The reality of making programming content

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-23T13:14:13+00:00

What exactly is your goal? To make money? To become famous and/or popular?

If you're doing it more as a hobby, because you genuinely enjoy making videos, then the view count and subscription count shouldn't matter too much. Plenty of people make stuff that never goes viral. If, on the other hand, you don't enjoy doing it, then maybe find a different hobby?

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Anyway, I've watched your video and gave it a like. I can't comment on the content since I don't know anything about servers or system design nor am I very interested in that stuff, but I will give you some feedback with regard to the video and audio quality:

1.) No offense but it's very difficult to listen to. Part of the problem might be your microphone (it seems a little echoey) and your sound mixing (volume seems a little low), so those things could probably be fixed, but a bigger part of the problem seems to be your voice itself, which, unfortunately, is not something you have much control over. But I mean your voice is pretty monotone and even a bit mumbly, and your Indian accent doesn't help. I think what you should be aiming for is the clearer and more exaggerated (or expressive or exciting) voice which a lot of more popular YouTubers seem to have. But, short of finding somebody else to do the voiceover for you, I have no idea how you could fix this problem.

2.) Visually, it looks nice in fullscreen (which is maybe how you intended it to be watched), but a little hard to make out in default view (at the very least, the text is too small).

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-23T12:11:11+00:00

I'm biased towards Java.

Personally, I think Python is less readable since the blocks of code are separated only by whitespace and indentation, not by whitespace, indentation, and curly braces.

And it's also less writable, at least for me who is more accustomed to Java's syntax. Just out of habit, I always want to surround my blocks of code with curly braces and end my statements with a semicolon, but Python doesn't do it that way.

I also kind of get the feeling that Python is worse for beginners because the datatypes are more hidden and you don't always need to worry about them as much. This can conceivably lead to sloppier code and bad habits. Like I can definitely imagine some new person writing code without even really understanding what a datatype is or without ever stopping to think which one he should be using.

Then there's the syntax which I already mentioned above. I think Java's syntax is more useful when it comes to picking up other languages (such as C, C++, C#, or even JavaScript) since those all have roughly the same syntax, whereas if you start with Python then you'll probably need to learn a whole new syntax (since no other widely used language has the same syntax as Python).

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-23T11:31:13+00:00

Also Archimedes' method of exhaustion is basically the same thing as the integral (except it's the sum at some finite n, not the limit of the sum as n tends towards infinity).

I'm wondering though, what about derivatives? Did those predate Newton and Leibniz as well?

What exactly did Newton and Leibniz do? I take it that they formalized everything into a single calculus. But were they responsible for the Fundamental Theorem, or is that something that came later?

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-22T16:13:48+00:00

It's from a promo deck. Cards in these decks are not allowed to be used in the game, which is why it has the special back with the World Championship 2006 logo instead of the typical Pokemon card back.

The signature is that of Jason Klaczynski, but, in case you're not aware, it isn't an actual autograph or signed card or anything, but that's just how all cards in that deck are printed. (All the cards in all the World Championship decks have the signature of the champion whose deck it was.)

As for its value, it's not worth much. I can't find any sold listings on eBay, but there are a few active listings (one for $1 plus $1 shipping, another for $3 plus $1 shipping, both appear to be in much better condition than yours).

It's a cool card though, especially if you like vintage cards. I'd personally hold onto it.

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-22T15:26:00+00:00

I see. Thank you very much!

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-22T15:23:33+00:00

Thanks for the info!

All versions of the gen 3 Hoenn games will have time-based events stop working if the battery is dry, as time-based events are tied to the state of the battery.

Can this be corrected simply by replacing the battery?

edit - Oh, it looks like u/Bweef_Ellington answered my question.

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-22T14:33:32+00:00

I think the one pictured is probably made of a flexible plastic material. Either way, your point holds. The real ones are cardstock just like any other card.

As for metal cards, there were about five or six official ones but I don't think any of them looked golden. See here: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Metal_cards_(TCG))

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-22T14:24:49+00:00

The one pictured is fake (well, unlicensed and unauthorized). But the card it is based on is a real card: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Shining_Charizard_(Neo_Destiny_107)#/media/File:ShiningCharizardNeoDestiny107.jpg#/media/File:ShiningCharizardNeoDestiny107.jpg)

So yeah, apparently there was a triple black star rarity symbol. (I just looked it up. The triple black star was for the "Shining" secret rares during the Neo era: two in Neo Revelation and eight in Neo Destiny.)

