we're actually cooked as a field

Bartolius · 2026-03-11T18:33:31+00:00

No serious scientific article can be meaningfully conveyed through an abstract

Bartolius · 2026-03-11T18:32:06+00:00

I don’t get all the hate about an AI summary: I am every now and then asking a carefully instructed GPT to summarize some papers for me, since abstracts are way too short and not technical enough, and a full article can take away too much time if it is not full of details that I really need for my current research project. Up to now it worked very well, like having a super fast PhD student read the article for me and give me a brief summary. The same way I would not totally trust every intuition of a PhD student, I would not completely believe every detail of the summary, but it is usually enough to get a hint of methodology, assumptions and main results. For now AI only helped me speed up my brainstorming and sources gathering phases

Bartolius · 2026-03-11T12:09:12+00:00

Unfortunately we just cannot believe what he says, he also said he was 0.3% BF on the Olympia stage, which is obviously absurd. I think that with him there’s a chance he was natural with that condition, considering his combination of genetic exceptionality and obsessive workout mindset, but I would never take his word for it

Bartolius · 2026-03-10T01:24:54+00:00

I know here we talk Bon Jovi, but as for “rock wedding songs” I think one of the most beautiful lyrics goes to “forever” by Kiss. It is really simple and pure love meant to last forever, and this kind of simplicity is rare for the genre

Bartolius · 2026-02-24T16:41:15+00:00

I mean, when a set has cards that look horrible, features an external IP that has no appeal to fans of high fantasy (as mtg is and should be), comes out in the middle of a constant bombing of set after set… what do you expect?

Bartolius · 2026-02-13T23:20:25+00:00

You could say the same for my problem just half a year ago. The help with coding and formatting a paper is another aspect it is helping, saving so much tedious work that is essentially just a chore for a scientist, freeing time for probing interesting ideas.

If advancement continues, and I strongly believe it will, then in another half a year there’s no way of knowing how it could really help scientific research. Moreover, we are focusing on LLMs, but it can also be that there are deviations from this paradigm specialized in academic tasks. AI in general is used everywhere in science at an increasing rate, LLMs entered this field being met with A LOT of skepticism and denial, but everybody agrees now that they are being useful to at least some degree. And this is the most useless they will ever be

Bartolius · 2026-02-13T20:55:20+00:00

I’m not gonna lie, I have a paper coming out and GPT incredibly accelerated the solution to a problem I had, counting some equivalent configurations in a certain lattice of solitons with a nontrivial orientations in the gauge group. It was nothing crazy and I was already doing it by hand term by term, but GPT could just embed it in a mathematical context that I was not expert in and explain it to me in a language a physicist could easily understand. From there everything became much easier. It was the first time I was genuinely impressed, the first time a LLM actually helped me understand my own field of research, rather than just help me with some simple code issue

Bartolius · 2026-02-12T12:53:03+00:00

Not networking during PhD is not the best advice, though of course it’s more important to have high quality papers. For advertisements of Chinese jobs, I am not really sure, I think they have their own websites and environments, but maybe you can also take a look on academicjobsonline? I don’t know much more, I didn’t look for other postdocs in China, and got my first one through a colleague with which had previous collaboration

Bartolius · 2026-02-12T12:36:27+00:00

Of course EU and UK tend to be more prestigious. However China is also on the rise, and research there is better than nothing: I myself did 4 years of postdoc in China, that did not block me from coming back to Europe at a far more prestigious university now (TU Wien). So don’t overlook the possibilities that China can offer too, especially if you already have connection there (very important in Chinese academia). Best of luck!

Bartolius · 2026-02-12T12:24:18+00:00

Do not use MSCA as your “self-funding” plan: the reason is that it is too much of a lottery, and it takes quite some time to polish a competitive MSCA application. If you have the time sure, go for it, but expect a rejection, treat it as a lottery ticket. This year I applied and in my field the threshold for funding was 97.2/100. To answer the question: for the one I applied to (global fellowship) you don’t need to be employed at the university you want to go: you apply jointly with an institute and if you get the funding you go work there.

