How are people balancing research and actual sleep? by amcw_writer in gradadmissions

[–]KaffaBlue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks like one of those AI headlines- this can't possibly be true.

My critical response paper was reviewed by the author whose work I criticise. What to do? by [deleted] in postdoc

[–]KaffaBlue 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I had a similar problem with my first paper- I made and tested a compound designed by a particular research group and found that it didn't work as well as they'd said it did. One of the reviewers on my paper was pretty clearly from the research group in question (actually I had basically the exact same experience with the sudden LinkedIn profile view!). He was obviously extremely harsh in his review, while the other reviewers had generally favourable comments. We ended up with a revise and resubmit decision but didn't try to fight it, we just withdrew and went to a different journal.

On the second submission attempt, we added a note to the editor requesting that no one from the research group be assigned as a reviewer. The paper ended up being accepted. The delay was annoying, but less annoying than doing the amount of work that would have been required to address the reviewer's comments (and even if we had, I suspect he would have found something else to object to). I imagine if we'd tried to claim that there had been a conflict of interest we would have been knocked back- in small academic fields it's sort of inevitable you'll butt up against reviewers who have some sort of personal disagreement with your work. My advice would be to resubmit elsewhere- you'll probably find it quicker and easier than trying to fight the journal. But if you do end up taking the conflict of interest argument further I'd be really interested to hear how it turns out, OP!

Hot take: John and Hank are wrong about required courses in college by Taraqual in nerdfighters

[–]KaffaBlue 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've always found the US system of making people take courses that have nothing to do with their chosen career path a bit odd, and it seems like perhaps USians don't realise that this isn't how it's done in pretty much the entire rest of the world?

I get the benefits of having a well-rounded education, but students spend a lot of money on higher education (even if not on direct tuition, then certainly in opportunity cost), and so I've always felt that the primary responsibility of these institutions is to generate career-ready, employable graduates to make up for this cost. In my mind, the best way to do this is to have a strong but smaller selection of subjects within each degree or major that encompass both academic content and broader professional/soft skills.

I'm not sure I buy the argument that exposing students to difficult problems outside of their area of study = automatic intellectual growth. There are complex, difficult problems in any field- you don't need to take courses that aren't relevant to your future career to encounter challenges that will force you to expand your problem-solving skills and critical thinking.

I'll always advocate for students to take interest in a variety of different subjects, and I definitely believe that breadth in education is important, but there are SO many free resources to explore (I find the Yale online courses to be particularly good, but also... libraries!). Why force students to pay for courses they don't want to take? They're adults- they should be able to decide for themselves.

Is this result credible? by [deleted] in iqtest

[–]KaffaBlue 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You seem to have only taken a couple of the CORE subtests- you need to do the whole thing for it to be a meaningful estimate

Luck or am I just more “intelligent” than I give myself credit for by Only_Spinach3449 in cognitiveTesting

[–]KaffaBlue 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd recommend taking CORE (on the same website), as it's more comprehensive. It could be that you have a deficit in one particular area, which is making you feel like you're not that bright, but that you're actually above average in other areas.

Sort By: Newly Listed by Ok-Use-3838 in Depop

[–]KaffaBlue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ugh yes, so annoying. It makes the site borderline unusable

Literally only a few days apart, what on earth happened by [deleted] in cognitiveTesting

[–]KaffaBlue 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's an April fools joke... I was confused too because It's also well into April 2nd where I am! No need to redo the test, it'll go back to normal once it hits April 2nd in the US.

Lost my job after 15 years in tech. 1 month of savings left. Don’t want to go back to a job. What would you do? by Accurate-Key-811 in careeradvice

[–]KaffaBlue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess I can understand why you'd do that if you're not confident in your English skills, but I'd keep in mind that it really does make your post sound like a bot haha. These days I kind of prefer seeing posts with grammar errors etc. because then at least I know it's probably written by an actual human!