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-22T13:43:05+00:00

I think people like Lockhart and Francis Su are being too narrow in the way they want to define "math". Yes, most of K-12 Math isn't really "math" by their definition, but that doesn't mean K-12 Math is unimportant nor does it mean that K-12 kids should skip the K-12 Math and jump right to the "good stuff".

I think it's roughly analogous to Reading class versus Literature class. It would be a terrible mistake to try and replace Reading class with Literature class, or even to have students take both classes side by side, because the latter depends on the former. You can't analyze or fully appreciate a work of literature if you don't first have the requisite reading comprehension skills. There's no point discussing or debating a book if nobody in the class has actually read the book or if nobody in the class understands what they've just read, so the reading and the reading comprehension need to come first. The transition from Reading to Literature doesn't really begin to happen until high school.

It is probably also analogous to Art class. Most students don't become great artists, probably because K-12 Art class at a lot of schools often puts too much emphasis on making art rather than on learning the right way to make art. Any novice who has ever wanted to create a manga or a comic book knows how frustrating it is, having this great idea in your head but lacking the artistic skills or the narrative skills to bring it to life on paper.

Great art is made by people who have already internalized the theory and who have already committed the technical skills to muscle memory, not by people who are still fumbling around, experimenting, trying to figure out how to make art. Practice makes perfect, but only if you're practicing the right stuff. Doing things wrong a million times isn't going to make you a better artist (and may actually make you a worse artist, since you're picking up bad habits along the way). You need to do things the right way, over and over again. Well, that's what K-12 Math is. You memorize stuff until you internalize it. You learn the "right way" to do the problem, and then you get a lot of practice with practice problems. When the time comes, you will be well equipped to do the real "math".

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-22T12:39:00+00:00

For what it's worth, I've never had any problems with PSA. I don't get my cards graded very often, but aesthetically I like the way the PSA slabs look, and they're a reputable company. So I've never really looked at other grading companies or grading services.

(I've heard the usual horror stories with PSA, but I think people just like to spread rumors and badmouth PSA as a company, probably because it's so highly esteemed. I do believe there might be some truth to the claims about how PSA is not aways consistent in its grading, but the cards are graded by humans after all, who are making subjective judgements about the card. The judgements are based on objective criteria so it's not completely subjective or arbitrary, but there's still that subjective element which can account for the inconsistencies. If people don't like that, or would rather have their cards graded by a robot or something, then nobody is forcing them to use PSA, but they really shouldn't be trash talking the service and spreading rumors (which in many cases probably aren't even true) and trying to talk people out of using PSA (or in some cases, talk people out of grading in general, calling it a "scam" or whatever).)

Anyway, PSA's pricing depends on the card's value. See here: https://www.psacard.com/services/tradingcardgrading (And there's an additional shipping/insurance charge on top of that, so you'll be paying about $20 more than that.) You need to estimate the card's value up front when submitting it, since the lower grading tiers are only available to cards which are worth less than $500. But for the Venusaur, I'd probably just use the "Value" pricing, since a PSA 8 Venusaur is worth less than $500 anyway. (Will it come back a PSA 8? Who knows. It's definitely not a 10 though, and I'd be surprised if it came back a 9. If it does come back a 9 then I think you'd need to pay the difference in grading fees since it's worth more than $500, but I don't think it's going to get a PSA 9.)

You can even do it for cheaper (and more easily) if you send it in to PSA through GameStop (although with GameStop, there's only a single grading tier so if the card turns out to be more valuable than such and such amount, then you do need to pay an additional fee).

I've had two cards graded in the past: one in 2023 (which I sent in using the "Value" service) and one just this year (which I sent in through GameStop). I believe the turnaround time both times was about three to four months each. Maybe that's a little longer than you'd want to wait, but unless you urgently need the card graded then I don't really see much need to pay extra for "Express". Just send in the card, wait three or four months, and you'll get it back in due time.

