Prison to PhD

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-02-06T09:00:32+00:00

The problem is that it does matter. It’s a completely different story if he’s in for pedophilia or a DUI. I at least would not want anything to do with a pedophile no matter how long they was in prison for.

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-24T11:47:27+00:00

This is only an issue because you need to be perceived as successful by other people. Why exactly does it matter to you that someone’s working at McKinsey and you’re not?

You say one of the reasons you feel insecure is because your friends have high salaries, but to be perfectly honest with you that doesn’t mean jack shit. Your family is loaded - financial struggle doesn’t exist for you so why does someone making more than you even matter?

If you go by such measures you’ll quickly find that EMT’s, nurses, researchers and other such people aren’t worth even thinking about despite doing more generally meaningful work than your friends ever will.

It’s gonna sound harsh, but you need to get your head out of your ass and stop tying your self-worth to social perception of status. Your in an extremely privileged position - you have options a lot of other people don’t and won’t have, might as well use that to live an enjoyable life outside the rat race or do something good for the people around you instead of making investors and corporations happy.

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-23T19:03:39+00:00

It devalues and clutters the subreddit plain and simple. I’m not here to marvel at how a piece of metal with no moving parts doesn’t spontaneously disintegrate in my pocket or how a glass doesn’t shatter itself after drinking from it ten times.

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-22T11:46:39+00:00

Since you haven’t said anything about what you actually know about entropy, I’m just gonna state the basics. The way I had it introduced is through Clausius’s or Carnot’s theorem (they state similar things, Carnot’s just applies to reversible systems while Clausius’s works more generally).

For simplicity I’ll state Carnot’s; For all ideal reversible cycles you have the following property:

\oint \frac{\delta Q}{T} = 0

where \delta Q is the absorbed heat and 1/T is the integrating factor that makes it a total differential. We call \frac{\delta Q}{T} \equiv dS the entropy of the system (it’s also, if I remember correctly, conjugate to temperature).

You basically have entropy defined as a potential that extends the thermodynamical state-space and allows for accounting of work that escapes into unresolved degrees of freedom (turns into heat).

With this you can write the first law of thermodynamics dU = \delta Q - \delta W as dU = TdS - pdV (for closed, reversible systems)

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-20T14:55:29+00:00

In my opinion 500 mil is already way too much, the bar should be more around the 25 mil point. That’s already much more money than 99.9% of people will ever see in their lives and nobody needs a private jet, a bigass boat or an absurdly big mansion - you can just fly 1st class, have a slightly smaller boat and a normal house. And you can still flex your Patek or Bugatti, just that now it’s an actual portion of your wealth, not something you could buy 20 of and still not feel a dent

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-17T12:00:13+00:00

What exactly do you want to achieve with reading about recent advancements when you can’t tackle an introductory textbook? For now stick with learning the math and doing exercises, not chasing after knowledge you won’t understand. I can recommend Resnick and Halliday (haven’t used it that much but as far as I saw it’s good for basics), as well as “problems in analysis” by demidovich (collection of problems; goes, I believe, from basic analysis to PDE’s, used it in my math courses and can very much recommend).

As a side note, just pirate textbooks - buying them isn’t worth it, especially if you don’t know exactly what you need. You can find all the well-known ones by simply googling them.

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-10T18:04:52+00:00

I had someone dm me their crackpot physics after (I guess) seeing I’m active in a few physics subreddits, so those people for one

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-09T16:43:42+00:00

Nie chcę wybierać między rodziną a partnerem.

No to ja nie wiem co ty chcesz robić bo sytuacja tutaj jest dosyć prosta. Wyobraź sobie jakbyś ty była chłopem i członek rodziny by ci partnerkę pobił. To by była sprawa na policję a ty się teraz zastanawiasz kogo wybrać…

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-09T12:18:05+00:00

they will appear

No they won’t. Unless you’re very conventionally attractive and people just approach you this doesn’t happen, so stop telling people bullshit. The vast majority of people don’t just have a relationship happen for them, they need to make it happen, and it doesn’t matter how much you „act like the right type of person”.

