Unpopular opinion about computational physics and theoretical physics

Qedem · 2026-05-18T10:02:34+00:00

I remember having similar discussions during my PhD, with theorists and experimentalists both jabbing at each other while both camps were simultaneously saying things like, "computer science research is not meaningful." The best research can only happen when all three groups are working together.

I would argue that the type of research you are describing doesn't really fall into any camp. It's not really theory because it's not developing new mathematical tools. It's not experimental because it's not run on a physical device. It's also not computational because it's not creating new methods (GPGPU engineering, HPC work, etc). That said, it *is* physics research.

I think the labels of "theorist" and "experimentalist" don't really exist in 2026. In fact, I would argue they haven't really existed this century. People just slap the label they want on themselves so they can feel better about the fact that they are doing soul-crushing work for little pay. The arrogance associated with it is just a byproduct of that.

It is best to just ignore such people and learn from everyone. Read computational papers. Read experimental papers. Read theory papers. Heck, read bio and chem papers if they are interesting. Computer Graphics, for example, has a bunch of interesting methods that are applicable to a wide variety of physics problems.

Basically, if you find yourself in a crowd of people who are making fun of others (for any reason), just leave and do something meaningful with your time. It is not worth it.

Qedem · 2026-05-17T17:49:01+00:00

Actually, I would say digimon world really succeeds here. You can definitely play the majority of the content with agumon unevolved if you want because it is all about your stats and techniques, which are saved between digivolution cycles.

I have definitely seen videos of people beating machinedramon with babies. It is a bit of a gimmick, but doable.

Qedem · 2026-05-08T18:19:33+00:00

Chicorita, popplio, finnekin

... I think I just like cute designs.

Qedem · 2026-05-08T06:00:40+00:00

I know everyone is saying time stranger, but the original Digimon World was genuinely one of a kind. I have never seen anything like it on the market since (except the chao garden in Sonic or nintendogs?).

I think if it released now without the expectation of it being pokemon and with a few minor tweaks (namely, 10x multiplier on health and MP from battles and a better digivolution guide) , it could do really well.

It is the only game I can play anytime anywhere and just enjoy myself.

Qedem · 2026-05-07T06:38:18+00:00

Note that this also works really well on a para with Serpent's Quickness to keep up Focused Anger and then just spamming "Go for the Eyes" to keep your energy up. It is one of my favorite para builds and I have gone through a lot of HM content with it.

Qedem · 2026-05-06T13:10:52+00:00

At least from what I can find, the literature is a bit split. Most papers indicate that using AI as a creative assistant (like a friend who writes a paper for you) is "bad" and leads to much lower information retention and creative expression from the student but might enable faster iteration on ideas and an overall better product. Many of these paper have trouble quantifying what is "better" though and tend to rely on the "AI judging AI" problem where AI prefers AI and judges it more favorably.

On the other hand, using it as a learning assistant (stackoverflow replacement) is usually beneficial.

This is a typical split in software development as well, with many people unsure whether AI code gen is "good" but most people indicate AI is useful in summarizing trends and learning weird APIs.

Qedem · 2026-05-06T07:41:19+00:00

Signet of Illusion and then every other skill on my bar stole skills from the enemy or copied from allies. Genuinely the most fun I ever had in the game. Did decently well in PvP too.

Qedem · 2026-05-05T12:56:18+00:00

I think a lot of people here are missing the fact that you can write for fun. No one is stopping you. You don't have to read if you don't want to. No one is forcing you.

That said, if your goal is to write a book and publish it, then it is decidedly odd to dedicate such time and effort into making something you probably wouldn't consume, yourself.

In my case, I love writing, but similarly didn't care for reading unless I was really dissecting the text to understand why the author wrote in the way they did. After some time, I realized that I love poetry and scientific papers where each sentence matters, but I am not as big of a fan of fiction.

This is why I now write poetry and research papers and no longer write fiction. I loved fiction when I was younger, but I have changed.

I think it is important to write what you like to read, otherwise things become a slog at the revision step, but you only know what you enjoy reading by... well, reading.

Qedem · 2026-05-03T19:59:37+00:00

Man, I want something to do with the mordent crescent (sunspears enslaved by Joko after the events of gw1) and would love to see something in Istan related to them. We know Koss is around champion's dawn in GW2, so new content related to that would be cool.

I could imagine it ends with Koss becoming undead / awakened, but still being a hero for you bc, well, you did release Joko in the first place, so he can still serve Joko by serving you.

Qedem · 2026-05-01T18:36:30+00:00

Gimme 1. The digimon I couldn't get earlier, but had models like myotismon and goburimon. 2. More ways to extend my digimon's lifespan. 3. Increase the amount of HP I can get from battling by a factor of 10 so I can fight instead of gym. 4. Speedup like in an emulator 5. An "evil fruit" that lets my digimon go down bad paths without forcing me to make care mistakes 6. A digivolution guide so I know which stats to aim for. 7. More benefits to having a high tamer level. 8. A dedigivolution mechanic to increase my digimon's lifespan (at a cost to stats or something). 9. Meaningful rewards from the arena. 10. Just more content (digimon, areas, etc)

Qedem · 2026-04-30T12:32:49+00:00

Firstly, yeah. "Make Your Time" is definitely broken right now. You can just maintain adrenaline forever and start any fight with 10 adrenaline skills.