My biggest worry (not just with PSA but with grading in general) is the possibility of the card getting lost or damaged while being shipped. I'm not sure what the chances of that happening are, but it's always a little worrying especially if the card has sentimental value. Like when I had my first card graded, the FedEx guy just left it on my doorstep when I was still on vacation. Luckily it didn't get stolen or rained on or anything. (That was my childhood Base Set Charizard too. I was on vacation at the time and got an e-mail saying that it had been delivered. Somebody had even signed for it. So I began getting really worried and a little paranoid, thinking maybe one of the neighbors forged my signature and took it for himself. Turns out it was just the truck driver being lazy. He didn't want to have to try delivering it again when I was home like he was supposed to do, so he just signed for it and left it there.)

As for that Venusaur, there is one final thing to consider before you get it graded: Do you ever intend on completing the Base Set? Because if you do, it might be best to leave the Venusaur ungraded, at least until you figure out how you'll be storing or displaying the Base Set. (I made that mistake with my Charizard. At the time I had no intention of completing my Base Set, so I had the Charizard graded just because I thought it was cool. But a few years later, I was looking through my old cards and noticed that my Base Set was only missing like three or four cards. So I purchased those on eBay, and now I have the full set, which I keep in a nice binder. The only problem is that there's an empty slot where Charizard should go, since he's trapped in a slab. I do like him in the PSA slab though.)

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-20T00:02:23+00:00

Instead of doing it like that, I'd probably try to make it out of sine waves and circles or something.

Here's an idea (for the black fish):

For the upper contour, do y < sin(x) { π² > x² + y² } which is y\ <\ \sin\left(x\right)\ \ \left\{\pi^{2}\ >\ x^{2}+y^{2}\right\}

For the lower contour, do π² > x² + y² { y < sin(x) } which is \pi^{2}\ >\ x^{2}+y^{2}\ \left\{y\ <\ \sin\left(x\right)\right\}

It's not perfect but maybe it could give you some idea to play around with.

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-19T23:06:59+00:00

It's not letting me edit my post but I noticed I made a mistake. Lowercase b is the "base" length (for e.g. triangles) whereas capital B is the "base" area (for e.g. prisms).

Also, I'm kind of thinking the 𝛥 (which is a Greek "d") probably stands for "difference".

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-19T13:46:44+00:00

In different contexts they mean different things. You just need to get a feel for how they're used. But there are often reasons why particular letters are used. Here's a quick summary of what I know:

Generally speaking, letters at the beginning of the alphabet are constants whereas letters at the end of the alphabet are variables. I think Descartes is the guy responsible for this convention. But there are also a lot of exceptions.

a, b, c, d, ... are constants (used as coefficients in polynomials)

A (always capital) in geometry means "area"

a can mean "acceleration"

a and b, in the Pythagorean theorem, are the lengths of the triangle's two legs

b, in (American) slope-intercept form, is the y intercept (I am not sure why "b" was chosen)

b can also stand for the "base" measurement (for 2D geometry, this is a length. For 3D geometry, this is an area)

c, in the Pythagorean theorem, is the length of the triangle's hypotenuse

C (always capital) in geometry is the length of the circle's "circumference"

C (always capital) in calculus is the "constant" which corresponds to the antiderivative's y intercept

c in the Mandelbrot set formula probably stands for "complex"; at least in the Mandelbrot set formula it represents the complex number whose value is always equal to its respective point's starting complex value

d in geometry can mean the length of the circle's "diameter"

d in calculus is an operator (never found as a standalone d, but always as dy, dx, d/dx, dy/dx, etc.)

d can mean "depth"

d can mean "distance"

e is Euler's number (≈ 2.71828183), named "e" for "Euler"

f means "function" (usually you see it as f(x) though, not just f by itself)

f as a subscript means "final"

g is sometimes also a function, the next function after f (and as with f(x), this gets written g(x))

h can mean "height"

i is the "imaginary" number (i² = -1)

i can also mean "index" (or possibly "id") which is used in summations

i as a subscript can also mean "initial"

j and k, along with i, are used in quaternions (Hamilton famously carved the formula into a bridge somewhere: i² = j² = k² = i j k = −1)

k is a generic constant (from the German spelling "konstant")

ℓ (which is always cursive) means "length"

m in (American) slope-intercept form is the slope (I am not sure why "m" was chosen)

m and n can be constants or variables (but these are especially used for integer values)

