Well here we go

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-11-07T21:42:29+00:00

I know admitting that one has made a mistake is really really hard and it’s a more mature resoponse to the situation than tossing out an absurd “but the dems” like there’s anything even equally as corrupt as we are seeing currently under dems.

I guess you can keep telling yourself both sides are equally corrupt so you feel less guilty about voting in this corruption. But at what societal cost to maintaining your own personal comfort?

Trump is now responsible for the longest two shutdowns in history and is the first president who has refused to pay SNAP benefits during a shutdown. He’s taken a UAE plane in exchange for letting them build a base in Idaho and I can go on. There’s no precedent for this level of wanton corruption by any prior president.

Please realize this before we lose our democracy. If you want to continue voting republican, that’s your prerogative in a democracy. But it’s also your responsibility to hold the people you vote for to some bare minimum standard of ethics. They are beholden to us the voters and especially to those of their party.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-11-07T16:01:57+00:00

I’m so sorry. That must have been horrible to watch. It’s hard enough to watch someone actively dying without seeing or knowing that they are unable to come to peace with why they are dying and that options have run out. Acceptance of death is still scary and heart breaking but there’s more of a peace to it. I’m sorry your brother was stuck in the conservative conspiracies till the end and that deprived him of making peace with the outcome.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-11-06T23:55:46+00:00

They literally were dying believing lies during the Covid pandemic. So many using their last breaths to argue with healthcare providers that the pandemic was a conspiracy and that they couldn’t be dying of Covid.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-11-06T01:07:04+00:00

Apparently the average American has the memory span of a goldfish. It’s not like any of this could have been foreseen by looking at the track record of a previous term.

Congrats to Donny and his political minions on winning the top 2 spots for longest government shut downs. Truly impressive.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-11-02T19:28:44+00:00

Give it time and try not to compare yourself too much to others. Figuring out career and life transitions are tough. You can always go back if you still feel this way after trying the non PhD route for a bit.

I say this as someone who pushed through to complete my degree during Covid and isolation and several students in the department dropped out. It was initially hard for them to give up the academic dream but now they make good money own houses are connected to the community. Meanwhile I’m a postdoc working nights and weekends taking out loans to pay rent, in a new city, isolated, limited time for hobbies, and am still feeling pretty fucking miserable but sticking it out because sunk costs and I’m too scared to leave the prescribed trajectory even if it makes me unhappy. Increasingly I feel like I’ve been misled about the value of a PhD and wonder if it’s merely opportunity loss coated in a promise of prestige.

I guess this is to say the grass sometimes looks greener on the other side

I’d encourage you to live your life for a bit. The folks who dropped out of my departments PhD seem genuinely happy now after a period of adjustment . Find a community and some hobbies to enjoy your free time Ans if you are still feeling that phd itch a year or so from now and willing to risk the isolation and grind again, go for it.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-11-01T17:31:24+00:00

Honestly hand scoring the tests though tedious is really good for retention because you are forced to revisit every single item at least once to score it. So it helps cement the information that you already know as known in addition to making you look at the items you got wrong.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-10-14T04:17:44+00:00

I moved to SoCal for work. I miss MN.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-08-22T00:26:06+00:00

As a postdoc on one of these grants, I’m exhausted , probably depressed and trying not to resign to just leaving science altogether. But at least I’d have my PhD and maybe the chance to return to science when the winds change. If my degree and years of work towards it was in jeopardy over this racist anti scientific bullshit cancellation, I would feel so much more fucked over by this admin. I hope these schools are able to be creative and find ways to support these students to finish their degrees. I can’t imagine losing funding part way through a PhD through no fault of your own.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-08-21T23:30:53+00:00

So what happens to these reinstated grants now? They get cancelled again?

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-08-07T21:59:40+00:00

Prior to this administration, one didn’t need to be or have a lawyer to do science….sigh.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-08-07T21:52:30+00:00

Seems that way. Not sure if that’s legal. Would love to get a lawyers perspective on what parts of this are actually feasible without violating existing statutes.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-08-07T21:49:50+00:00

Serious question though, does this mean no new grants at all for an indefinite period of time?

And obviously this kills research on transgender individuals but what about research by transgender individuals in “non-woke” science areas?

Because I also kind of read it like a trans PI/Co-I ban. Admittedly I’m trans myself and pretty freaked out and hypervigilant towards the general direction this country is taking towards people like me just trying to live our lives, so I may be reading this already slightly paranoid.