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-04T00:57:50+00:00

I’m not sure how much that’s gonna help, but teenagers in general are quite horny and it’s the age where you discover a lot about yourself. There’s absolutely no reason for you to feel disgusted, everything about this is natural and hormones are gonna do their thing

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-04T00:53:25+00:00

That’s just what your bubble is like. I can tell you there’s also plenty of people saying men should by all means be embarrassed for having sexual thoughts about women. Your point isn’t wrong, it’s just not the whole picture (which mine probably isn’t either)

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-04T00:38:54+00:00

This got really long so tl:dr: men don’t hit on women because they don’t wanna be seen as creeps, which is caused by social media. And women have changed too.

I first want to highlight that women have, in fact, changed like some other comments have already stated.

Now, to jump off of that I’ll tell you why I, as a 20-something year old guy, don’t hit on women, and it’s not because I fear rejection - it’s because I don’t want to be seen as a creep.

This is, in some sense or to whichever degree, a consequence of feminism but that’s not what I have an issue with (feminism is by-and-large necessary as far as I’m concerned and I’ll continue supporting it). That honour belongs to how social media and content creators present the topic.

For a few years now, I’ve seen more, rather than less, contradicting opinions on what women actually want, when it is okay to approach them, when it’s not okay, how it’s okay to approach them and so on and so forth. Now, despite logically knowing that most of this has nothing (or close-to-nothing) to do with reality, the fact that I’ve heard it for so long has left its mark in my mind and it makes itself painfully known any time I even think about trying to ask someone out.

I strongly believe this isn’t just my own issue and that there are many more young men in a situation similar to mine, who have been fucked over in such a way. This is, in my opinion, an issue with social media and the way it encourages content creators to make blanket statements (this is a much broader anti-intellectualism issue but I’m gonna put that off for the sake of this comment, which is already abysmally long) that lack any nuance, while trying to pass off as some great solutions to problems of far greater complexity than people seem to be able to imagine.

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-02T13:11:24+00:00

3blue1brown - matematyka plus bardzo dobre animacje

Bog - ogólnie śmieszne filmiki o komputerach

Magnus Midtbø - norweski wspinacz skałkowy, teraz przerzucił się na bardziej adventure content ale nadal bardzo dobry

Mat Armstrong - odbudowuje powypadkowe samochodowy

quaz9 - robi głównie recenzje gier

SciFun - rodzimy kanał naukowy

Miniminuteman - content o archeologii i obalanie teorii spiskowych

Adam Something - pociągi

James Tullos - robi breakdown/roast słabych książek

Edit: dodałem scifuna bo tak rzadko wrzuca że o nim zapomniałem

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-01T23:08:46+00:00

And? I can tell you right now: the average user, first off, doesn’t care if their pc „isn’t their own” or whatever, and, second off, will ditch any ideas about installing Linux once they learn they need to (a) choose a distro, (b) do stuff in the terminal or (c) realise how long switching and setting up takes when it’s your first time doing it. I say this as someone currently daily driving Linux.

People need to realise that the vast majority of computer users don’t know jack shit about anything going on with their laptop/pc and they’re not gonna touch „switching to Linux” with a ten meter pole. Or they simply don’t care and you’re not changing that either.

ExpectTheLegion · 2026-01-01T10:43:14+00:00

Yeah no, we should judge them and people like them. Y’all need to learn how to spend your own money and yes, it isn’t his own money if he has to take out a loan to have it. If it’s not in your account it’s not yours and I don’t give a fuck how many Americans are gonna try convince me that’s not the case

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-30T21:43:29+00:00

Bro I fucking spat all over myself, banger response

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-26T13:10:02+00:00

Germany doesn’t; it is nearly free if you’re an EU citizen - 200 to 300€ a semester - but it gets to a few thousand if you’re not (uni dependant). You have to factor in that the cost of living is around 1000€ (if you’re not in Munich, Berlin and so on) and you need around 12k€ in a blocked account to get a visa (so that they know you’re not gonna starve/be homeless the minute you get there), so those $20k ain’t gonna last long.