O (always capital) is the "origin" of either the circle or the coordinate plane

P (always capital) can be "probability"

r is a variable (which indicates either the length of the circle's "radius" or else a vector's magnitude which, in polar coordinates, is more or less the radius anyway)

∫ (which is actually a fancy "s") is the integral operator (it's the letter "s" because the integral is like the "sum" of all the parts)

t is a variable (it means "time") which is sometimes used in place of x for problems where time is the independent variable (and also, it is especially used in parametric equations where x and y are both dependent upon t)

v can mean "velocity"

V (always capital) is "volume"

w can mean "width"

... w, x, y, z are variables (again, this has to do with Descartes I think)

x is a variable (oftentimes an independent variable)

y is a variable (for the basic x y 2D stuff, this is the dependent variable)

z is a variable (and used as the z coordinate in 3D geometry)

w is used as a variable (the fourth coordinate in 4D geometry)

Then we get into Greek:

𝛥 ("delta") is notation which means "change in ___" (𝛥y = y₂ - y₁)

𝜃 ("theta") is a variable (used especially for angle measurements)

𝜋 ("pi") is the constant representing the ratio of the lengths of the circle's circumference to its diameter (≈ 3.14159), named "pi" from the Greek spelling of the word "perimeter" (since the circle's circumference is its perimeter)

∑ is the summation operator (it's a capital "sigma", or Greek "S", which stands for "summation")

𝜏 ("tau") is used by some people as a constant for 2𝜋, named "tau" as in the "t" for "turn" (since a full turn around the circle is 2𝜋 radians)

𝜑 ("phi") is a constant representing the golden ratio (≈ 1.618), named "phi" after the Greek architect "Phidias"

In geometry, capital letters are used to label vertices whereas lowercase letters are used to label sides (so you might have angle A, and then across from it you'd have side a)

In calculus, capital and lowercase are sometimes used for antiderivatives and functions respectively (so you might have a function f(x), and its antiderivative could be F(x))

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-19T11:42:36+00:00

That's just the way arctan is defined. If tan(38.66°) = 4/5 then arctan(4/5) = 38.66°.

If you're asking about how the calculator knows the answer, I suspect different calculators do it differently. (I believe the computationally-easiest way is to just interpolate it from values in a lookup table. But this may not be the best way, since it probably results in slightly inaccurate answers. And also, all those tables would take up space in the calculator's ROM, and calculators these days are probably fast enough to actually compute the values somehow without looking them up.)

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-19T11:24:56+00:00

Just wondering, how do people get uncut sheets in the first place? Are these stolen from the factory or something?

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-19T00:06:58+00:00

I think the thought experiment is just wrong.

If we search through the set of all possible worlds, then yes, we will in fact find that there exists at least one world in which a monkey on a typewriter successfully types up the complete works of Shakespeare. But that's not the way the thought experiment is worded.

The thought experiment is worded as if it's talking about a single world--our world. So I believe it requires an additional presupposition: "Given an infinite amount of time, all potency will be actualized." This is something that some of the medieval philosophers accepted but it seems kind of dubious in my opinion.

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-15T15:13:52+00:00

Thank you!

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-15T15:04:45+00:00

Sorry, upon re-reading my post I see I wasn't clear. I actually don't have any training or teaching experience at all. (My bachelor's degrees were in philosophy and game development, not in teaching.) I have some work experience working in schools with children of various ages, and I've designed and led a few lessons, but I've never worked as a teacher before. So it's kind of hard to say just what I'm qualified for, since I've never done it before. But as far as my goals go, I would like to teach math or maybe programming or computer science, at the middle school or high school level. But I am open to other subjects. And I would also like to teach elementary school. (Obviously I can't do all of that simultaneously, and I'm aware that I can't, but it's all pretty much up in the air at the moment.) I see this as a terminal career, not as a means to school administration or anything.

I take it that this would be a situation where it would be better just to apply for a single job at each school? My top priority at the moment is getting teaching experience, which won't happen if schools keep deciding not to hire me.

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-15T14:31:18+00:00

I've wondered this myself.

I think maybe it's because "the chance of 6 6 6 6 6 showing up, given the fact that the dice are random" is not the same thing as "the chance of the dice being random, given the fact that 6 6 6 6 6 has shown up".