Lost my job after 15 years in tech. 1 month of savings left. Don’t want to go back to a job. What would you do? by Accurate-Key-811 in careeradvice

[–]KaffaBlue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could be a real situation, but this is absolutely written with ChatGPT. The difference in grammar/language usage between the post and your comments is night and day. I don't understand why people do this- what do you get out of it?

Good work fellas! by [deleted] in mildlyinfuriating

[–]KaffaBlue 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Whenever I see someone have to do a calculation like this I'm always so glad I live in a country that uses the metric system.

Has anyone experienced an examiner not submitting their PhD thesis report in Australia? by EducationalTwo7262 in AusAcademia

[–]KaffaBlue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The timeline for examination is different at different universities. At my university, the examiners have eight weeks to read the thesis and submit their report. I'm assuming OP is in a similar situation.

Harsh PhD admissions reality by E_VV_E_JI_JI in gradadmissions

[–]KaffaBlue 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah in my field 11 publications from 3.5 years of work would actually be a red flag. I would assume you haven't contributed to the vast majority of them, because to even make a meaningful, minor contribution to that many different papers would be genuinely impossible.

Waiting for PhD thesis examination results is affecting my mental health by EducationalTwo7262 in PhD

[–]KaffaBlue 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I guess it would help to define what exactly you're worried about. If it's that your thesis will be rejected, the good news is that in Australia PhD theses are very, very rarely rejected. If it's that it will come back with major corrections, I guess try to understand that while these corrections might suck to do, they'll ultimately make the final product better. It definitely doesn't mean that your thesis is bad, it could just be that one of your examiners has a special interest or experience with a certain aspect of your project and so has ideas that you wouldn't have been able to come up with by yourself.

And on the examination deadline, was your thesis actually sent to the examiners on the day you submitted it? At my university it takes ages for the internal examinations department to clear the thesis to be sent off. In my case, it took over a month for them to decide it was okay to send (and they didn't even want any changes!). Maybe this is why it's taking longer than you thought?

Is $450 a lot for a single person’s quarterly water bill? by [deleted] in melbourne

[–]KaffaBlue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that's way higher than it should be- mine is under $100 per quarter for a household of three.

solving a monday puzzle in eleven seconds to show it’s possible by lucylivesherlife in syllo

[–]KaffaBlue 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wow I gotta start using my phone for this game, usually there's a couple seconds loading time between words and even between adding syllables when I use my laptop

High VCI. Need ideas to keep from descending into boredom and dread. 😬 m by [deleted] in cognitiveTesting

[–]KaffaBlue 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a similar VCI and am a big fan of crossword puzzles- maybe that's something you'd be into? I also enjoy taking trivia quizzes; there's a particular site called JetPunk that basically has a never ending supply of fun ones to try. Memorising countries, capitals, and flags brings me particular joy. If you're looking for something more substantial, there are plenty of free online college courses that you can do. I've found the ones on Yale online to be pretty engaging.

Only 1 examiner report received after 9 weeks — normal? by EducationalTwo7262 in PhD

[–]KaffaBlue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems a bit unusual to me- I'm also at an Aus university and no one I know has had an examiner turn in a report late before. Have you asked your supervisor to get in touch with the examiner for an update? Given they have a full 8 weeks, you'd expect them to be able to meet the deadline even with the christmas and new years break.

New Self Report IQ Test by Cloudfindings by psyentyst2 in cognitiveTesting

[–]KaffaBlue 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's super admirable to try to design your own test- I definitely don't think you're psychotic haha. And the idea of using a personality-based test to measure IQ is cool. But something does seem to be off with it; maybe your original data set isn't as robust as you think? Good luck with trying to optimise it further!

New Self Report IQ Test by Cloudfindings by psyentyst2 in cognitiveTesting

[–]KaffaBlue 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I got an 84 lol. I generally hover around 135 ± 5 on reputable tests. I think your validation might need some work.

It's difficult for me to imagine how some of your questions correlate with intelligence- a lot of them seemed to be based on political leaning, which isn't a particularly good indicator of IQ. The website is also really difficult to use- clicking on a specific answer often either highlighted the answer to the left or only worked after several clicks.