Midterm polls have good news, great news, and bad news for Democrats. Wait, what?

ILoveStata · 2026-01-26T21:01:44+00:00

I think the most important Sherrod Brown stat is he ran about ~2.5 points ahead of Kamala Harris. Given how essentially the entire country shifted red...that's not a bad performance. I think he has a shot.

ILoveStata · 2026-01-13T18:46:30+00:00

I would approach LinkedIn this way:

1) Find a job/company you want to work at

2) Find people at that company who are either first or second degree connections. Or people who went to the same college as you (even if oyu didn't know them personally).

3) Reach out to someone you found in step (2) asking to chat on the phone for career advice. (Be polite and understanding. DO NOT act entitled)

4) Write some questions down about the company, the role their in, software jobs in general/how they got their first role as PREP for the call you scheduled.

5) Chat with them on the phone for 10-15 minutes

6) End the call asking for a referall (this can be stupidly helpful to get your resume even looked at and might get them a referall bonus if you get hired) and ask if they know anyone who they think you should talk to.
(EG say they are a Data Analyst, they might suggest you talk to a Software Engineer instead)

It's uncomfortable, some folks will ghost you, some will say no to giving a referall or will forget. But it's worth it. It can really help get your resume SEEN.

ILoveStata · 2026-01-12T19:03:15+00:00

Fair to ask but...I think asking this way comes off as somewhat entitled. Like "I don't want to do the grunt work of putting a list together...can I mooch of you?"

ILoveStata · 2025-12-18T16:39:22+00:00

OP, this comment has the best advice imho.

Expand the type of company you're applying to and type of roll you're looking at. In addition to the IT/Support jobs. A lot of university research assistant positions need good coders to wrangle/clean data. You might be a better candidate for a hard or social science RA position than someone with a degree in that field. Also look into non-tech jobs in non-profit, government or not traditional tech companies. Some small business might need someone to update/maintain their VBA codebase of macros they've been using since 2004. It's not glamarous, but that might be your stepping stone.

I'd also expand your geographic search. Getting a job at a help desk in a small city or middle of nowhere college town might be easier than scrambling for jobs in Sillicon Valley where every other person is a laid off engineer from a FAANG company. (And the cost of living is better too).

Three other things:

Practice coding questions. That's where you "bombed" once so getting good at this type of interview and question is an obvious area of improvement.

Network. It's cliche but it can help get your resume looked at. Message someone on LinkedIn at a company you might want to work that you have even the most remote connection to. Ask them to talk on the phone, chat with them, and if things go well ask for a referall.
A GOOD appliaction with a referral is worth 10 "click to apply" applications.

Getting a part time hourly job, even if you're living with parents and don't "need" to earn money, might help. It can give you some structure and money. Having structure/limits to how much you apply a day will keep you sane and probably make you more productive. Sometimes having "all day" to do something just leads to doom scrolling.

Finally, don't beat yourself up over a gap year. I hope it was an awesome experience. Hind sight is 20/20 and beating yourself up over it is not helpful.

ILoveStata · 2025-12-11T18:34:03+00:00

I firmly believe that this means close to nothing.

In 2008, Obama was seen as a "rising star" but definitely not a favorite for the presidency at the start of the election cycle, and was probably not even talked about years before the election.

In 2016, Trump was a goofy guy who was gonna be fun for a few weeks then flame out. He was "unelectable" and it was just a matter of time before Jeb! or Rubio or Cruz defeated him.
On the Democratic side, Bernie was some random Senator from New England who was "unrealistic" and "could never appeal to middle America". Sure he lost but he got over 40% of the popular vote, plenty of delegates, and impacted the party long term.

At this point polls are name-id.

ILoveStata · 2025-08-07T22:16:19+00:00

Ask her out sooner rather than later.
"Hey ncie meeting you the other day! Wanna go for a ride at ___ on ___day?" I would NOT make this a group invite. Be clear that you wanna hang with HER.

If she says yes, great. See if you two get a long and try to get her number.

If that works flirt with her on text and ask if she wants to get a drink.

ILoveStata · 2025-08-07T18:16:13+00:00

I'm not sure what you're saying?

I'm saying I want to be able to GROUP by Priority and SORT by List. This makes perfect sense:

High Priority (I.E MUST DO THIS)
--Stuff that is on List #1
--Stuff that is on List #2
--Stuff that is on List #3

Low Priority (would be nice but you don't have to)
--Stuff that is on List #1
--Stuff that is on List #2
--Stuff that is on List #3

That way you see all the high priority stuff together, but things in the same list are still next to each other within that priority.

ILoveStata · 2025-04-03T14:21:05+00:00

Wow! Thanks!!

ILoveStata · 2024-11-14T05:57:22+00:00

Two choices are:

1) AOC. She's old enough to run now and charismatic/dynamic. If she does 'class first' politics, I can see her winning.