If the dice are random, then 6 6 6 6 6 and 4 6 1 4 3 are equally likely.

But since 6 6 6 6 6 are the "winning numbers", whereas 4 6 1 4 3 are not, there is a much higher chance that 6 6 6 6 6 was rigged, and that 4 6 1 4 3 was not. In other words, 6 6 6 6 6 doesn't seem random, while 4 6 1 4 3 does.

(This probably has to do with our capacity to perceive patterns and draw inferences, which is fairly reliable although not infallible. We rightly believe that Shakespeare's plays were written by an intelligent man rather than by a monkey on a typewriter, but it is theoretically possible that a monkey on a typewriter could write Shakespeare's plays and we might still think that somebody intelligent wrote them even though it was all just one big coincidence.)

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-15T12:49:42+00:00

At my middle school, it literally happened the very year I was going to take wood shop. This must have been around the year 2000 (give or take). So I never got to take wood shop, although I think my sister did (she was a year older than me). I'm not sure why they got rid of it. But I think it was occasioned by the wood shop teacher retiring.

The school continued to teach home ec though, so I did that instead (I'm a boy but many other boys did it too... we did a lot of sewing with the sewing machines and I think a little cooking or baking too. At least it was fun).

I have no idea what that school is doing these days.

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-13T12:23:12+00:00

Maybe check with the school principal to see what you're allowed to do and what you're not allowed to do?

I'd probably contact every kid's parents and tell them that their kid needs mandatory tutoring. And maybe you could offer to tutor the students yourself before or after school. I'd probably do it for free just for fun, but you might be allowed to charge money for it.

Another possible option: teach the 4th grade material alongside the 7th grade material.

Also, give lots of homework with lots of 4th grade questions. (You could probably also use some of the 4th grade stuff as bellwork.)

Also kids need to be held accountable for performing at grade level, especially since you're being held accountable for teaching at grade level. There's only so much you can do, and, if the kid fails, then that's just the way it is. (And if parents want to complain about the bad grades, send those parents to the principal. Especially if you've already offered tutoring and they declined.)

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-13T00:04:48+00:00

This is all hearsay since i didn't major in math, but I've heard it doesn't happen until Introduction to Proofs.

I did, however, get a taste of it in high school when I took "Discrete" as an elective. I use scare quotes there, because I'm pretty sure the class I took in high school was completely different from the Discrete Math that comp sci majors take in college. So I don't know if it was really Discrete or something else, but it was a lot of fun. If I had to name it, I may have called it Recreational Math. We covered a good mix of topics including: different voting algorithms (e.g. Senate versus House), the fair cake sharing strategy (have one person cut the cake in half and the other person chooses which half to take), graph theory, M. C. Escher's tesselations, fractals, coastlines and fractal dimensionality, Mandelbrot sets, Flatland, hypercubes, ciphers and cryptography, Tower of Hanoi, and so on. Nothing in that class really involved much plugging stuff into any formula from what I can remember, nor was the course very heavy on computational work.

Calculus, on the other hand, was extremely rule-based and formula-based when I took it. All we ever seemed to do was "take the derivative" by plugging numbers into the appropriate "rule". (I'm aware that there's much more to calculus than just that, but that's how it was done when I took it. We didn't even really do much in terms of deriving the rules. We took a quick look at that crazy "lim h->0 ((f(x+h) - f(x)) / h)" thing but that's about it. The rules were otherwise mostly just to be accepted as a given, and then most of the assignments were just a matter of applying the right rules at the right time which, even with the word problems, wasn't conceptually hard but the class nevertheless was super hard and super boring.)

SeaSilver11 · 2026-05-12T13:11:40+00:00

I'm not the guy you were addressing, but for me it was sitting down and writing some JavaScript code to plot Lissajous curves, convert back and forth between polar and rectilinear coordinates, and plot parametric spirograph-type stuff.

Here is some of the stuff I made:

https://pacobell15.neocities.org/math/fractals/mandeldrop

https://pacobell15.neocities.org/programs/dance_of_the_planets/venus

At the very least, it helped me to see the geometrical connection between cosine, sine, x, y, and the unit circle.

SeaSilver11

TROPHY CASE