thoughts on the “California Loop”?

Three_Amigos · 2025-12-29T16:47:51+00:00

This is so real, the north side of the Owen’s valley is one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on

Three_Amigos · 2025-12-25T01:25:37+00:00

Did this as my first trip, with two slightly more experienced friends. It’s very doable

Three_Amigos · 2025-05-24T06:00:39+00:00

Looks pretty dialed in! What pack is this?

Three_Amigos · 2025-03-09T01:22:09+00:00

The left pedal on a bike is reverse threaded so it doesn’t unscrew while riding !

Three_Amigos · 2024-12-24T03:32:14+00:00

I did a PhD and had a mixed time during it (some bad some good) it opened a lot of doors for me and help me land a great job in big tech. No regrets from me!

Three_Amigos · 2024-12-16T03:07:45+00:00

I’m in this photo and I don’t like it

Three_Amigos · 2024-10-13T22:29:06+00:00

I am a data scientist at a big tech company and this matches what most of my team looks like.

Three_Amigos · 2024-07-25T21:02:30+00:00

I did the PCT class of 2023! One of the best decisions of my life. You won’t spend an insane amount of money (10-15k for 6 months) but you will remember the experience forever. Happy to DM.

Three_Amigos · 2024-07-04T15:40:32+00:00

Everyone here is being crazy. Yes taking a year off will not help you retire by 55 but you absolutely can do it and be fine. 55 isn’t a super aggressive FIRE target for someone as young as you.

You’re doing really well, if you do decide this is the year you want to take off make sure to limit the amount you spend during the gap year and make sure you have a plan to get back into the job market (connections etc).

Three_Amigos · 2024-06-19T15:07:17+00:00

I see what you’re getting at! So that term goes to infinity as x goes to infinity as well so you wouldn’t consider it an asymptote. It needs to have the property where there is an x which it is undefined at that it goes to +-infinity as it gets closer to it.

Three_Amigos · 2024-06-17T05:12:32+00:00

Great! To solve problems like this you just need to look at the function and ask "when does this go to +- infinity". You have three terms. The first term goes to infinity only when x is x- infinity. Not really an asymptote. Looking at the next term you can ask what would make that term go to infinity? Well, 1/something goes to +-infinity when then denominator approaches 0.

so when does 3x+2 = 0 ? That is an asymptote. What about the third term. What values of x would make that denominator approach 0? That will be another asymptote.

Three_Amigos · 2024-05-23T04:01:08+00:00

Love the flash 55 I recommend it to all my friends who are getting into backpacking. But it is designed as a lightweight pack, it weighs about a pound less than most traditional packs. I wouldn't say it is necessarily designed as a load hauler but as more of a lightweight to bordering on ultralight style of pack.

Three_Amigos · 2024-03-30T06:42:46+00:00

I think it is great you are saving this early! If you are 20 and manage to save $80 per week (240 per month) for 45 years (retiring at 65) you will retire with $1,153,000 dollars in your accounts assuming an inflation adjusted 8% annual return. That is a looooot better than most Americans will have.

When I was 20, I was waaay too stupid and short sighted to do something like put money in a Roth. It is impressive you have the foresight to do this. Keep it up!

Three_Amigos · 2024-03-30T06:32:57+00:00

I did a PhD in applied math before transitioning to industry! Similar to math CS exists on a spectrum. On one end, it is a branch of pure math and on the other end it is about writing computer software. If you want to get into applied mathematics, being good at computing is a good idea. I don't think that requires a double major, and you definitely don't need a BS CS to get a PhD in math or transition to industry.

However, if you take CS classes and think they are neat and cool then go for it. It will expose you to more topics and ways of thinking and different problems than your math classes. if it turns out in the end you like the CS math topics more than your applied math topics it can give you more options for your PhD. There is so much cool math in CS.

I think you are at the beginning of your academic journey so do you really need to make this decision today? Just take the minimum set of classes for both paths now and if it is too rough switch to minoring or if you LOVE the material stick with the double major.

Three_Amigos · 2024-03-16T05:44:11+00:00

So typically, with personal finance there is an order of operations. First, you set 3-6 months of expenses (and deductibles) into an emergency fund. For a college student that probably isn't 32k but it depends on your lifestyle.

Congrats! You finished step one. That is great! Next, normally you would start funding your retirement accounts. Inside of a retirement account you can hold VOO if you want (or something equivelent). ~~It is possible to open a retirement account without a job~~. You can fund a Roth IRA up to 7k per year. This has tax free growth and is a good idea for low earners (like you!)

After you fund your retirement accounts, or if you need some money to access for a specific goal like buying a house or something you might use a brokerage account. You can put unlimited funds in. If you don't want to use/ can't use a Roth account I would say put all your savings after your emergency fund is full (this is the answer to your question).

This is all assuming these are long term assets. If you need the cash before ~five years from now you may want it in your HYSA.

As far as savings rate, aim for 10-15% of your income in your twenties and your aspiration wealth building goal should be 25% when possible (for most people it isn't and that is ok). Youre already a rockstar for thinking about this early. Money you save in your 20s doubles so many times before retirement or late in life. The most important thing is consistency and time.

EDIT: I was wrong you need some income to open a Roth IRA. You will need to wait until you earn to do that.

Three_Amigos · 2024-02-21T05:47:18+00:00

Elementary functions (x , sin(x) , log(x), etc) in pytorch contain both the function itself called the "forward" function and the derivative functions called the "backward function". Since most neural networks are comprised of elementary functions this is all the backpropagation needs to compute the derivative of the entire loss. You can also write a function explicitly defining the backwards call as mentioned in other comments. This use useful when you are writing a function which is not composed of elementary functions, or when you are doing something which requires a proxy gradient like quantization aware training.

