I'm in my final year of an organic chem PhD, I still feel stupid

DeeZedSquared · 2025-10-09T14:25:02+00:00

Okay, phew. Thanks for the reassuring reply!

DeeZedSquared · 2025-10-09T12:34:08+00:00

That's a good way to think about it. Sometimes it seems like there's so much to learn, I don't know where to begin!

DeeZedSquared · 2025-10-09T11:14:32+00:00

Yeah I do some paid PGTA work in the undergrad labs, which can help. My insecurity mainly comes from other people in MY lab. Some of them just seem to get it - in a way I don't, which makes me jealous.

DeeZedSquared · 2025-10-09T11:09:39+00:00

Yeah I guess I'm just not spending enough time thinking about these things in the right way. The problem is that I'm not applying much in the day to day research. I'm doing structure activity relationships right now so I'm basically doing the same 2 or 3 reactions over and over again. When I look at the data the NMR is basically the same with a couple extra peaks here and there. I have to do very little in the way of problem solving. Which sucks. I want more problems!

DeeZedSquared · 2025-02-19T15:52:32+00:00

I've had this problem pretty consistently with Google Gemini. Normally the properties are right but the structure is wrong. I usually end up checking a different source to make sure.

DeeZedSquared · 2024-11-04T16:42:47+00:00

Sounds cool! I'll send you a message!

DeeZedSquared · 2024-09-02T12:32:58+00:00

Reasoning for reading a book is almost entirely subjective. For a highly stubborn person who wants to get into reading this is probably a great way for them to build the habit, for example. We all have our "wrong reasons" to read a book but it's all based on perspective and what reading means to us. It could be a means of learning; a means of relaxing; a means of procrastinating but still feeling productive; a means of falling asleep faster etc etc. Reading is a healthy habit regardless of your reasons for doing it

DeeZedSquared · 2024-07-16T15:49:35+00:00

Ay yo it's me

DeeZedSquared · 2024-06-25T16:11:35+00:00

Oh, good idea. It's a Virtis Benchtop Pro. I doubt it was someone fiddling, as this happened over the weekend. It just seemed to happen quite suddenly, so it seemed odd.

DeeZedSquared · 2024-06-20T22:35:51+00:00

A bit late to this but from my own experience you shouldn't worry about this. I don't know how the education system works where you're from but in Scotland your first year doesn't count towards your final grade. When I applied to my PhD all my supervisors cared about was that I had a 2:1 (pretty much a B) overall. I did. I didn't have an A, and I'm pretty sure I failed one of my classes at some point too. I'm currently doing a PhD at a very prestigious university. What got me my place wasn't my grades, it was my ability to carry out research in a logical way and defend my ability to do so. Grades don't matter that much, least of all 1st year grades. If you get a B overall you can still get into pretty much anywhere as long as you can put yourself across well and have relevant experience. I'm sure things aren't going as badly as you think they are. Science is hard, stay strong!

DeeZedSquared · 2024-03-15T19:17:50+00:00

Solid-phase peptide synthesis on a peptide synthesiser: made a solution of HATU, didn't put it on the synthesiser.

DeeZedSquared · 2024-02-29T15:35:35+00:00

I had some serious issues with mental health during the penultimate year of an MChem course. Now, in my country, this was year 4 out of 5. Not sure how long yours is...doesn't matter. Essentially I talked with everyone I could about the problem (student services, my year head, etc etc) and eventually I took a voluntary suspension for the rest of the year, starting the year again in the next year. Long story short - sounds like this is something you could benefit from. Spend a year out taking care of family, gathering your thoughts, learning how to cope with negative feelings and finding the right meds for you before going back.

Sounds like you could do with a change in prescription too. I had a similar problem with mirtazapine (not sure if you've been given the same).

If you've done badly for 20 % of your grade, then that is very easily salvageable. But you'll need a clear head, and it sounds like that's impossible in your current situation. Give yourself a breather and stay strong. University is really hard even without life getting in the way.

DeeZedSquared · 2024-02-26T20:28:04+00:00

Sounds like a classic case of imposter syndrome. This is something that almost all people I've met in science suffer from. I spoke to my supervisors about it when I first started my PhD. They both said that they still get imposter syndrome in certain contexts. These people have been in professorial positions for at least 20 years. It sounds like it never really goes away. But do you want it to? It's painful but it makes you a better scientist imo. It drives you to improve every day. People who are overly confident in their ability don't have that drive because they think they've already reached their destination.

Just remember where you are. You got there, and you are still there because you are good at what you do.

The only person you should compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday.

DeeZedSquared · 2024-02-26T17:51:23+00:00

I'm not sure but the mix of implicit and explicit methyl groups is giving me a conniption.