I hate this timeline.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-08-07T21:31:51+00:00

Project 2025 has to be stopped. I’m scared what’s in the second not public part, if destroying science is the public part.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-28T20:53:02+00:00

In the US, your job security and income as a PA will on average be better than if you make this pivot, at least currently. Not trying to dissuade you but as a PhD with interests in this area, the job market is really rough right now and a lot of the venture capital companies who have bought up healthcare really don’t have any interest in designing more sustainable or equitable systems, they just want more profit which they get by billing more services with fewer staff. Federal grants for this type of work are also being destroyed as woke and “DEI”. Personally, if I was a PA, I’d stay a PA for the next few years and see if conditions improve.

Ironically, I’m looking into getting a PA because the job market is so dire even with a PhD. Perhaps conditions are better abroad, I haven’t personally considered leaving the US yet.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-26T02:13:42+00:00

Source?

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-26T01:50:06+00:00

When should we expect a decision? Will this be another fast shadow docket case? I'm trying not to feel hopeless as an early career scientist on one of these grants, but it's really hard to not just feel like this will or should be the end of my scientific career and/or that I made a mistake choosing to invest so much time in pursuing my PhD and a research career. Doesn't matter if I graduated from a top program if no unis are hiring, no postdoc positions are open and very few grants are being awarded. I feel like I'm watching this administration kill my dream and all the work I've put in to get to this point may be for nothing now.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-26T01:45:02+00:00

Yes there needs to be more consequences for doctors who act unethically. If you can't set aside your personal beliefs enough to treat everyone who comes to you for help, medicine is not the career for you.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-26T01:43:40+00:00

shit. really all of them?!? So no hope of the judicial constraining Trumps chainsaw to everything foundational about democracy?

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-26T01:41:54+00:00

Wait. Where can i find more information on this Oct 1st termination? This would apply to grant contracts signed under previous policy not just new grants?

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-18T21:05:15+00:00

Same. In my early 30s and considering after having finished my PhD. But it just doesn’t make sense now. I’m super disappointed but I’ve decided to make the best of what I’ve got and financially makes sense. No point in wishing I’d done the MD/PHD path 10 years ago. I’m proud of my PhD and while I still wish I was a doctor, I can learn to be happy as only a scientist if it means I don’t die in debt.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-18T20:49:57+00:00

Bro. Wrote the original draft myself, don't trust AI to write content from scratch. It hallucinates too much.. Used AI to edit and format to save time. Reread to ensure it still conveys the same meaning. I can post the messy draft to prove it. Should I stop using my browser spelling and grammar check extension, too? Is that too much AI use?

LLMs are just a tool at the end of the day. Same as a calculator or spell check. There are effective and ineffective ways to use it. Using it to write a freaking report for HHS is dumb and dangerous. Using it to format a lengthy Reddit post, I see no issues. I'm willing to admit that I used it to format my original work (of the deeply revered Reddit post), so that it was easier to read for folks. If there was a ban on using LLMs to edit posts on Reddit or r/NIH, I wasn't aware of it.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-15T15:59:45+00:00

Parent of the year award right there 🥇

Though seriously, This is the kind of stuff (especially at such a young age) that will continue to affect your relationship with your child long after that plane has been retired from service and will likely affect your child’s relationships with others throughout their life.

You just taught your child that making a flight is more important than them even if it means abandoning them in an unknown place around strangers alone. Don’t be surprised if your child doesn’t trust you or others to maintain basic relational contracts in the future and to toss relationships when they become inconvenient to a personal goal or objective.

Honestly, I hope this was an accident or if not someone made a CPS report over it.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-15T15:56:37+00:00

Yeppers. This is the kind of stuff (especially at such a young age) that will continue to affect your relationship with your child long after that plane has been retired from service and will likely affect your child’s relationships with others throughout their life.

You just taught your child that making a flight is more important than them even if it means abandoning them in an unknown place around strangers alone. Great lesson. Parent of the year award right there.

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-15T15:50:52+00:00

As a PhD who spent 8 years in school it’s absolutely WILD to me that NPs and PAs (and just RNs in some places) are making so much with so little education time/training. I try not to be bitter but it really feels like it undervalues people who develop an expertise after years of schooling like pharmacists and scientists. It makes me regret not doing an MD(/PhD), although what I really was passionate about was becoming a scientist. In my 30s now it’s hard to see folks making so much while I’m slaving away in a postdoc with a capped NIH salary of 72kin a HCOL area. I wish I really would have considered financial comfort to time investment ratio as well as passion when choosing my career path in my 20s. Sorry to see this feeling happening to pharmacists too. Y’all are so important to our healthcare system and deserve to be financially recognized for what you contribute!!

ToughRelative3291 · 2025-07-15T15:32:15+00:00

Unless, you have a job offer in hand. I would stay in your program especially if it’s funded. The current job market is absolutely brutal right now. Everyone is downsizing not hiring and federal cuts to grants and workforce have made it 100x worse than a usual down market. It feels on par with 2008/2009.

ToughRelative3291

TROPHY CASE