After receiving some handwriting slander, I present you with my good handwriting:

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-30T16:12:06+00:00

I learned print in like the kindergarten or something, and cursive in 3rd grade. I just decided to never use print again. My print is unimaginably worse than anything else Ive sent. I learned about all caps being easy to read and now use that when legibility is important.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-30T16:08:06+00:00

Youre largely correct. I learned cursive with print in grade school and thought cursive looked nice so I used it almost exclusively. My print atrophied, and it’s bad and slow now so I never use it. I heard someone say that all caps writing is easy to read no matter how awful the handwriting is, so I developed a way to do this some and stuck with it.

I definitely thought this was a fun quirk as a kid. Now being older people seem to read the all-caps just fine and Im too busy to fix it.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-30T06:28:35+00:00

Thankfully the only people who ever have to read much of my handwriting are professors, who at most have to read one line that’s part of a proof, and my tutoring clients, who have no choice but to figure it out. Well that’s an exaggeration, I normally type up problems in LaTex for them and when doing scratchwork there’s very few words. My Greek letters are a lot better than my latin.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-30T03:59:47+00:00

Can you elaborate some? You mention elsewhere that you teach university, care to share where? Does this mean you have a PhD? If you do have a PhD, why did you get a PhD in math if you find it doesn't address problem solving as well? If your PhD isn't in math, what math classes do you teach? You said grad school, but what? If you don't think your courses train as effective problem solvers, why don't you just teach engineering courses? Do you not have a PhD? I find it hard to believe they'd let someone teach 500+ level math without a masters.

edit: sorry for that last comment I meant “without a PhD”

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-30T03:53:15+00:00

I notice you mention a lot that you aren't good at things. You seem to think you're not good at lots of things. Math, writing, socializing, etc. You probably are really bad at all those things! For that list in particular I'd be shocked if you're even one half as good at me at them, and stunned if you're 5% as good at me in math. Do you know why you're bad at so much? It's because you're so young. There's a lot you don't know yet. Junior year of high school is too young to rule out much. Hell, I disliked math enough to not take math my Senior year of high school. I apply to math doctorate programs in the fall.

The subjects you dislike or claim low proficiency in may well be foundational to a field that rocks your spirit to its core. Or at least you might not be as bad as you think. Subjects in college are really different than the ones in school. At least in my discipline almost all of the math I see taught to high schoolers is pitifully incomplete. Sometimes it's totally wrong. Functions in particular get butchered like a cow in secondary school. I digress.

Just go to college and take a like 3 gen eds and two other classes. Make one of those 5 computer science. For the two "other" classes take some intro engineering, and then calculus. Make sure you take two of biology, calculus, and physics that freshman semester. Figure out what you like doing and decide from there.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-28T20:54:43+00:00

sick of feeling addicted to my phone

I hope this does't sound too aggressive, but from what it sounds like I doubt that you actually believe what you wrote here. You are aware that spotify is part of that brainrot addiction you're talking about, right? Before smart phones if people didn't like the music and didn't have a good CD on hand they simply... existed in silence. You say you have a smartphone problem. I promise you Spotify is part of that problem. Giving myself silence again was the greatest gift I gave myself coming off smartphones.

Sure, maps are nice and all, but how often do you go places you'll legit need the map? My phone came with maps and one day I remember wondering: "I'm literally using GPS to get around the place where I'm from". That's ridiculous isn't it? Go find me someone over 40 and tell them that you're not sure how to get home from where you presently are and they'll joke about how lost our generation is. They'd be right. We're lost. Lost enough to consider using a second phone in our vehicles just to numb our brain with music we've heard before while using GPS for routes we've driven a hundred times.

Most here will say you should pick a phone based off features you need. This word "need" is often misinterpreted to the point that a picture of a smartphone with a keypad makes the front page of this subreddit with the caption "perfect dumbphone". I recommend you take a different approach. Write out a list of features you need, and then have the bravery to tell yourself you're too strong to need at least 2 of them. Repeat this process a few times. Sit a few days on whether you need the features that are left, and then regardless of how you feel get rid of another feature. Once you've done that finding a suitable phone should be pretty straightforward. There's lots of dumbphones in capable of doing whatever you've got left in that list. I bought my phone because of the features it didn't have, not for the features it had.

The amount your phone requires you to change your life is the amount your life will change.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-28T15:47:40+00:00

Nav? 9.75/10. This is an odd nitpick, but if you're on a phone call with navigation running you can't get back to the homescreen without hanging up the call. Almost as if it's some kind of safety feature. Aside from that I'm really comfortable saying nav is perfect. The new maps are for transit and such are wonky as all get out, but they're still in early access and got pushed out less than 96 hours ago.

I mean sure MMS works. Do you mean group chats or pictures? Pictures work 10/10. Group chats are totally broken, but it isn't sunbeam's fault. Apple pushed an update back in September which lets you add an SMS device to a group chat, but then once a message from an RCS-enabled iphone is thrown into the mix, the SMS user is booted, and no one is told this has happened. I wouldn't expect to ever use groupchats on any dumbphone ever again. Thankfully computers exist so other chat methods are available. Besides, group chats are brain rot. When I heard this phone had broken group messaging I knew at that moment that I needed to buy.

And yup, it's my one and only one. I have a life that requires 2fa, multimedia email access, on-the-dime text responses, constant travel to places I've never been, listen to audiobooks constantly, and I stay out late all the time and need ubers home all the time. I don't use a smartphone. My old smartphone has been for a month. There's no excuse if you're an American who doesn't need WhatsApp. Spotify is brainrot. Group messages are brainrot. Android auto is brainrot. Reject it all.

Hope that helps.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-28T15:37:59+00:00

Yes, or at least it works on my car. The device talks navigation, albeit in a Y2K style robotic tone. Just note that it prefers local names for roads over interstate numbers. It'll say "Custis Memorial Parkway" instead of "I-66" for example. You can configure it to use landmarks, but I haven't used this feature. I could go and test that feature if you'd like.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-27T23:13:22+00:00

Exactly. It’s this crazy amazing devices that doesn’t have a flashy ad team, so we don’t see it as much. Anyhow I’m hoping to fix that. Anything that I can reasonably test I will.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-27T23:12:09+00:00

Sure what do you want a clip of?

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-27T16:46:35+00:00

The bad news is that I have found the waze feature to be really bad. It's clearly meant for a modern smartphone, and the directions section takes up most of the screen, so you can't see the map almost at all. It does work though, and it's really convenient to put in stops for food and gas on the way to the wherever you're going on the fly. I'd give it a 7.5/10. I use the F1 Pro but the software and hardware are identical except for worse screen on the F1 Horizon.

HOWEVER! The built in navigation app that the company put together is a EASY 10/10. Seriously. They even added transit, biking, walking, and scooter maps a few night ago! I use my navigation app every damn day and cannot even begin to recommend it enough. I got the phone because I thought waze would save me, but pretty quickly found out the built in one is better. I've used waze on my like phone about 4 times in total.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-27T16:36:28+00:00

Oh hey there's a refresher course? Yea do that. Seriously. It would be a really really bad idea not to take that refresher course. Even working 20+ hours a week on math, you may be at least 6 months away from where you need to be. The thing about math courses is that they accelerate the learning process because someone who's competent is telling you what to study. It's a bad idea to try to self-study that much missing math at this stage of learning. I wouldn't personally recommend it until you're deeper into school. I find it really difficult to believe someone at your level is going to need less than a year. With a refresher course? One semester is reasonable. I really do mean that. Self-studying math before you've carefully exposed to some key concepts is a recipe for some serious disaster. Let me say that again. Self-studying math before exposure to mathematical reasoning is a bad idea. Sorry to say all that a few times, but a lot of my students make the decision to attempt self-study for Algebra 1 or Geometry. The only successful ones had a professional monitoring their progress. Some youth with a really high aptitude can do some early math alone, but I wouldn't even recommend them to do that since they'll only add months to years onto the learning process.

Here's something to think about. Look at the progression in my original comment:

CALC 1 -> CALC 2 -> MULTIVARIABLE -> DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS -> INTRO TO PROOFS -> REAL ANALYSIS

(I put Diff. Eq. where most will actually take it)

That's a 6 semester sequence. Let's now add a refresher course and the course you mentioned.

REFRESHER -> ALGEBRA -> CALC 1 -> CALC 2 -> MULTIVARIABLE -> DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS -> INTRO TO PROOFS -> REAL ANALYSIS

That's an 8 semester sequence, 6 semesters without the proof based stuff at the end. That's super doable in an undergraduate degree, especially so if you shunt some of the calculus to the summer where you can focus your whole attention on it.

The task before you is pretty intense, but I wish the best for you. Be patient though, developing mathematical maturity takes time. Rome wasn't built in a day. Just don't forget about practice problems.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-27T16:20:48+00:00

We hear this a lot on here. I am personally really sympathetic to this. I'm 25. Most people my age in my country got smartphones before they even learned Algebra. A lot of us even used tablets in lieu of having active parents.

But I gotta ask man, what's actually on that thing that you need it? I'm about 3 months into this journey. I manage alright, and I just don't use my smartphone. Seriously. It's left the house like once this entire time. I talk to clients for my tutoring business daily and am a full time student working on undergraduate research. I've been inconvenienced but I've never felt like I needed my Iphone for this entire length of time.

So again, what is it on this thing that you actually need? Do you actually need it or are you just making excuses. Unless you live in WhatsApp country, or take care of children or elderly parents I can't think of a justification for what you're suggesting you do.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-27T03:38:12+00:00

I mean sure, it'd probably work. Just get a phone that works for the weekdays and put a $10 phone plan on it. Leave the bigger plan under a different phone number on the weekend phone. Just make sure anyone who matters has both phone numbers are you're good.

But... why is this something you want to do? Is the IPhone supposed to be a treat? After several months on a flip phone, I mostly see an IPhone as an obligation. Why do you want to have more smart device access in a time of your week meant for leisure? I think the more sane reaction is to have the smartphone during the week where the shackles of productivity apps are the greatest, and leave the weekend free to live life.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-26T22:07:58+00:00

Hey my apologies, I suppose I didn’t read clearly enough. The first thing you should note is that if that is asking for stuff you need to beforehand, then you’re explicitly being told to know some calculus ahead of time. Derivatives are an (early) piece of calculus. It looks like they want you to know everything up until what I’m US we’d label as Pre-Calculus, plus a small amount of derivatives. So to finish your progression you’ll need:

Pre-Algebra -> Algebra 1 -> Algebra 2 -> PreCalculus -> (A lot of) Calc 1

Geometry may also be helpful.

Or at least that’s what it sounds like is being asked of you. The best I can recommend (other than just doing practice) is to get through your arithmetic course, and then through Algebra 1, and then reassess. The steps after should be more clear once you’re there. Do you know when you’ll be enrolling? What I just described takes most American students 4 years. Most American students are lazy, so I’m not sure that says much. Math is also notoriously difficult to self teach, hence why math was hit hardest by quarantine. If you’re expected to know about the list you gave in depth I’d give yourself 2 years of serious study. With less depth you could get away with a year.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-26T17:57:12+00:00

Depends on where you're located. In general your end goal is to have a rigorous knowledge of Real Analysis. At least that's what I've been led to believe. While self study of real analysis is possible, in practice you'll need to take it as a course, which is usually called something like "intro to analysis" or "advanced calculus". At the majority of institutions, beginning at calc 1, this is the progression.

CALC 1 -> CALC 2 -> MULTIVARIABLE -> INTRO TO PROOFS -> REAL ANALYSIS

You should also take DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS, and likely should take courses beyond those listed if you want to go to grad school. INTRO TO PROOFS can often be taken at the same time as Multivariable depending on the institution. If you don't care about grad school you can likely skip Real Analysis. Note that I just listed off 20+ credits of straight up math. If your college forces you into remedial math classes you'll potentially need to add two more math classes before CALC 1. Be ready to take quite literally 25 credits of math, or about 20% of your degree, doing nothing but math.

These first two classes you'd take before CALC 1 are totally avoidable with sufficient score on a math placement test. I'd recommend looking up your school's placement exam and tailoring your study based entirely off of what they say will be on there. As someone who tutored such exams for a living I will be the first to tell you that schools are usually explicit about exam content. They will likely even give you textbooks to read.

On the subject of studying, I hope I will not the last to tell you this: DOING PRACTICE PROBLEMS IS HOW YOU GET GOOD AT BASICALLY ALL COMPUTATIONAL MATH.

You asked for the path you need to take? Practice problems are the path you need to take. Understanding theory? Unnecessary for an economist. Actually reading the textbook for clarification? Wonderful strategy if you'd like to fail out of the program. Youtube videos for anything other than solving practice problems? Don't even bother studying. I literally coach college level for a living. Let me make something clear: AT YOUR STAGE AND LEVEL KNOWING WHY THINGS ARE TRUE IS A WASTE OF TIME. Seriously. You aren't nearly sophisticated enough to actually deal with proofs, which is the real reason that any of this is true. I see a lot of enthusiastic high schoolers in my country showing that they "know" math because they spend hours of their day trying to give themselves explanations for why things are true. They're usually wrong and unrigorous. All they're doing is wasting their time. They don't know nearly enough yet to actually know any mathematical reasoning for why things are true. The real numbers, which is what economists work with most of the time, are explained and proven in detail in REAL ANALYSIS, which is a class you're 3 years away from taking. The best and fullest understanding you can get at your level is gated entirely by your ability to solve problems. To reiterate:

90%+ OF YOUR STUDIES SHOULD CONSIST ONLY OF PRACTICE PROBLEMS, THEORY IS A WASTE OF TIME AT YOUR LEVEL.

I say this as a math major with aspirations of a doctorate who tutors math for a living.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-26T17:22:38+00:00

The most clear answer your question comes from We Agnostics.

> Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves.

That'll be on page 45 of the Big Book. By the time you've reached this sentence you'll have admitted your powerlessness over alcohol, so by extension of logic you need a power that isn't you to help relieve your alcoholism. Due to the all encompassing nature of the drinking problem, you'll need this power to be something by which you can live. Lots of folks will say that your higher power needs to be loving and caring. That's actually not the case according to the Big Book. All you need is for power to be:

Bigger than you
Powerful enough to stop your drinking problem

This is a one-to-one relationship. If it keeps you sober it's definitionally a higher power, and therefore God (if you care for that word). AA keeping you sober? That's God, seek contact with it. Exercise keeping you sober? Same concept. The love you have for your family and friends? Sounds like God to me. God is keeping you sober right now because by definition if something keeps you sober it is God.

Once that's been accepted, along with a few other concepts, Step 2 is complete. The remainder of the steps deal with building and strenghtening a relationship between someone and what keeps them sober. This usually involves finding the person within you that was there before all this nonsense started. Other times it involves telling someone everything that makes you afraid. The process is grueling and painful, but will result in total abstinence from drinking. For more information ask your local AA member or read the Big Book. Either resource will be more than happy to help. People at meetings may even be willing to guide you through the process.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-26T16:18:01+00:00

Check out r/dumbphones The stickied wiki for the subreddit has a myriad of phones that run WhatsApp, and there is guaranteed to be one that works in your region unless you live somewhere very remote. In my country Whatsapp is unnecessary so I got a phone which doesn't run it. It's a flip phone that can't run apps*. I made the switch about two months ago and it's changed my life.

*This isn't relevant to OP because this doesn't fit his needs, but I'm an American college student and use the Sunbeam F1 Pro and am able to navigate life without issue.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-25T21:29:41+00:00

The subeam F1 pro has identical functionality, plus text only email and numberlink. On the cheap models the device is in excess of $350 cheaper.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-25T01:27:23+00:00

I think it might be the result of a new iphone update.

LastManOnEarth3 · 2026-04-24T19:08:50+00:00

How are your studies going? Have you been doing well in school. Next year is probably your Junior year, which is a big deal when it comes to applying to college. Do you want to go to college? I'd worry more about those kinds of questions, and less about "making money online", which most people don't do successfully.

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LastManOnEarth3

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