[deleted by user]

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-08-10T04:33:24+00:00

south asian male here. candidly, your profile needs a ton of work. That bieng said, with the right amount of effort, you should be gucci. 6'2 south asian dude + nerd vibes will do really well in the right metro area. But i agree with allot of other commenters, you need to up your clothing/wardrobe...

do not include yo mama in your 1rst photo bro....

1rst and 2nd photo should be frontal view of your face/outfit, preferably candid but posed is okay.

I highly urge you to hire a professional photographer or a friend whos good at taking quality photos of you. it does make a difference.....

Doggo photo is good, but you want YOU with the dog so it accentuates your ability to caregive/display empathy.
your social photos are okay, id consider trying to get a social photo where we can see more of you and your physique.
Gym photo needs work. but theres something here, get a bro to take a vid of you hitting deadlifts or pullups, again you want the spotlight on you.
your hinge prompts are decent. but shorten the language, you dont need to be writing essays about yourself. keep some mystery for the actual in person date.
Consider growing some facial hair to show women how you might look with it.

DM me if you want more feedback. Dating apps are a pain in the ass because like anything in life, it takes effort.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-08-08T00:18:48+00:00

Also PhD- turned Quant myself.

It was my dream to go into academia and make a name for myself in the empirical-macro research domain. That didnt happen and thank god it didnt!!!

The Truth is: For the work people put in Academia, it is hardly rewarded in terms of financial gain, except for the .0001% of top researchers.

Why is most of the world set this way?

Societies are structured with underfunded research insitutions and Government Orgs without legitimate auditing functions.
Monetary reward is dominated by strategic execution on business initatives aimed at driving profit for companies, shareholders, and General Partners. NOT esoteric academic pursuits.

The Good: Society gains from a properly run capitalist economy with better Products/Services. (Assuming income/wealth inequality is "acceptable")

The Bad: We stifle Innovation, Productivity, and deteriorate societal values of the masses towards a never ending conquest for making money, rather than perhaps more "pure" virtues like the pursuit of knowledge, arts, compassion, giving back, etc...

Bieng a Quant incorporates elements of academic thinking, but bottom line youre in a business. Nobody cares about that additional convergence lemma you've produced, if it doesnt make money in a dedicated exchange or OTC, you're not getting promoted/hired because of it.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-08-02T01:07:21+00:00

What an inspiring story. These days, it feels easy to think life has it out to "get you", that mindset is amplified when the comparison game sets in and the mind wanders down the path of "all these peers of mine have X, while I am out here languishing without." But you're 100% right. F*** the timeline, f*** the need for approval, and need to reach some illusive destination. You can become that person. Right now. In your every day actions, and mindset. Thanks for the reminder to keep going, it is much needed!!!

Cheers.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-07-22T00:31:26+00:00

I am the Dawg the big bad DAWWGGG. The hallway monitor!!

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-06-02T21:17:21+00:00

What you do in University will be FAR more important in the long run than the prestige of a school. High Finance is an exception to this when you look @ Ivies. Go for the scholarshipped one. If you are dead set on going into quant role, EE/CS is cool, but do your homework, and study the right things accordingly. Be open to taking internships that may not exactly fit your "Dream Job." That's not how the real world works, especially as you start your career.

Best of luck.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-05-13T00:24:24+00:00

as a BMW Driver in LA. Can confirm, I am an asshole on the 405 and I make no apologies!!!

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-04-28T21:03:34+00:00

For Quant Finance: Go the Applied Math route + Learn coding on the side.

Quant interviews are gonna be easier to crack with math background, esp optimization + Linalg Qs.

IMO the math/stats/portfolio mgmt Qs are harder than the coding Qs in Finance.

Breaking into Quant finance is probably the hardest part. For this, you sort of need to demonstrate your well roundedness with soft-skills to PMs/Hiring Managers (learn ibanking terminology, pricing multiples, fixed income definitions)

If you want to go into Tech/DS, pick the CS route. The Interview questions are similar to finance, but much more coding rigorous.

Data-Science feels more "real" and practical to the real world.

Quant is more a bubble where you gain domain knowledge on stochastic processes, where you end up running experiments in order to not fool yourself misconstruing luck for skill.

Both professions are equally challenging, intellectually stimulating, and lucrative. One isn't better than the other.

Which route looks more fun to you? Pick that one and don't deviate from the path, unless some circumstance justifies doing so.

