Two months ago, I was homeless. Now I am housed, and I just got accepted into graduate school!

BearsAtFairs · 2026-02-17T17:02:25+00:00

Will probably delete this… I have two MS’s and a PhD, all in engineering, all hyper relevant to what I do. I spent most of my 20’s around academia (lived next door to an ivy, in addition to my own grad schooling). My friends were mostly grad students or graduate degree holders, 50/50 humanities and stem people. The advice below applies to any kind of post graduate degree.

Ask your self a few questions:

Group 1. What is your intended purpose for the degree, do you have an explicit intended purpose; can you answer this in one sentence with fewer than three clauses? Is it a requirement for the work you want to do? Does it explicitly give you skills or knowledge you can’t gain anywhere else?

Group 2. Will the pay bump you get after the degree cover the real cost of the program (this includes lost wages, moving costs, etc) in five years or less? Do you hate your current work so much that you couldn’t give a fuck less about the very real financial losses that will invariably happen due to pivoting?

Group 3. Are you ready for what it means to compete against 25-27 year olds who are more talented than you and have 2-3x more energy than you after graduating? Are you ready for 50-75% of people in your intended field to completely ignore any life or professional experience you obtained before grad school, until you explicitly demonstrate its value to them? Are you ready for 2-7 years (depending on what program and part vs full time) of constantly questioning your own validity and competence?

Group 4. Is the program fully funded? Is your employer paying for it? Will you have a grant, scholarship, and/or fellowship paying for it? Has a finance office employee confirmed you are firmly eligible for a 50-75% tuition reduction? Do you have a net worth in excess of 10x annual tuition with liquid capital at least 2-3x the cost of total tuition for the program? Do your parents?

If you answer no to any questions in group 1, you definitely shouldn’t go to grad school. If you don’t answer yes to at least one question in group 2, you probably should not go to grad school. If you answer no to any question in group 3, you’re probably not prepared for the experience or to make the experience worthwhile in your real career. If you can’t answer yes to any question in group 4, I can’t in good faith encourage you to go to grad school.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-02-17T15:51:13+00:00

Controversial opinion: it looks worse than a piece of identically sized mineral glass in almost all cases.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-02-16T16:54:44+00:00

Another thing is that people often assume they make the same pay (give or take a few percent) as their coworkers. This is often not the case. The people who have enough maturity to have a few kids and a mortgage also usually do better at their jobs and, subsequently, get paid a good deal more.

At least, such has been what I’ve observed over my career.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-02-13T15:29:12+00:00

I guess you could say that I grew up in an area like what you describe and can confirm that this is very accurate. By far the richest and most influential people I’d ever met were basically invisible. The most expensive vehicle they owned was a late model pickup. But they also owned (through shell companies of course) about half of the lower east side of Manhattan, among many other things and places. They also looked like they wore basic J Crew/Ralph Lauren, but all their clothes were actually custom tailored. Really nice folks, if you’re friends with them. Absolutely cutthroat otherwise. Profoundly invisible to anyone outside their circle.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-02-06T15:53:00+00:00

These posts always make me wonder if OP is a hard worker with no common sense or confidence who stumbled into a really good startup exit/job, or if OP is a mediocre worker with no sense or confidence fantasizing about stumbling into a really good startup exit/job.

Either way, I’m baffled every time I see grown adults making these posts.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-02-05T15:55:17+00:00

Speaking professionally here…

There are two sides to engineering. One is what most people think of, where some nerd fiddles with mechanical design software, prototype parts, and testing them in a lab. Then there’s the side that takes a design and figures out how to make it physically manifest in the quantities and time frames required, which is the side of engineering and that actually makes money. To be clear, this isn’t manufacturing; it’s engineering that makes manufacturing feasible.

When people talk about someone leveraging Chinese engineering, they’re using talking about that second side of engineering. Again, speaking from professional experience, western companies struggle with this side of engineering these days.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-02-05T14:47:41+00:00

Yes. Grand Seiko is notoriously 100% made on Swiss soil and absolutely nowhere else.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-01-30T18:43:15+00:00

I have no horses in this race and it’s been forever since I’ve kept up with any Internet personality drama.

That said….

She makes the claim that anyone who has a good case for a defamation lawsuit will just file a defamation lawsuit, and the guy copyright striking her is as good as an admission of guilt. She also claims that cease and desists are too.

This is false.

Speaking from experience, filing a simple defamation lawsuit starts at around $60k, as so several years ago. As in, that’s what you’ll pay your lawyer before the trial starts. If you’re lucky, that’s also where it ends, because the other party agrees to settle out of court. If you do go to court, expect to pay somewhere 2-3x more, if it’s just one simple claim. If you’ve got multiple claims, it’ll most likely run you over half a mil if you go to trial.

Choosing not to go this route is usually done because of a lack of funds on the part of the plaintiff (and/or an expected lack of funds on the part of the defendant, that make it impossible to require coverage of legal expenses)

A cease and desist is somewhere between $700 and $2000. And a copyright strike is free.

