can do for your body? Healthy eating. The second best thing? Exercise. The next one? I'd say it's walking faster. Let me explain.
Walking is mundane and boring, you do it daily, probably when you commute and sometimes when you just need to get somewhere. It's a form of exercise nonetheless, a low-intensity cardio with some load for legs.
It's not as taxing on your knees as running. You don't sweat as much and don't need to change clothes after and the weather doesn't matter. Besides, it saves some time from your commute.
You can walk faster than you do know. Do it long enough - and it will boost your stamina and save more time. Maybe you'll start running at some point, but even fast walking is a good thing to do. Besides, it can be referred to "natural movement", which to me sounds slightly overrated, but worth considering nonetheless.
#fitness #walking #lifestyle
2021-02-11, 16:25, Friday
Oh well, it's been a week of classes and I'm done. One one-and-a-half hour class of an old man rambling away about random physicists biographies is possible to survive. Two classes - no, thank you very fucking much. Fuck yoursekf with the paddle you swam here with, as my good friend says.
2021-02-12, 07:50, Friday
University studying screws me over real bad. There were 5 classes yesterday and there will be 5 today. I'm a morning person, so any intense mental loads in the afternoon are very taxing. I mitigate this using exercise and planning of my activities, but it's far from optimal, unfortunately.
Anyhow, there is an hour before the classes actually start and I want to do something with this time other than mindlellsy consume content. Maybe some lab work or scrape my feed into the scraps folder I have on my laptop.
@FailForward
Thanks a lot! I'll chack it out as soon as I have enough time.
@FailForward
Good evening. I remember you mentioned exporting your toots from mastodon to local scrapbook. Could you refer me to said toot/explain the process, please? I need to do something similar for my toots (there is a substantial amount now) and doing manually looks... Oh well, boring. I know some python and probably can glue together a bash script or two in necessary.
### 2021-02-11, 08:21, Thursday
Today there will be 5 classes, 1.5 hours each. Most of them will be quite challenging, to say the least, but it's fine. I managed to get some exercise in this morning and do some work, it should be enough.
Random thought that I dug up from old notes: different languages have different traits, and knowing multiple languages creates multiple aspects of your personality. They manifest themselves depending on the language and the way you learned it.
I have two languages in my arsenal: Russian and English. Russian is lengthy, lazy and philosophical, prone to reflection, poetical mood swings and ridiculously long sentences.
English is short and sharp. It is good for practical applications, such as planning and analysis. I use it in all my personal notes, planners and public writing for this reason.
Also, lifehack: if you are spiraling into anxiety attack, rationalizing yourself out of it is way easier if you use different language in your head. I have no idea why, it just works better for me.
2021-02-10, 20:35, Wednesday
A few random quotes from today.
> Deus Ex Coffemachina
-- Max Frei, "Coffee Book"
> I like my mornings nice and slow; it's a foreplay before life gives me a rough time
-- A paraphrasing of some random tiktok I stumbled upon
#quotes
2021-02-10, 07:00, Wednesday
So my schedule this semester is very weird. Wednesday is reserved for elective courses and military cources none of which I attend, and saturday is reserved for scientific research which I basically do every day in my spare time. Sunday is obviously devoid of classes as well.
This presents me with unique opportunity to actually choose a couple days to focus on different things. This is what I came up with so far.
Wednesday: no studying at all. No homework, no revision, just working on lab projects or my own stuff.
Saturday: shabbes, or rather a variation of it. No studying, no lab work, mostly creative writing and things related to my personal projects. A day to spend mostly with my family or friends. It is not a religious ritual, it makes sense so I adopt it.
Sunday: anything but a day off. I'll use it to finish whatever assignments I have left from the week.
Hopefully this makes sense. 'Till next morning~
@FailForward
I would extend this even further: there are a lot of things that get between the reader and the message of the writing. It is author's job to remove as many of these obstacles as possible while keeping the text enjoyable and colorful, fresh and juicy.
These things include, in my humble opinion, but are not limited by:
- *adverbs* (see S. King's "On Writing");
- brackets;
- excessive passive voice;
- complex sentences, as well as too lengthy ones;
- placing the subject too far from a predicate.
2021-02-09, 08:10, Tuesday
Mised things up with my morning routine. Now it's wake up at 6 am, brush teeth, work till 7 am, quick warm-up/wirkout and shower. Then breakfast, coffee and usual stuff. Feels good, we'll see results later on.
I was supposed to have 4 classes today, by this morning 1 left, other teachers cancelled their classes or straight up ignored every email. Neat, huh? At least I have enough time to work on the article.
A question for readers, both occasional and regular: do any of you use gemini? Are you interested in seeing content on that protocol?
#lifestyle #morningroutine #morning #gemini #student #uni
2021-02-08, 20:07, Monday
I guess I'll have to leave the translation work for tomorrow. Otherwise I might burn out, and it's the last thing to do in the beginning of the semester. Really, at any given point burnout is unpleasant. I know that I am extremely prone to it as I love both my major in university and my laboratory work and multiple time has reached the point where it's physically difficult to do pretty much anything other than staring at an empty screen.
And now I'm smarter than this, so here goes a cup of hot chocolate (no cinnamon today, duh; too cold to go shopping) and chill background music. I might even play some tunes on my Jackson if the mood strikes.
@alex
Semantically (correct me if I'm wrong here) self-confidence assumes some credibility underlying the judgement or action, whereas arrogance doesn't.
But the only person who knows if you actually have this underlying knowledge is yourself, right? Could be said in other way: are you called arrogant because you don't know what you were doing or because someone doesn't like your self-confidence. That said, good point.