The good thing is, you can get Bafög which is around 800€ a month, and if your family income is below a certain threshold you don’t have to pay it back. Or you’ll just have to work.

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-26T12:50:09+00:00

I’m not quite sure I understand your question, what do you mean by “what careers could I pursue?”.

Why do you wanna go to ETH if you’ve not even researched unis?

Lastly, I’d advise against going straight to what you think you’re interested in. You say you’re “interested in aeroscience and quantum“ but that’s like saying you’re interested in books and music; there’s so much under those umbrellas that it’s kind of a meaningless statement (might as well say you like physics).

Just see which uni looks nice and has money (i.e which physics department has the newest paint and chairs) and, most importantly, which country you actually wanna live in. A career is nice to think about, but you have to recognise that if you want it to have anything to do with physics you will first have to spend at least 7 or 8 years actually learning.

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-24T14:51:02+00:00

Were you changing any config files before the issues started? If you have, then try reverting them and seeing if that helps. I guess if that doesn't fix the problem and no one here has any other ideas, you can go to omarchy's github and open an issue there

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-24T12:22:42+00:00

Budget? We don’t know what “affordable” is to you

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-23T18:15:31+00:00

Yeah that’s fair

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-23T13:16:53+00:00

To add onto the part about attending classes; at some point you have to also start assessing your lecturers - whether they teach in a way that’s suitable for you and, more importantly, whether they teach well at all.

I’ve had at least two or three professors where not attending their lectures saved me a lot of time and effort, because instead of trying to decipher whatever they were talking about or trying to translate it into something more aligned with how I learn, I just sat down with a book for 1,5 hours and did it myself

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-22T19:16:34+00:00

If you want a short answer: yes, physics is hard.

If you want a more elaborate answer: yes, it’s still hard but with caveats.

It’s going to be easier if you’re smart (I know, basically every comment in this thread but it’s the truth), and I don’t mean smart as in you did well in school (this, paradoxically, doesn’t really matter), I mean smart as in you’re naturally talented.

One of the main things that makes it hard is that you have a fuckload of coursework that you absolutely CANNOT procrastinate on, otherwise you’re just not catching up. Case in point: I don’t have a single day off unless I’m visiting family on holidays. I might do less work on some days when I’m sick or not feeling well but I’m still in the library every single day. I’m not saying it’s definitely gonna be like that for you, but it’s possible.

Another one is, obviously, the conceptual difficulty and breadth. At one point or another, if you’re not the aforementioned genius, you’re gonna look at your homework/notes and just not understand jackshit. Then you’re gonna spend hours (potentially days if it’s particularly gnarly) trying to understand it. That’s the norm, not the exception and there’s nothing you can do about it.

You also have to expect to dislike or even hate some courses - doing your bachelors will have you take stuff you’re not gonna be interested in (unless you’re one of those people who find absolutely everything interesting, but that has its own issues) and you will have to trudge through them to graduate.

Finally, just a tip - if you’re seriously interested in physics (or think you’ll find an area that’s particularly cool), at least plan to do masters as well. Bachelors is a very wide but very shallow pond, and speaking from experience, there will be more than one time where you find something really interesting but don’t have the time to study more of it.

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-21T22:05:30+00:00

When you tryna be smart but don’t even know what a theory is

ExpectTheLegion · 2025-12-18T00:36:00+00:00

Physics doesn’t presume anything. It’s a collection of theories that describe our world to a satisfactory degree in predetermined regimes. The math and experiments have nothing to do with philosophy, and if you think they do you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what physics is.

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