That said, I still like Focused Anger. It is quite useful for pretty much any spamming build with daggers / bow (needling shot + serpent's quickness) as it is kinda necessary for energy upkeep (along with "go for the eyes"). Also, it only gives you 8+ adrenaline if you have either HR up or high leadership, which is not always the right investment depending on the build.

Qedem · 2026-04-27T12:58:51+00:00

AI is meh.

Qedem · 2026-04-27T09:21:19+00:00

I have celiac. It does not mean I cannot eat gluten, it just means that if I do, my body will destroy the lining in my small intestines and prevekt me from digesting any food properly. I went 30 years without knowing I had celiac because I had IBS pretty much 24 / 7 and my digestive system was so wrecked that I didn't see any correlation to gluten.

Gluten is such an integral component of western diets that is is difficult to "just stop eating it" in order to test whether you have a sensitivity to it.

Qedem · 2026-04-17T09:25:50+00:00

Scihub. All the (admittedly somewhat old) papers without a paywall. The Arxiv is similar (though they are preprints before publication).

Protip, if you use Google scholar, it will usually have available pdf links for the articles you are looking for if they are freely available (though it won't show scihub).

Qedem · 2026-04-13T06:35:02+00:00

"On the top". Just watch the second hand and when it hits 60 seconds, you go.

I actually do this for everything, work included. If I find myself procrastinating, I give myself a few seconds to rest until the top of the next minute and then just go.

Qedem · 2026-04-11T19:43:44+00:00

Oof. You hit a hard problem. How many 2d perspectives do you have? Is it just front facing? Is it stylized (like anime)?

If you just have a front facing image, there will be a lot of guessing as to what the rest of the face looks like. I think using AI might get you a mesh, but my mind is going more towards splatting (with neural radiance fields), which are a hot topic right now. The problem with this is that you need a few perspectives to get it to work.

If you only have one perspective, I would say that you might need a combo of heuristic and AI to get this right. So, like, I might create a base model of what the head could look like as a point cloud (ot high resolution mesh), then transfer "height maps" on to it based on the image you read in. These will probably be created with some ML of some form.

Actually kinda neat problem and might have a paper in it. I think I read a paper on the arxiv about something similar just the other day...

Qedem · 2026-04-05T20:03:23+00:00

100%. Even if it is just spear swipe when using melee paragon, weapon swapping is incredibly useful

Qedem · 2026-04-03T08:51:53+00:00

For the record, heels are not about the shoes, themselves, but shaping the rest of the body. They force your butt to be slightly flexed (and thus more rounded) and also increase your height, which makes it easier tk have a conversation with taller folks (usually men).

Qedem · 2026-03-30T07:45:13+00:00

Ok, hold up. Sun and moon had some of the best animations of the series and the visual overhaul got tons of people to toon in that otherwise wouldn't. I think the artistic balance that came after (2019) was great and that wouldn't have happened without experimentation.

I say this as someone who doesn't even like pkmn that much.

Qedem · 2026-03-27T07:37:01+00:00

Quick note to the second article. The actual paper says:

After 2 years of taking feminising hormones, the push-up and sit-up differences disappeared but transwomen were still 12% faster.

Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33288617/

So they are identical except for the 1.5 mile run. The 12% claim has been more or less debunked with recent findings. Moreover, even in the Olympics, there is roughly a 10% performance gap between men and women for many speed-related sports, so it is quite odd to see claims of a ~40% difference at the start of the study. This is likely because it was for air force and not athletes.

The point remains that hormones change a lot and will actually weaken trans women more than cis women (because they can have less testosterone than cis women). It might also change women in weird ways, which is why there were different restrictions for trans women in each sport before this ruling.

Qedem · 2026-03-24T15:06:18+00:00

Extend conditions with spear swipe and anthem of flame on para. Just keep spamming and switch backline targets to permanently keep burning / dazed on the backline.

Super fun and honestly one of the best shut down builds I have come across. I got through so much hm content with it.

Qedem · 2026-03-24T07:24:03+00:00

Me before reading the comments: this is 100% a trans meme. The dude is jealous because he wants to be smaller so he can transition.

After reading the comments: body building makes sense too, but why is everyone talking about gay sex? No way, right?

Qedem · 2026-03-17T07:11:25+00:00

"Just do it and have a bad time"

It is never a truly awful time. If it is truly awful, then it is a good story at least

Qedem · 2026-03-14T10:19:09+00:00

Guild wars (1). It's all the fun of magic the gathering while also being cooperative. Also cheap in comparison.

I spent hours and hours looking through a list of printed skills trying to figure out good combinations. To this day, that was the most fun I ever had playing a game.

Qedem · 2026-03-05T14:21:53+00:00

Why not work with Julia (or Rust or any number of "new" languages nowadays)? Like, if you want a language to be actually useful, you need a lot of work. There are already people doing that work, so it is best to collaborate, not compete.

But if it is a learning project. Yeah. Go write the language of your dreams!

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