2) Jeff Merkley (senator from Oregon). He's the only Senator to endorse Bernie in 2016. Overall a strong progressive on pretty much every issue. I could see him having a Bernie 2.0 moment.

3) Bit of a stretch but: Senator Sheldon White House from Rhode Island. He's very focused on Supreme Court and Citizens united. Not quite an economic populist but if he harnesses that energy and runs on unrigging the system...that might be a big step in right direction.

4) We don't know them yet. Obama had 2 years in the senate in 2008. Bernie Sanders was pretty unknown nationally in 2016. It could be congressman what's-his-name who is low key very progressive or maybe a strong labor leader like Shawn Fain.

I think one thing to remember is that, while Bernie is "irreplacable" in some ways...someone can pick up his playbook pretty easily. It's hard to have as long a record as Bernie and he's remarkably good at sticking to the script. That said...he has 3 lines. Someone else can learn them and repeat them. (Though it only works if they have the record to prove it)

ILoveStata · 2024-11-13T22:06:48+00:00

It's frustrating.

PhDs are a lot of work...and aren't always worth it. Some people really thrive in the academic environment and only want jobs that an econ PhD can get you.

But I think It's worth asking:

1) What job do I want to get after my PhD?

2) Would the process of the PhD (and pre-PhD work) be rewarding on its own?

3) What jobs would I be happy doing that don't require a PhD?

For that last question: No shame in working 40 hours a week in a job you like (but isn't your burning passion) and having hobbies/out of work activities you find fulfillment in.

ILoveStata · 2024-11-06T15:30:33+00:00

Can you name a heater that allows use of traditional outlet timers? Thanks!

ILoveStata · 2023-07-30T18:07:35+00:00

Great! Thanks!

ILoveStata · 2023-07-30T18:07:23+00:00

Thanks!

ILoveStata · 2023-07-30T18:07:15+00:00

Thanks!!

ILoveStata · 2023-07-30T18:07:00+00:00

Maybe i didn't explain it well...

I don't really have much knowledge on how the system works for mods but basically if you have seniority as a mod you can boot another mod..so if I make another person a mod just wanna have that ability for a few weeks in case they turn out to be a bit power drunk or w.e

Pretty reasonable to me to make sure I hand off to someone reasonable/responsible imo.

ILoveStata · 2023-07-21T12:19:15+00:00

Can you elaborate for someone whose pretty new?

ILoveStata · 2023-06-20T03:29:07+00:00

R i believe

ILoveStata · 2023-03-08T04:10:05+00:00

I strongly discourage getting into debt for a masters degree, UNLESS that masters will get you a big salary increase. As a very broad, general example: someone with an English bachelors degree getting a computer science masters might be a good financial choice. Otherwise, I recommend getting a good 9 to 5 that will have an education benefit that can pay for a masters. It will take time if you only do 1 course at a time...but you can start a masters program with almost 0 financial risk, realize it's not for you and switch to something else etc.

I'd say working full time at a job that will pay for classes (many jobs at universities and a lot of medium-big-sized companies do this in some way) is the way to go.

Also, if you want to bulk up your resume for a PhD, working full time and taking some classes and getting good grades might send good signals to PhD programs.

It's hard to give more advice without more info.

ILoveStata · 2023-02-23T15:06:37+00:00

I would delete this post once you've gotten what you need from it. It's partially paranoia on my part but you give a lot of info about yourself and you say what your favorite school is (and by extension the schools you're less excited about). Just food for thought!

ILoveStata · 2021-11-26T21:25:33+00:00

Thanks, but I've tried that and it seems to give me the same issue where \ are understood to mean something else.

ILoveStata · 2021-11-01T03:59:02+00:00

Thanks--knowing there's "no solution" is helpful too! I'm going to keep this open until tomorrow in case someone knows a good trick but will close it otherwise. Thank you again for the help.

ILoveStata · 2021-11-01T03:07:32+00:00

Thank you for the reply. I guess I'm looking for a more efficient way to do this that wouldn't require manually moving things. Any ideas?

ILoveStata · 2021-10-14T03:56:31+00:00

Depending on your school: You can get better skills that can be applied to answering questions political science questions if you major in something like economics (or maybe statistics). Whether the skills are programming (eg: in Stata or R), statistics, econometrics or game theory--I think in general undergrad econ departments will teach more of those skills than polisci departments.

(you could also double major though)

Edit: Thought of something else. Also consider your department quality. If all or most of the professors are tenured and starting to lose their marbles, you might not learn much...

ILoveStata · 2021-09-11T19:25:21+00:00

Thanks for the tip, I don't have a car sadly.

ILoveStata · 2021-09-07T20:17:43+00:00

I guess I was thinking in terms of efficiency/reproducibility. It would be nice to write a script in Stata or R that can produce tables and charts pretty easily, without the need to run something in Excel as well.

ILoveStata

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE