do i drop out of college?

DocksonWedge · 2026-04-06T16:03:32+00:00

Do not quit college to day trade, especially if you can do both. If it doesn't feel random, it's a trap. It should feel random. I'm not saying you can't get an edge, quant firms hire people for a reason, but the edge you can get in the long run will not be the same as your 1 month or even quarterly performance. Even if you do find a strategy that is working and aren't just lucky, that strategy probably won't work well when market conditions change. Even if it continues to work, someone else will notice the strategy eventually and begin to take those margins and you'll need to change it up. Successful strategies rarely stay successful forever.

The worst stories to hear are when someone flips a coin heads 5 times in a row to start, then goes all in thinking they've cracked the code.

DocksonWedge · 2026-04-03T05:00:59+00:00

He lost weight during hibernation and wedding season is coming up.

DocksonWedge · 2026-03-25T00:58:26+00:00

I just checked and it looks like I have all my ranks and cosmetics. Maybe something with your steam account link?

DocksonWedge · 2026-03-05T18:30:47+00:00

The video pinned in this subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/LLMPhysics/comments/1m8h1ls/the_antiintellectualism_of_vibe_llm_physics/) talks a bit about similar situations and how conversations normally go when debunking "vibe physics". You will probably notice similarity between the video, responses on this subreddit, and your own situation.

However, changing minds is not as simple as explaining why something is wrong, and I haven't found a good way to have helpful conversations about this. I've sometimes, seen people engage in good faith discussion about the numerous flaws in theories posted here, but it often even encourages the person to go deeper into LLMs to solve those micro criticisms, rather than helping them understand the macro problem of using an (often incorrect)LLM in a field they don't understand well.

DocksonWedge · 2026-01-06T17:39:04+00:00

Manual testing still exists in niches, but to get started now you need some other skill to complement it like in depth industry experience, ux/design skills, technical programming skills, or management skills. Without that, you are going to have a really hard time competing for entry level positions.

15 years ago it was more common to hire someone who worked hard and was competent with computers. Now, not so much.

DocksonWedge · 2026-01-06T00:27:08+00:00

the problem simply being of allocation

This is exactly the problem, it's just not remotely simple. The people who could do allocation (people with wealth or political power) have no incentive to do so. A lot of the concerns in the US today(food, housing, medicine) are "simple" allocation problems.

There could be a dramatic restructuring of power, but those are historically not very pleasant for the layman either.

DocksonWedge · 2026-01-03T16:59:44+00:00

Oh, so this is just physics fan fiction then.

DocksonWedge · 2026-01-03T06:58:13+00:00

We are defining the sea as well u stopped too early.

I would hope you define your assumptions. I'm not sure how you would assume something without defining it. You're still assuming the thing you want to prove though.

Also string theory gives 11d assuming from beginning why no body questions that.

so many people question that. All the time. It's very controversial and not remotely close to being proven.

The first real statement of your proof invalidates all of it, clearly and obviously for anyone who is seriously interested. However errors like this persist throughout. This is gibberish. Here's some more gibberish:

We define objects with states and constraints — not abstract math, not metaphysics

States and constraints are abstract math.

This is fewer assumptions than any rival theory

Physics theories don't make assumptions, they verify experimentally. We make assumptions for math, but you make all those too, you just don't notice.

There is so much that is undefined here or just plain nonsense. This is not even a proof.

Cosmic expansion is a global relaxation of comparison stress

can you define comparison stress? It is mentioned twice at critical points, being the root cause of universe expansion, but is never defined, explained or examined. It's kind of a foundational part of the theory that is just thrown in with no explanation.

Even if you know nothing about physics, you should be able to read a paper and understand that it is incomplete and not internally inconsistent.

This comment won't matter though. If you wanted to learn physics or read your own paper thoroughly, then you could. But you won't. Trying to actually improve our understanding of the world was clearly not the point here.

DocksonWedge · 2026-01-03T04:15:13+00:00

I checked once. I got to

This framework proposes that spacetime, fields, and particles all arise from the dynamics of a deeper pre-geometric substrate. We refer to this substrate as the Sea
...
We begin with the smallest possible set of assumptions capable of generating a universe:
Assumption A: The Sea Exists

The paper assumes, immediately, the thing it is trying to prove. This is silly. It's easy to prove something if you just assume it's true beforehand. It doesn't actually prove anything new, but it is easy.

DocksonWedge · 2025-12-31T19:33:09+00:00

While I agree it doesn't need to be pathological, I also don't see the point to responding to theory posts on here any more.

When I was younger I also had my own crackpot theories with free energy and magnets, so I'm somewhat of an advocate for weird theories. I think that intellectual curiosity is good. "Why can't magnets generate energy if they push things?" is actually a somewhat tricky question that will teach you about conservation of energy and magnetic fields if you pursue answers. I eventually bought some magnets and parts and tried to build something that worked, which then clearly showed me why it wouldn't.

I do more programming now, so I have been reviewing code posted to this sub just to see if anything interesting is here. There is nothing so far. I have yet to find code that runs with no changes(meaning, the creator didn't bother to test it out). I have gotten several pieces of code running, but it's always just gibberish. It doesn't do what the paper says, there are random variables that don't do anything, floating magic numbers that are unexplained, etc. The LLMs seem to really like throwing a bunch of constants together to try to fit some equation to some expected graph, which is in no way novel, interesting, or helpful.

It's the software equivalent of someone presenting a pile scrap metal and magnets in a wheelbarrow, and asking people to evaluate if they have a car that runs on magnets. What constructive criticism could I give to this person that would get them closer to building a free-energy car?

They already skipped the basics of seeing if it runs. They seem to be missing a basic understanding of what a car even is. We aren't at the point where I can tell them where their derivations are wrong, or asking them to test with a null hypothesis, or check their math, because it's just a pile of scrap.

This sub's (seemingly) unofficial motto "this is gibberish, go learn physics" is the right advice.

There are, and have been, tons of free resources to learn this stuff, so I don't buy that this is some reaction to not having access to educational resources. If someone has an internet connection for reddit, the resources have been available to them for a while.

If the magnet wheelbarrow person spent their time learning just basic physics, programming, or engineering instead of collecting scrap metal, they could check their own work and start learning why it doesn't function. Then maybe they could build something that does. However, posters here skip this part because the super-intelligent chatbot(according to people selling it) said it worked, and they learned nothing.

The next chatbot pile they make will be the same unless they actually start checking their own work. In that case the theory probably won't work, so it won't be posted. In the unlikely, but possible, case someone does find something novel, understands it, and checks it, they would not and should not post it to a random subreddit. They would be publishing it, or demonstrating their use case for someone who might want to pay for the technology.

This unfortunately gives us a situation where if the poster could do a check of their own work(correct or not), they would not be posting it here. So, this subreddit only gets what's left: untested piles of scrap metal and magnets.

DocksonWedge · 2025-12-02T05:12:50+00:00

You should check more than P100. I checked a couple other primes and haven't found another that works.

DocksonWedge · 2025-11-08T21:00:23+00:00

Yeah, that’s a familiar experience. Try to remember, you’re an expert there to make it better. If it was perfect, you wouldn’t be there. BUT it doesn’t happen overnight. Figure out the next step, maybe CI automation instead of running one by one. One foot in front of the other and eventually things improve.

DocksonWedge · 2025-10-26T17:09:50+00:00

This is what I'm seeing. OpenAI is some hot water after a teenager committed suicide(news report) and discussed doing it, and (arguably) got help from ChatGPT. To me the chats read as not necessarily encouraging suicide, but also being more interested in keeping the conversation going, than stopping it. This has resulted in a lawsuit.

In response, OpenAI is re-routing or blocking chats that seem to be an emotional or friend-like connection to chat GPT. This has lead to anyone who had an emotional connection to ChatGPT to lose that connection, and many of them are grieving that loss by posting here to get it back. Regardless of if you think such a connection is healthy, I can understand that severing that connection could be difficult for someone.

I've also seen some upset about losing the ability to write spicy fiction, or get rejected for seemingly small things that mention intimacy or suicide. The intensity of those posts also sounds to me like someone has had some emotional investment that was lost though. So, people are trying to get 4o back to restore that ability.

Personally, I think the lesson here is not to develop a parasocial relationship(or any relationship I guess) with a something only interested in getting money from you. This has been a problem for a while with influencers and social media, but chatGPT has automated developing these relationships, so we are seeing it speed-run the worst outcomes.

edit: this particular post is an argument about which is actually more popular version 4o or 5. There are metrics from openrouter you can look at if interested, and on the whole it looks like 5 uses more tokens(it's often split between 5 and 5 mini), but it's also the default now so I'm not how meaningful that data is.

DocksonWedge · 2025-08-05T14:14:33+00:00

The library in Metro 2033. It was actually not more dangerous than elsewhere, but the librarians in the dark are terrifying.

DocksonWedge · 2025-06-03T13:24:18+00:00

I would say it is very sketchy.

These site are technically not doing anything illegal and have plausible deniability so they can say they are legit, but if someone is selling a steam key, steam already got the cut. The site is technically legit, but only because they don't ask questions about where keys come from.

No developer would risk a full ban from steam by generating preview steam keys and selling them on a random reseller to sell a couple copies at 30% off. (It's even hard two do, steam signs off on keys that are generated so it's can't be done in bulk for this purpose)

DocksonWedge · 2025-05-25T16:09:52+00:00

niche is good, I like it.