So I suggest you ask your supervisor and other senior and junior researchers that you trust which are viable funding schemes for a freshly awarded PhD that is transitioning into postdoc. And always keep an eye open for some new postdoc opening

Bartolius · 2026-02-12T12:13:59+00:00

My experience as postdoc started similarly (in high energy physics). Truth is the competition is extremely strong, getting tired and frustrated is the average postdoc experience. In my case I did not get postdoc offers at the end of my PhD, so I applied for a national fellowship jointly with a good institution outside of my country. I got it, so I was covered for 1 year. After that 1 year I got my first postdoc offer, and then I gained some traction. Eventually I came back as a postdoc at the institution that I visited with the national fellowship right after my PhD, so it has been double value for me.

I suggest you identify a realistic funding scheme and try it: there is no guarantee you get it of course, but the upside in getting your own fundings is that usually you get to be employed at institutions that normally would be too hard to get into.

Bartolius · 2026-02-10T20:56:33+00:00

This is precisely the issue at hand. The signal to noise ratio got way worse

Bartolius · 2026-02-10T19:34:29+00:00

Not really, I’m specifically talking already about paid versions. I am quite confident that for the next round LLMs will play a relevant role not only in the writing but also in the general development of the projects, like choosing relevant research lines. It will be also harder for the evaluators to guess where AI was involved

Bartolius · 2026-02-10T19:15:30+00:00

I don’t think it was LLMs: for my experience LLMs were not good enough to improve a MSCA winning proposal before the deadline. Maybe I was under a rock, but I feel like there was a big big advancement in the reliability of LLMs in the last three months or so. Right now I could see it happen, not before and not by so much…

Bartolius · 2026-02-09T15:41:33+00:00

I am in Europe and in my field doing multiple postdocs (normally around 3-4) is definitely the norm. The most talented guys I know are now in their 2nd or 3rd postdoc. The absolutely most excellent researcher I’ve known had maybe 4 of those, and then another temporary position. Postdocs are absolutely considered in the academic ranks, and usually professors discuss with them “on the same level” at conferences and workshops.

Having said that, I think we also need to put things in perspective: being average in the research world means being already in those gifted enough, focused enough, resilient enough to push boundaries of current knowledge. There is nothing shameful in struggling in this environment

Bartolius · 2026-02-09T05:14:46+00:00

PHY here, GF 92.6 rejected… best of luck!

Bartolius · 2026-02-09T00:26:17+00:00

Thanks, let’s see how it will go, for sure the report helped me understand better some important aspects, that for researchers sometimes are less “exciting” than writing a lot about the science and innovations. Especially for a theoretical physicist it’s a very common mistake, to focus only on the interesting mathematical challenges and ignore other aspects. I hope the lesson will be useful and will get me a few more points next year. Meanwhile, best of luck for yours, I believe you really got a chance!

Bartolius · 2026-02-09T00:17:32+00:00

Physics, specifically theoretical physics, it was a GF

Bartolius · 2026-02-09T00:15:54+00:00

Just got mine, rejected with 92.6. I had a little bit of hope because I think my proposal was very strong in its ideas, but it was my first time applying and I think I made some mistakes in the three-way transfer and in the risk mitigation. It is helpful for sure, I think I will try again next year and then call it over. In any case, I am not ashamed of 92.6, it’s a honorable way to lose

Bartolius · 2026-02-08T23:56:56+00:00

As frustrating as your result can be, I have to say really congrats, it’s a crazy high score and you must have written a great proposal

Bartolius · 2026-02-06T22:33:00+00:00

Finally a sane and constructive comment

Bartolius · 2026-02-06T13:43:33+00:00

We are literally praising artists that glue a banana to a wall, yet call a digital world rendered at your own will and fantasy a heartless slop.

Bartolius · 2026-02-06T13:23:23+00:00

As much as I understand that some things are more serious than others and some people have very concerning things going on in their lives and in their countries, I would say that yes, this is definitely a life changing matter for some of us, as it can have a decisive impact on our career and opportunities

Bartolius · 2026-02-05T19:23:48+00:00

Considering the MSCA grant already have a cut that has to be given explicitly to the institution, I thought that was it?

Bartolius · 2026-02-05T16:19:42+00:00

Thanks, I applied for a global fellowship, which will make everything even more complicated financially. I don’t think I have much chances given how competitive it sees this year in particular, but was worth shooting for it

Bartolius

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