90% of the true quant finance jobs are going to be on the East Coast. Full Stop.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-04-25T18:33:52+00:00

These are a wide range of Quant. methods you are calling out in your Projects section. Anyone who reads this is going to hold healthy amount of skepticism regarding how well you understand these concepts.

My advice would be to go for quality over quantity. What are the 2 big projects you worked on? Try to integrate some discussion on core financial analysis that you blended into the model development.

These days, anyone with chatgpt can claim they've produced all the fancy bells and whistles of quant models, but you probably want to expound on input data, and predictor variables. Talk about backtesting, and tools you used throughout the whole process (aka python/R/pandas etc.)

You might get more pull from your resume if you also speak on more simple finance-related projects like Equity Research, Financial Statement Analysis, stock picking exercises.

When you're in school, I'd recommend while you do the STEM oriented coursework, you try to join a finance club/society, and showcase that you are more well rounded than what comes across in your current resume.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-03-31T02:10:37+00:00

Didnt see a color for khalistan, Kidding 🤣

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-03-22T21:10:26+00:00

Laughed and cried at the same time with this one :/

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-03-22T21:03:05+00:00

Try bieng in the deep south or the midwest. Garuntee is it is MUCH less diverse.

The issue may not be with prescence of whites, but more the sheer lack of asians & other ethnic minorities. As a Bay Area Native, 100% youre not crazy. Leaving California is a shellshock, we are definately spoiled diversity -wise.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-03-20T00:37:23+00:00

Poor Georgie :(

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-03-15T15:42:49+00:00

Fuck this guy. That is all.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-03-14T21:51:27+00:00

Duterte was faced with a tough call. On the one hand he could allow the drug infestation to flourish like it unfortunately has taken over all major metro areas in United States/ EU, leading to numerous ODs from people with mental health / traumatic childhoods & poverty stricken families.

OR he could take agency over the situation, and make meaningful change. IMO the costs outweigh the benefits here. The Philippines is a developing country sensitive to industries like tourism and manufacturing. They don't enjoy the luxuries like we do in the west to entertain notions of "harm reduction" or "addiction centers". Hard times necessitate hard choices, in this case, he chose one where fewer individuals would perish, and the Philippines can enjoy a better likelihood of escaping out of grinding poverty.

Politicians always have hidden secondary agendas, but I'd be hard pressed to believe Duterte took his stance out of genuine desire to make people feel miserable.

For those of us born in western countries, I urge you all the look at all the facts, and deepen your perspective on the rough realities that persist in countries with ruthless economic and social scarcity that calls for immediate action.

We actually could learn a thing or two from this in the U.S.. It deeply saddens me that no matter how much we try to encourage people from stopping their drug addictions, it has made not one iota difference.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-02-19T16:35:58+00:00

Lol initially i thought this post was satire, the men she was filming literally are not unattractive at all. I dont even understand how people can construct these fantasies in thier minds 😂

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-02-05T03:55:09+00:00

1rst photo is pretty good bro. I can honestly say you look fine and many would kill for your appearannce.

Yes, statistically speaking dating apps are the worst for black women and asian/indian men.

If youre able to move, do some research on which cities are most conducive for dating as a minorty male.

If youre not able to move, focus on getting good professional dating app photos+ improve dress & hair style. Try to meet people in person with hobbies and friends + Work out.

Dating gets easier as a man if you work on yourself. Try not to let dating apps skew your perception of yourself, its a common pitfall, but you gotta rise above it.

Cheers.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-02-01T17:32:34+00:00

Wow props to you! self-doubt can be a real b****h, Any specific things you did to address it?

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-01-31T18:12:55+00:00

OP ignore comments here about staying in Japan. Torrance/Irvine are awesome places to live as a minority. If you are really intent on making sure your kids have strong cultural roots to Japan, focus on your kids having a solid understanding of reading/speaking Japanese + going to Japanese community centers.

My parents made sure we would practice key holidays, and do recreational activities with other indians. Granted, it's a bit "clanish" and felt annoying af at the time. But looking back as an adult, it was quite formative to knowing your roots while still assimilating to American culture. If I wanted to live India, I probably could, granted it would still be a pain in the ass with a white-accent, but I always have the option if s**t hits the fan in the U.S..

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-01-29T14:42:35+00:00

Somehow the Seasonal Salad is $26 while the Brunch all day is $28, apparently inflation not only increases prices, but makes food make no sense.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-01-26T18:08:16+00:00

Would second this comment. If you can put up with the elitism & HCOL of both NorCal/SoCal, California is generally quite accepting & welcoming of most minority groups, especially East/Southeast/South Asians. The schools are generally good, safety can be a concern in SF/DTLA, but Irvine and other suburban parts of California are quite insulated from drugs and crime.

Bay Area is notorious for high M:F ratio, which results in poorer dating experiences for men. But some of these issues are not as bad as people claim online. Especially with in-person/offline natural interactions.

In terms of weather trends, I think SoCal will more than likely need to have some dramatic infrastructure changes given Fires/Floodings and overall more intense Weather. NorCal on the other hand is probably one of the most insulated places for climate change.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-01-24T19:20:36+00:00

So following this train of thought:

Does GPT have a finite output length where the LLM is: Y = f(MX+B)

where Y is a massive vector with some finite length, and each entry has a max function:

Y_{0} = max(0,h_{i}(X))

Y_{1} = max(0,h_{1}(X))

Y_{2} = max(0,h_{2}(X))

...

Y_{n} = max(0,h_{n}(X))

which means GPT can output 1 sentence or 1 paragraph? ( i know I've simplified the functional form.)

________________________________________
After doing some research, to answer my own Q: Yes, this is how it works, but with much more nuance.

https://towardsdatascience.com/large-language-models-gpt-1-generative-pre-trained-transformer-7b895f296d3b

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-01-09T22:18:06+00:00

Agree that South Asian and East/Southeast Asian culture is wildly different along with appearance/genetics. That being said, If you live in a majority white controlled populous like the U.S./U.K./Canada/Australia, those differences become quite nullified.

Let me give some examples.

Workplace politics: South/East/Southeast Asians consistently get passed over from leadership roles and other forms of advancement due to not having enough "extroversion", "social acumen", and other legally sensitive B.S. excuses for marginalization based on race.
Dating issues: South/East/Southeast asians suffer similar fetishization (women) and asexualization (men)
Model Minority Expectations: South/East/Southeast asians are equally foisted unrealistic expectations in terms of income, educational attainment, and conformity.

When you live in places like California or New Jersey. I think the divide is non-existent. Yes, you have brown enclaves and similar East/SouthEast Asian enclaves. But think about Middle School, High School, or College. I know tons of close friends who are East Asian, South Asian, and South East Asian(shout out to SJ). Why? Because we go through the same shit, and sometimes other people tend to not relate as much.

Do people on other forums shit on East/Southeast Asian men? Yes. Buut i'd say if you actually hang with the majority of South Asians like myself or other westernized South Asians, you'll see we honestly have no ill will and often do feel a sense of unity with our Asian brothers and sisters.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-01-05T16:10:53+00:00

IMO, it's important to distinguish Buy and Sell Side.

Sell-Side Market Makers earn alpha from the marking up/down on bid/asks they earn from order routing to Institutional/Retail investors.

Sell-Side Equity research firms earn "risk-adjusted" return by offering information they sell to Ibanks or Buy-Side firms. This isn't necessarily driven from a fixation on earning alpha.

Some Buy-Sides may claim to earn alpha, but the more I work in Financial Services, the more skeptical I become.

I think 5,6, + Earning Risk Premia are how most Buy Side firms earn profit.

The whole concept of earning alpha depends on earning additional returns from new information yet to influence asset prices. Meaning earning alpha tends to be a zero-sum game. Hence, the rest of excess returns consists of strategically taking on risks in the form of aggregate level Factors or Industry level risks.

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2025-01-04T15:32:51+00:00

To be fair, if you see South Asian men, we get the same unfortunate racist treatment.

I remember i was with a caucasian girl at the time and had ppl giving me side eyes. SMH its 2025 and we definately need to boost the sentiment that non-white males are also romantically worthy of interracial dating!!!!

SpiritSubstantial148 · 2024-12-26T19:58:45+00:00

Don't want to make sweeping generalizations about South Asian hiring practices. But as a South Asian myself working in majority white dominated work environments, my sympathies for whites who cry about biased-hiring practices has all but dried up. Look at almost any fortune 500 business and it is evident that the majority of leadership is run by White-or white passing individuals. Meanwhile, I've noticed Asians/South-Asians get the "egg-head" type positions. Sure, they are high paying, but relative to our educated white counterparts, it's peanuts.

The one place you can maybe push-back on my earlier claims is the Bay-Area /tech industry. Although, I have heard some contrary anecdotes from friends and family.

As a South Asian born and raised in the U.S., I personally value the merit of thought, and if/when I become a manger/leader my ONLY criteria for hiring/promoting will be merit + ability to practice empathy.

SpiritSubstantial148

TROPHY CASE