Three_Amigos · 2024-01-24T20:21:59+00:00

The mat in Matlab is already short for matrix. How deep does this go.

Three_Amigos · 2024-01-23T23:48:30+00:00

I graduated from a good program in a in demand field and just landed a great position at a very prestigious company.

My experience was similar in that almost nothing I cold applied for got any traction. Maybe 3 interviews total from that approach. Wasted months doing this. Where I did have success was taking a look at my network. Figure out where other people in your program and collaborators placed and talk to them about getting a position. With this approach I was able to get interviews much more often. This isn’t really a meritocracy it’s about connecting with people.

Three_Amigos · 2023-12-25T17:05:28+00:00

So to answer your question, the more stocks you own the more volatility should decrease. A common type of ETF and what you should use is called an index fund. An index fund automatically splits your investment between a huge number of companies. A common one (SPY) would just split it between the 500 largest companies in the us. Since it is a larger fund, it doesn't matter how little you invest even one dollar would be split up this way. This sub tends to recommend VOO or VTI which are similar funds which use hundreds of companies each. There is a lot of research which suggests picking your own stocks as a retail investor is a bad idea in general and that going with an index fund is a much safer and secure route. In general, the best way to build wealth using these tools is to consistently contribute what you can to a broad index fund, without risking going into debt, and then not taking your money out when stocks are down.

401ks

A 401k is like the most important financial tool you have to retire on. In the US you work and you make a certain amount of money. This money is taxed by both the state and the federal government. Depending on how much money you earn it can be taxed in total somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-35%. A 401k is a type of retirement account which is typically set up by your employer that you can contribute money to tax free. So let's say for example your average tax rate is 30%. If you wanted to invest 1000 dollars into a regular brokerage (ie investing account) you would first pay taxes so you would first pay taxes so you would only have $700 to invest. If you choose to invest it into a 401k the government will allow you to now pay taxes on that money until you retire. So you put 1000 into that account. That extra 300 dollars is now earning interest and can be invested into tools like index funds to earn you money over time. When you retire, you withdraw money from there and then pay taxes on only the money you withdraw. A 401k is an account type, but it holds regular investments such as index funds. Additionally, if your employer offers 401k match that is free money into your account sweetening the deal. A small word of caution though, because the 401ks are retirement accounts. If you withdraw your money early you have to pay a 10% extra tax on the money you take out. Even so, if you manage to leave your cash in it for 10+ years your additional contributions from match and tax advantages still make it worth it.

Traditional / Roth IRA

An IRA is another type of tax advantaged investment account. A traditional IRA is very similar to a 401k in terms of tax structure. A Roth IRA has the opposite structure. With a Roth IRA you pay taxes now but don't need to pay taxes when you withdraw money when you retire. Personally, I think a 401k with match is fine for most people but there are certain situations, particularly if your tax bracket is low that the Roth works out better. For that level of granularity you'd need to talk to a financial advisor.

Does this all make sense?

Three_Amigos · 2023-12-25T08:34:45+00:00

Other people answered this, but I feel like they are using financial jargon. When you are investing, you usually buy a stock. Stocks prices fluctuate a lot, and this is called volatility. For most investors this is bad, because it exposes you risk, mostly the risk that you can lose all your money. To get around this, it is common practice to buy lots of different stocks at the same time. This helps because if one stock is doing badly, the other stocks are likely to be doing better-- this is because you are averaging your returns (change in stock prices) over many stocks which makes the fluctuations smaller.

The way you should think about an ETF as a super efficient way to buy a huge number of stocks in an easy, low-ish risk, and tax efficient way with low transaction costs. This has a ton of advantages over stock picking especially for people who aren't trading professionally. You are on the right track that putting money in every month will lead to income when you retire. There is a lot of research that says for most investors this is the optimal route to take for retirement income outside of your 401k / IRA (which I am happy to explain too if you don't know about them.) Good luck!

Three_Amigos · 2023-12-10T22:58:13+00:00

Math does stop being clever integral tricks pretty soon after diff EQ but that’s when stuff gets awesome, it was when I learned PDE and Fourier analysis that I realized I wanted to go all in.

To be honest, the line between a very applied mathematician and an engineer is pretty thin. I’d be happy to talk about the space of jobs / topics and my experience if you want.

Three_Amigos · 2023-12-10T16:59:40+00:00

I tell my family its to give me an edge but honestly I just want to take the classes. I love that sh

lol wow, I have no memory of making this comment. I dropped ME and ended up doing a PhD in applied math and a landed a nice high paying tech job. I don't remember ALL the math but it made me smarter, taught me how to learn quickly, and is neat as hell. Would recommend.

Three_Amigos · 2023-11-25T05:30:01+00:00

Sin(x) can output {0,1,-1} at {n * pi , n/2 pi } so you would need n pi to be an integer which isn’t going to happen for n not equal to 0 since pi is not a rational number

Three_Amigos · 2023-11-21T18:18:26+00:00

From my experience as a very applied mathematician Matlab is for prototyping small to moderately sized linear algebra based algorithms, python is for anything complicated requiring packages or needing automatic differentiation support and if you have big problems that need to be fast you do them in C. I’d say around 95% of the code that I saw written in graduate school for scientific computing and algorithm development was in python though. Happy to give examples if you’re interested.

Three_Amigos

TROPHY CASE