AcademicalNerd @academicalnerd@qoto.org

@tonyfromls

A word of unsolicited advice. Look through thermodynamics before going into electrochemistry, a quick skim through the chemical equilibrium chapter should make life a bit easier, especially with the spontaneous processes.

That did not go according to plan. In fact, nothing went according to the initial plan. I exist in a backup version of reality, which tastes like bitter disappointment and muddy uncertainty. A very unpleasant situation to be in, but at least there was a backup to rely on.

Lesson n. ten from my Masters degree

Not a new one, but worth mentioning. The best way to build life seems to be by centering it around love, generosity and care. And the correct way to give all those things is to never expect anything in return.

Lesson n. nine from my Masters degree

Coffee, good food and alcohol are best enjoyed in a good company and in moderation. As a lifehack, you can replace gin tonic with espresso tonic, and avoid alcohol altogether while getting slightly high on caffeine. The effects are usually good enough.

Side note: cooking is laborious but provides a good opportunity for bonding and relaxation, especially in small groups of people, up to 4. And serving seafood with wine is about four times cheaper at home.

Lesson n. eight from my Masters degree

Ferociously guard your personal life. If at all possible, carve an hour per day, two on weekends, for yourself and fight for this time as hard as you can. And if you lose that fight - remember it and reclaim the time as quickly as possible.

The longer you live without those times where you just exist as yourself, doing the things you love, the less personality you will have left. In the end, the very people you sacrificed yourself for will turn their back on you. "You are not the same person anymore", they will say. And they will be right.

It is not their job to guard your personality, it is yours.

Lesson n/ seven from my Masters degree

I am not sure whether this is my naivete, young age and ignorance, or is widespread and applicable for other people. But it was important for me, therefore it might help others.

Whenever you repeatedly engage in a sub optimal behavior, ask yourself: is this a coping mechanism? Turns out I developed a bunch of those to mitigate the stress over the years of university. These habits ate all the free time I had left and most hobbies, but they kept me alive and (relatively) sane.

Lesson n. six from my Masters degree

Being young means lacking experience, and one of the best way to compensate for it is to vent to older friends and ask for advice. The advice they give may not be useful by itself, but the reasoning behind it is the treasure one should seek.

Don't look for advice from previous generations, however: it's likely outdated. And it id difficult to remember the exact details past 3-5 years, from my experience at least. Look for someone a couple steps ahead of you, maybe 2-3 years older.

Lesson n. five from my Masters degree

Being married is surprisingly nice. I didn't really expect any changes in my life, but it seems like performing some symbolic act of bonding is, after all, not entirely pointless. It gives more weight to decisions and words, e.g. going on a date with my girlfriend vs. having a dinner with my wife.

It also adds an important constant, at least for me: there is a person I am going to be with until one of us dies, hopefully in a very long time. Everything else can only influence the circumstances, but not this fundamental truth. For a person with very few certain things in life, this is priceless.

Lesson n. four from my Masters degree

Burnout and perpetual emotional overload (uncertainty, anxiety, etc) can bring anyone down very quickly, and the recovery process is never easy. No matter how resilient someone is, living in the conditions where it is impossible to plan even for a few days ahead is quite horrible.

This one is vague, but I wouldn't like to get more specific for a number of reasons, including my geographical location.

Having good people around to care and worry about things together is a blessing. The more the better, but it is difficult to find them. Once you do, hold on to them.

Lesson n. three from my Masters degree

Surprisingly few people employ computational approaches in their work. People who build models usually do so without any direct confirmation, and people who run experiments either do not concern themselves with computations, or outright despise them. The number of scientist who can bridge this gap turned out to be much smaller than I expected initially.

Which makes it a very nice "blue ocean" for those willing to put in the time and efforts into learning both sides of the problem. I hope to pull this off in my PhD.

Lesson n. two from my Masters degree

Quantum chemistry is a miracle and we do not appreciate it nearly enough. Having a way to compute, even approximately, the distribution of electrons in space and over the energy spectrum, is very unlikely. There are a few problems with these methods that prevent them from being more widespread, namely the parametrization and the amount of computational resources, but these can (and, I hope, will) be solved down the line.

Moreover, the overhype around the AI causes the "underhype" around other, perhaps more important or simply as interesting topics that may greatly contribute to our understanding of the universe, but are not as readily monetized. Gladly, there are quite a few people who choose to pursue those problems as well.

Lesson n. one from my Masters degree

AI is, indeed, dangerous. Not because it will SkyNet us into the oblivion, but because far too many malicious or, worse, incompetent actors try to use it, burning ridiculous amounts of resources and creating systems that, in the end, benefit either no one, or only small groups of people.

However, when used correctly, the AI approach yields great results. There are two main use cases: approximation of computationally demanding or noisy data, and generation of objects. The former can often be achieved via other means like "classic" ML or approximating parameters of known function. The latter, however, is almost unreasonably good in certain domains like prediction of chemical reactions in organic chemistry. It's a shame we mostly use these systems for generating low-value text and cartoonish porn. Or whatever do people use it for.

Well, after six years, I am finally done with the university I chose after school, in 2018. A lot has changed in the country, mostly for worse. We all learned quite a few things about the world and the way things work in society and in science, can't say I liked all of them. But I am not disappointed in the path of scientist that I chose, not yet. I am still going to attempt to write my PhD thesis and keep working in research. Hopefully, no cataclysms and catastrophes will happen to prevent me from doing this.

I will write a few lessons from my masters degree later, once my sanity is restored. Might take a few days.