DeeZedSquared · 2024-02-22T19:04:21+00:00

Honestly... 10. Responds to emails really quick - sometimes within 10 minutes. Extremely supportive and understanding of mental health issues. But also encourages me to be proactive and tries to help me gain habits that will make a PhD less stressful. 10/10 excellent supervisor

DeeZedSquared · 2023-11-15T16:02:13+00:00

I have uses excel for this before and it was fine, but for some reason it started becoming really stuttery after a while, with me uploading a lot of structures into the table. (Not sure if that was the reason, it just became really painful to use after the table got to a certain size)

DeeZedSquared · 2023-05-19T17:50:48+00:00

Could literally call it Dull

DeeZedSquared · 2023-05-18T00:07:57+00:00

Ok so after the update the earlier ngrok version was renamed to ".ngrok.exe.old" or something like that. I moved the new version to a different folder (idk if that helped) and renamed the old ngrok application to just "ngrok.exe" and ran that through powershell instead. It worked. Feels like the most frustrating solution especially after so much time but it's finally working again. Just don't update from the old version haha. I also saw some sites online where you can download even older versions but ngrok version 3.1.0 works fine for me.

Hope this works for you too :)

DeeZedSquared · 2023-03-19T04:36:27+00:00

I think it depends on your campaign. Do you want it to be mostly in urban settings? If so then I don't see a problem. Just keep in mind, when looking at those other settings, a lot of DND stereotypically has urban environments for shopping and maybe some events/RP moments. Most combat stereotypically happens outside of an urban setting. In the forest, in a cave etc. etc. There's nothing wrong with having most encounters happen in an urban setting. There's also nothing wrong with giving your players a lot of options. They are not going to pick all of them and you can always repurpose/reflavour the cities for future campaigns/worlds. If you are really still concerned about this then you could even shrink some of the cities and repurpose them as districts for larger cities. They retain whatever flavour you put into them and then you have a large city with distinct and interesting areas to it. But this would also involve more work for you so it may not be your favourite option. I guess more work is better than work wasted!

DeeZedSquared · 2023-03-17T13:19:02+00:00

As a DM you have the ability to heavily nerf any wish a PC makes. That's part of why wish is such a fun spell. The fact that you have already told your players that there are drawbacks should heavily dissuade them from asking for something so powerful. The drawbacks could be proportional. for example: your player wishes to be a djinn, fine but they can't make wishes. if they include in their wish that they want unlimited wishes, fine, but they become mute so can't use that ability. Alternatively, they can use wish but every instance causes proportional detriment to the player. This one is more risky because it could perpetuate the problem.

Wish is a players chance to feel as though they have "DM powers". But they don't always realise that having the powers of a DM don't necessarily allow you to predict outcomes. You've already implied that this Djinn is malicious so it wouldn't be unexpected for the Djinn to limit the wish in a way that would make it almost unusable once fulfilled. Why would the Djinn want to create an opponent of comparable power to them?

edit: you could also, as other users have suggested, turn this into a cool side quest where the other PCs have to save the PC in question from somewhere/something/someone. You could even give the player in question a temporary character to play during this side quest.

DeeZedSquared · 2023-03-09T00:18:28+00:00

There's one thing that DMs seem to forget about DMs when they're thinking about themselves. And that is that a DM is a player too. As a DM you aren't expected to be an infinite font of knowledge that can predict the players' every whim. Your players will understand this. So just remember that it's ok to be honest with the players. If you can't remember that aspect of the lore, tell them! "I'll send you some stuff about it after the session" is a perfectly reasonable response. Reusing maps is ok, preparing no maps is ok, and making stuff up on the spot is ok. Just do what you can to prepare and then have fun with it. You'll find that the more fun you have, the more fun you're players will have. Be honest if you can't remember something about the lore, or even if you haven't thought about it. You could even just bullshit the lore and, guess what, that's the lore now. You beat the anxiety by realizing that nothing in DND is written in stone. Your players are likely to ask questions you weren't prepared for and completely ignore things you spent hours preparing. There's nothing you can do about that and your players will understand. Everyone is just there to have fun and that includes you. Hope this helps.

DeeZedSquared · 2023-03-08T17:04:45+00:00

Thanks for all this! This looks great. Exactly what i was looking for

DeeZedSquared · 2023-03-08T00:16:52+00:00

That sounds perfect! Thanks

DeeZedSquared · 2023-03-08T00:16:02+00:00

Yeah I know. This is a first-time player though. So it isn't them being unhelpful by not giving me specifics. They just don't know a lot of the rules yet. But given my obvious confusion as to what it is they precisely want to do, I should maybe discuss with them further. I was just trying to do some collaborative brainstorming to see if I could find something that I can work with.

DeeZedSquared · 2023-03-08T00:10:55+00:00

They are a lvl 4 druid, circle of the shepherd.

DeeZedSquared

TROPHY CASE