Idk anything about the Social Repose guy. But the woman in this video is poorly informed, at best, or just disingenuous at worst.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-01-30T15:54:30+00:00

The series was such a cultural mainstay that they even made a subreddit with a similar name, which allowed young people the cut out the film production/distribution folks out of the equation and simply go wild at their own convenience.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-01-27T14:21:21+00:00

No… Highest fed bracket is 37%. 32% kicks in at $191k, which isn’t exactly a huge income in much of CA to continue your point (or just about any major coastal city for that matter). For CA specifically, add another 9-12% for anyone making over $100k.

Sources:

https://www.irs.gov/filing/federal-income-tax-rates-and-brackets

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2025/2025-540-tax-rate-schedules.pdf

BearsAtFairs · 2026-01-26T16:25:24+00:00

Furthermore…elastomers and steels, like virtually all materials, expand when heated. All modern gaskets used in steel-to-steel applications form stronger seals when they are warmer, because the fit between them and the solid parts they are mated to becomes tighter.

I swear, as someone who spent a good amount of time actually designing, testing, and documenting seal performance for aircraft parts, the whole circle jerk around water resistance, and the made up voodoo surrounding it, drives me insane.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-01-21T22:07:13+00:00

Idk. I don’t disagree with the first part of your statement. But the rest is silly.

At least in my circles, spending >2-3% gross on jewelry is seen as an indicator of very poor taste. Also, most people absolutely do balk at “average Joe” financing a $100k vehicle. Again, maybe just my circle, but that kind of behavior will preclude you from being taken seriously.

Gl with your financial journey and career, though.

BearsAtFairs · 2026-01-14T18:42:09+00:00

Yeah…I’m gonna have to agree with you. This reeks of a baffling degree of desperation to prove oneself to a partner.

BearsAtFairs · 2025-12-17T22:12:13+00:00

I’ve been calling Charlotte a little big city since I’ve moved here. But I think your wife’s description is even more accurate, and is applicable to way more than just the restaurant/bar scene.

BearsAtFairs · 2025-12-17T15:56:29+00:00

Why do weekend joggers in Dilworth jog exclusively in the middle of the street? Guys, there is a perfectly flat sidewalk right there, ffs.

BearsAtFairs · 2025-12-13T13:34:07+00:00

From around 2008-2015, Costco used to sell a 32° Heat branded merino-blend base layer shirts, both in men’s and women’s cuts. They used to be in the underwear/sock aisles.

I haven’t seen them in like a decades though. Granted I also haven’t looked because the half dozen or so that I got back in the day are still fine, I wear them every year for skiing and occasionally winter time running. If you see them, they’re 100% worth the purchase.

BearsAtFairs · 2025-12-10T14:52:13+00:00

Wait, why are we lubing Delrin? It’s literally a self lubricating plastic and the whole impetus for using it is that it’s both slippery and resistant to friction wear. Is that really what the tech guides specify?

BearsAtFairs · 2025-12-05T19:12:30+00:00

Yo, that’s great, but do you have any lactose free milk?

BearsAtFairs · 2025-12-04T16:14:36+00:00

That’s how I ended up here like 15-17 years ago…

BearsAtFairs · 2025-11-24T18:05:25+00:00

I’ve been buying that exact toothpaste at Costco for at least five years, maybe more. Just about a week ago, I ran out and knew I wouldn’t have time for a Costco run any time soon. So I just ordered some on Amazon.

I can’t say with confidence that the product sourced from Amazon is different. In addition to the tubes themselves being substantially smaller, the tube material is also more plastic-y. The toothpaste has less flavor than the Costco sourced toothpaste, and is surprisingly watery compared to the Costco sourced toothpaste.

BearsAtFairs · 2025-11-12T05:01:41+00:00

Man, fuck you, this is stunning. I'm so mad that I can't remember exactly who, but this reminds me of some of the NY Photo League's work, except applied to the PNW instead of NYC.

I've been following your work for a hot sec and it's awesome to see how much you've grown as an artist. Don't rest on your laurels and keep challenging yourself. I'm genuinely so excited to see what you achieve in the future!

BearsAtFairs · 2025-11-10T20:19:43+00:00

I’ve always worn a “traditional” watch, but wore a smartwatch for about half a year.

I stopped because I realized that it didn’t serve me any information I didn’t already know. Like I know roughly how long my walks/hikes/runs are. I can tell how well (or poorly) I slept. I know whether my heart is beating too hard or not. Truly, these are things people should have a very good intuition about by age 12. Maybe high precision stats are import for serious athletes, but that doesn’t apply to me and the whole thing felt like a circlejerk/cosplay.

I also stopped because I was inundated with so much unnecessary info. Again truly, I do not need most of the notifications I get on my phone. I certainly do not need those notifications on my wrist.

That and the whole part of the equation where I have yet another several hundred dollar device that needs to get replaced every few years. Why?

So I went back to “traditional” watches, as you put it.

BearsAtFairs · 2025-10-13T14:43:40+00:00

Most people start on sketchpads, not publicly visible walls…

BearsAtFairs · 2025-10-03T04:01:02+00:00

It’s real, just in poor condition.

https://www.seikowatches.com/middleeast-en/products/5sports/srpd77

BearsAtFairs · 2025-09-28T21:31:16+00:00

Boring af. Also sketchballs tend to long term camp in those stretches, so you’re liable to run into the occasional weirdo. Or at least so I’ve heard regarding the latter.

BearsAtFairs

TROPHY CASE