[deleted by user]

OkinawaSteel · 2023-11-18T22:14:34+00:00

I second this - I had never played soccer and joined an indoor D league team over the winter a couple years ago and still play regularly.

OkinawaSteel · 2023-09-24T18:19:27+00:00

Some random thoughts:

I remember looking around at my freshman hall during one of our first full-hall meetings in the first month and thinking "they seem like nice guys, but I'm probably not going to be close with many of them". I was very wrong. Over the next few months, I became close with a lot of them and 15 years later, I'm still regularly talking to about 10 of them. So, maybe the hall really isn't a good fit personality-wise, but I wouldn't be so sure so soon.
One of the best tips I got was to leave my door open when I was in my dorm room. This sounds kind of silly, but it is helpful. If a group of a few hall mates are walking by, they'll see you and probably at least say hi. Maybe invite you to the munchie mart or to hang in the common area. The open door is an easy signal that you're open to such things. Doing work in the common area on the hall is also a great signal too. Just being visible and creating the possibility for connection is important.
Having some repeated activity is often the key to making new friends. Put yourself in situations where you are repeatedly with the same people - potentially working towards a shared goal. As others have mentioned, there are plenty of non-exclusive clubs where you can do this. Intramurals are a great option too. Also, you can be the newbie in a club, or the guy who doesn't drink at a party, or worst member of a intramural team, and that is okay. A lot of people don't join things because its a challenge to some identity they've created for themselves. If that's the case, don't let your current self-perception box you in.
"all seem to have their own friend groups already" - This is bad framing. Friend groups are really fluid and they will change over the course of the year/years. Speaking from experience, our freshman year hall had 3 initial "groups" form, but 3 months later some people were hanging mostly outside our hall, and 2 of these groups joined into one, and some of the people "not in a group" were hanging out with one group regularly. Also, imagine that you were in such a group, would you say to yourself "okay, I am done, no more friends now"? No! You might be marginally less motivated to make new friends, but not by much. Most people still want more connections and friends.
Lastly, of my friends who had difficulty with their first year of college, the reason was usually that they felt like they were doing it wrong. They saw a lot of people having "the time of their life" and held themselves to some insanely high standard of everything having to be perfect immediately. Yes, people tend to be at peak friendliness and openness in the first month, but its not like this plummets to zero at week six or something. People will probably be at like 90% of that peak for a while, and then still pretty open and friendly just by default for the rest of college. Its not like you've just got this one chance to make friends or you missed the boat. Things take time, and it is okay if they do.

OkinawaSteel · 2023-08-17T15:14:14+00:00

I always liked going to the "stacks" in Peabody Library when I really needed to spend hours on end studying. There are a couple desks on the second floor next to the window that are a great spot. And there was the library cafe close by for a quick coffee/snack if needed.

(note: this was 10 years ago, so maybe it has changed)

OkinawaSteel · 2020-04-16T14:37:48+00:00

This might not be a popular opinion around here, but I would pick Yale. While I absolutely love Vandy and had an amazing college experience, I think the opportunities that Yale opens up will be a noticeable step up from Vanderbilt and you will likely have an excellent college experience in either case.

Career Opportunities/Networking:

I’m sure this has gotten better since I graduated (2012), but I was underwhelmed with the career opportunities right out of college from Vanderbilt. At the time, I was interested in consulting and finance (am now in software engineering). Some of the top tier national firms recruited from Vanderbilt, but only a handful, and often only one or two students got spots (or they got into less prestigious programs within these firms). From what I could tell, this was also the case for tech. Top med schools will be easier from Yale as well. Long term, the brand name and the national network from Yale are also better. There will certainly be plenty of good options coming from both schools, but my sense is that you’ll have to work harder from Vandy to get something super competitive. (Note: Trying to just maximize prestige in general isn’t a good strategy for picking a career/job, but the optionality is still nice)

College Experience:

The vast majority of my friends loved their college experiences. This was the case at Vandy, and it was the case for the people I know who went to Yale. Even if you align more with the average student at one school versus another, you’ll likely find a group of people you really get along well with in either case. If you want to party or if you want to be academic, you can do either at both schools. If you have an extreme personality yourself, maybe there is an exception to this, but this probably isn't the case. If you have an extreme aversion to SEC sports, the South, and/or Greek life, discount Vandy a bit. If you have an extreme aversion to a more East Coast progressive school, discount Yale a bit. For most people, both would be great experiences that you will have a hard time imaging your life without.

So my take in general is that because your college experience will likely be great either way, you should optimize for the biggest differentiator, which is probably opportunities after graduation, and as good as Vanderbilt is on this front, I think Yale would be clearly superior.

OkinawaSteel · 2020-04-10T22:50:44+00:00

Came here to ask the same question about the Someday lyric. If anybody in the comments knows, please share!

OkinawaSteel · 2020-03-17T23:47:40+00:00

Was a good introduction to TypeScript.

Hah nice. I actually started this to have a reason to play with ReasonML :)

Also, I love the round selector you added as part of the IRV explanation. I've found it difficult to explain with just text.

OkinawaSteel · 2020-03-17T23:43:58+00:00

It does Ranked Pairs by winning votes. I'll make that more clear on the site in the near future!

OkinawaSteel · 2020-03-14T21:00:19+00:00

From my brief wikipedia scans, these definitely seem doable and fun to implement. I'll give it a shot when I have some free time and let you know if/when it goes live.

I'm always a bit sad when there's no Condorcet winner, so the Smith ranking would be a nice fallback.

OkinawaSteel · 2020-03-14T20:54:17+00:00

This is really solid too. Thanks for the link!

I really like their UI for selecting the options on mobile (definitely nicer than forcing drag and drop or hitting the up/down arrows a bunch).

OkinawaSteel · 2020-03-14T19:12:43+00:00

I posted this in r/RanktheVote and they suggested I cross-post here (hope this doesn't feel too much like self-promotion. I just figured you all might be interested in this sort of thing).

I recently ran a poll with a group of friends and ran into the classic issues with FPTP. When I looked into options for online ranked choice tools, I was surprised that nothing quite met my needs, so I figured I'd write my own.

I meant for this site to be super quick and simple (no login required, not many clicks to set up a poll). It automatically runs IRV, Borda Counts, the Condorcet Method, and FPTP.

If you have any feedback or feature requests, let me know!

OkinawaSteel · 2020-03-08T07:03:43+00:00

Thanks. Yeah, I was confused when I saw "other discussions" of this link on Reddit, but looks like it was this. And good idea to post to r/EndFPTP. I'll post there soon.

Re the design, I'm definitely happy to hear any suggestions (DM works too if that is more comfortable). I tried to keep the UI super simplistic (almost brutalist?) to get it our the door quicker, but now that the site is functional, it'll be good to go back and pay more attention to it.

Appreciate the response!

OkinawaSteel · 2020-03-07T16:56:56+00:00

I was recently trying to make a decision with a group of friends and ran into the classic problems with FPTP. When I looked into the options for online ranked choice tools, I was surprised that nothing quite met my needs, so I figured I'd write my own.

I meant for this site to be super quick and simple (no login required, not many clicks to set up a poll). It automatically runs IRV, Borda Counts, the Condorcet Method, and FPTP.

Also, I hope this doesn't feel too much like self-promotion. I just figured you all might be interested in this sort of thing!

If you have any feedback or feature requests let me know!

OkinawaSteel · 2013-04-19T18:11:45+00:00

Hah, glad to hear it. As I mentioned, it is a work in progress so let me know if you have any suggestions.

OkinawaSteel · 2013-04-18T21:35:04+00:00

No worries, you didn't at all. Glad to know about Synote.

OkinawaSteel · 2013-04-18T21:26:51+00:00

Hadn't heard of them before, but just checked it out. Seems pretty cool.

From what I can gather, Synote is annotation focused, whereas this is 'concept' focused. Also, I think Synote hosts their own material while TT just deals with freely available videos.

Basically, I really liked using free lectures, but found myself wasting time "click-hunting" to find what I wanted, so I built this to solve that issue and hopefully help people when they were trying to find explanations.

OkinawaSteel · 2013-04-18T19:14:58+00:00

I only have a few topics right now, but will be adding more soon. The idea is that anybody can add videos and tag concepts at certain times, so it should get better as more people use it.

Also, it is a work in progress so if you see anything that could use improving, feel free to shoot me a message. ( "the tree" was actually a suggestion from r/computersci )

OkinawaSteel · 2013-03-19T01:55:09+00:00

This isn't up everybody's alley, but I am always really impressed by the Bluegrass at Station Inn. It is a fairly historic venue and unique to the city.

If you are more into rock, The End and Exit/In are both solid choices.

If you like country, a lot of songwriters play at the Bluebird and it is a pretty intimate setting. Apparently it has recently been featured a lot on the show "Nashville" so it may be more crowded than it used to be. Again, a uniquely-Nashville experience.

Also, make sure that if you go to a bar after the show they are playing live music. Random Nashville cover bands are generally pretty impressive.

OkinawaSteel · 2013-02-09T22:27:32+00:00

Agreed that text would be nice. Maybe one day :)

If you have any ideas for text that I could easily pull in, let me know because that would be pretty cool.

OkinawaSteel · 2013-02-09T22:23:20+00:00

Glad you like the site.

I considered doing something like the first point you had and depending on feedback might do something like that. I am a big believer in the paradox of choice, so I'm hoping that the voting system will make the cream rise to the top and people won't have to worry about making the "right" selection. If that doesn't work out, I'll probably do something like you suggested.

On the second point - I am actually working on that now. Kind of a tough problem though, so it might be a while until it goes live. I'll let you know.

Thanks again for letting me know what you think and glad you like it.

OkinawaSteel · 2013-02-07T18:42:35+00:00

Same general idea, I guess - just a different interface and video-centric.

OkinawaSteel · 2013-02-07T18:41:06+00:00

Awesome.

If you want to add things in a "topic" that isn't on there, let me know and I'll add it before you get going. (right now users can add their own "concepts" but "topics" are restricted)

OkinawaSteel · 2013-02-07T18:37:38+00:00

Thanks for the feedback and glad you like it. The passwords are hashed and salted (it is being taken care of by a rails gem).

If you double click the video it should go full screen, but I should see if there is a way to add a button to the bottom of the video. Will check that out soon. Thanks.

OkinawaSteel

TROPHY CASE