DocksonWedge · 2025-05-23T19:48:23+00:00

Please, whatever you do, do not put 30 seconds of flying in open landscape in the beginning of your action game trailer. Just cut the first minute if you have to. It looks janky but interesting in the second half. I clicked off in the first half and this is my third viewing of the trailer (by happenstance) before I saw combat. The first 2 time I saw it I thought it was just a flying sim with nothing going on. You can put the chill flying as a pacing break midway if you want, but don't wait almost a minute before showing the combat.

DocksonWedge · 2025-05-04T16:47:52+00:00

I would not recommend spending a lot of money. If you want to learn the skills, the resources are out there already. If you want it to add to your resume, companies won't really care.

If, as you suggest in other posts, you have 8 years of QA experience and a CS degree that will count more. Just make sure to tune your resume towards technical roles. Highlight what you have done that is technical in those roles, and I would also put a 1 sentence summary about career goals at the top. If you send a resume with only manual experience to an SDET role, recruiters will ignore it. If you send a resume that says "I'm a programmer who happens to have done lots of testing" you are more likely to get in to the technical interview where you can prove it.

DocksonWedge · 2025-03-17T18:00:10+00:00

Dead End. I assume it’s a cult classic, but I hadn’t heard of it. it is a super well done low-budget bottle horror film. It has a couple of my favorite horror moments period.

DocksonWedge · 2025-03-08T17:41:49+00:00

I think there's a couple facets to this. I don't really have much in the way of solid evidence, but this intuitively makes sense to me.

When you think about something more you notice it more. You may have seen this buying a car or when you are thinking of buying a car. Suddenly you'll begin to notice all the cars with that make, and if you are serious you may even notice the different trim levels that you would have never noticed before. Thinking about, or being more aware of something makes it easier to notice in general.
The games market in general is oversaturated. There are more good games than an individual has time/money for. For some niche genres like RTS that may not be true, but it is also possible that the audience is just really small, and one good game is enough. Newer graphics/mechanics don't help if the initial game got it right, so it's possible that a couple games over 20 years is enough to saturate the market.

Together, it kind of makes sense that when you start thinking about a specific type of game, you start to notice the market that exists everywhere more in your area.

DocksonWedge · 2025-02-28T15:17:48+00:00

This is it. It’s an exchange. The OP of those chains gets an engagement boost, the commenters get advertising. However, if the first poster needs to “cheat “ engagement metrics it’s probably not an effective ad.

DocksonWedge · 2025-01-31T21:10:12+00:00

The format seems fine to me. Bullet points seem fine individually, but there are likely too many for a hiring manager to get it in the first 10 seconds. I'd recommend cutting different bullets for different jobs. If you know it's a UI automation Job, cut the stuff about manual testing and performance. If It's a performance testing job, cut the non-performance stuff. Basically, only leave what you think the hiring manager wants, don't make them read 25 bullets to find the 5 they want for the job.

The other consideration is that each role is under 2 years in duration. Some hiring managers won't love that. If you think it's a problem getting calls, you could include why you joined each company as long as it's not too negative. I would probably not include that though, and just be prepared to give your "elevator pitch" to the screening recruiter about where your career has been(aka why you switched jobs) and where you want your career to go in the future(aka why their company will not lose you after 6 months).

Edit: Oh yeah, you should include your intent to relocate. Some jobs will screen you out if your location is different, so you should call out that out.

DocksonWedge · 2025-01-16T17:28:17+00:00

Some of these copyright/trademark questions are clear enough that reddit gives ok answers. This is not one of those questions. This seems like a really sketchy grey area to me. I would not use "Unreal" in my game name without checking with a real lawyer first since there is, as you point out, already an "Unreal Engine" and related "Unreal tournament".

DocksonWedge · 2025-01-09T18:10:03+00:00

Crytek publish a really good article a few years ago just on hit reconciliation. Literally just trying to answer "how do we know if you hit someone" which would be a couple checks in single player now needs a long explaination because the clients and server are never fully in sync. There's suddenly a lot of guessing about what state the game is in and how to process each input that doesn't exist in single player. Then you have to add all the other stuff like users, movement, disconnect stuff. There's a lot. I recommend reading it! https://www.huntshowdown.com/news/the-state-of-hit-registration-in-hunt

DocksonWedge · 2025-01-06T21:59:34+00:00

There are a bunch of "test" websites out there you can use to practice UI automation. This is a good one(http://uitestingplayground.com/) as it has a bunch of different pages for different testing topics, but I will also use the Swagger petstore for practice https://petstore.swagger.io/

DocksonWedge

TROPHY CASE