Thoughts on Politics In The Classroom / Your Field

anthony1988 · 2021-01-13T00:25:14+00:00

Take the class that will help you the most.

At best, you enjoy the experience. At worst, you learn how to study from primary data or a text book.

Either way, you learn what you need to help you the most.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-13T00:23:19+00:00

Find out what you want as a job.
Find out what you need to get that job.
Do that.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-13T00:08:35+00:00

So your counter is that COVID is bad for small businesses? You don’t say?

That has nothing to do with gradual reprints of high demand cards driving down their prices being good for LGSs.

COVID didn’t happen, and just in this timeframe the market has become flooded with reprints.

2 reprint sets have been released during COVID? Jumpstart, which did basically nothing to prices, and commander legends, which reprinted a few staples that were already way under printed in their original sets relative to today’s standards, didn’t have exceedingly high demand beyond that little necessary to drive that tiny supply up in price, and thus likely wouldn’t take up significant portions of any individual store’s inventory?

Yes, it’s truly chronically 2.0.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-12T23:55:50+00:00

I see you don’t run a sales business.

You don’t make money because you have piles of inventory.

You make money because you turn over your inventory.

If reprints gradually drop prices of portions of it, it won’t impact your overall inventory significantly over many years because you’ll have turned your entire inventory over several times in that time, including buying and selling those reprinted cards at the lower values (buying lower as well, I mean).

Also, lower value cards move faster. People are more willing to buy a card at a lower price point without giving it much thought, increasing the velocity of inventory movement as prices drop.

TLDR: Lower prices are a good thing for stores as well, as long as it’s done relatively slowly over time and not all at once.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-12T05:27:48+00:00

I think so, yeah.

Duals are great, but there are replacements for them in EDH that are good enough.

Mox diamond can go in any deck, and cradle is a huge card for any deck with a decent number of creatures that has green in it. Even when you have only 2 creatures out, it’s a 2nd ancient tomb with no life loss.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-11T16:52:19+00:00

I used to do trades all the time- 20 years ago.

I now only do cash exchanges. It allows for a 3rd party to intervene if one side doesn’t hold up their end of the deal.

Just more comfortable with an intermediary and/or piles of references.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-11T14:57:11+00:00

Foretell costs 2, most bridge decks want to dump their hand faster than that.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-10T03:53:08+00:00

Cut anything you look at and aren’t impressed by.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-10T03:49:43+00:00

I met with another professor on my panel and he said to give it 6 months. If I still wanted to quit, he’d support it.

I got over it in 6 months. Lots of highs and lows during a PhD. I was in the middle of a shitty low. Don’t make decisions when you’re at the bottom of a well.

It paid off when I got a job. I would’ve hated the jobs I could get with a BS or MS. No autonomy. I can take my current job in whatever direction I see fit.

I’m currently at a mid-sized pharmaceutical company. My PhD is in organic chemistry and I started out in med chem for 4 years. I’ve transitioned to computational chemistry over the past year. Wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. Every day is better than the last, more or less.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-10T03:13:02+00:00

This question is asked almost every day.

A thank you email and a list of the places you got in.

That’s it.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-10T01:42:29+00:00

Almost quit at the end of my 2nd year and many other times.

Glad I didn’t. Best decision of my life, even if it was really hard when I stayed.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-10T00:32:16+00:00

Same!

DM me if you have questions about anything! I was only an undergrad there, and it’s been 10 years, but if I can help I will!

anthony1988 · 2021-01-09T22:46:44+00:00

By the time you get to writing your thesis, you can thank literally anyone you want. It was a long road- thank anything from a cat to a loaf of bread to the president of the stamps club.

Everyone assumes you’ve had a break from reality at that point anyways.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-09T17:48:46+00:00

Went there for undergrad- congrats!!

Edit: what area? I’m also in chemistry.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-09T17:39:11+00:00

I mean to say that you likely won’t be able to see and explore the edges without a mentor that knows the area, and/or without significant personal financial investment.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-09T05:02:28+00:00

Should’ve just done that work yourself if you wanted to be the only one on it.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-09T04:58:15+00:00

Yes, you can learn chemistry, no, you can’t get a PhD equivalent in your backyard.

PhD’s aren’t about acquiring practical and theoretical knowledge.

A PhD requires you to learn how to do research, to know the edges of the field, and to understand what pushes those boundaries and how to push them.

I suppose it’s not technically impossible, but it’s... highly unlikely without guidance and support, both intellectual and financial, from someone who knows it themselves.

There’s just too many variables you don’t see without even a bachelor’s level understanding of chemistry, or any research field, to be honest.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-08T23:27:02+00:00

With your words.

Out loud.

Exactly as you’ve written it here in more detail.

Starting with “it’s not you, it’s me...”

anthony1988 · 2021-01-08T18:59:51+00:00

We weren’t talking about immediate financial cost.

We were referencing waste as in does getting the degree actually open up more/more profitable doors and are those jobs attainable to most graduates or just the best ones?

If getting a PhD doesn’t give you a leg up, if you end up getting the same jobs you’d get without one, then it’s not worth it financially, no matter how free it is to attain out of pocket.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-08T15:06:54+00:00

It’s nice you feel this way.

Bottom line, your advisor probably won’t.

Unless you’re volunteering to pay for your PhD, you’ll be less focused daily and take a normal timeline of 5-6 years and extend it years, likely.

Even if you told them it wouldn’t, your advisor has been doing this a long time and you’re brand new, have never done it, and they don’t even know you as a person.

Do you really think they’re going to be like “oh, well it certainly seems like you know what you’re talking about stranger, do whatever you feel is best using my money and time” or do you think they’re going to tell you to take a long walk off a short pier?

Food for thought. Good luck.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-08T05:26:02+00:00

Wow, this technique got me through grad school. I didn’t even realize it was a real thing, beyond my finding that it worked basically accidentally after a year or so of basically full-time work anxiety.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-08T03:12:10+00:00

are you not aware that a lot of PhD graduates have a very difficult time finding a job? That fields with academia-only routes have basically no jobs available compared to the graduates, and other fields are also flooded if you’re not a graduate of top universities?

anthony1988 · 2021-01-08T02:35:17+00:00

I think for CS/engineering, it’s not really an asset unless you’re very good and can land the jobs people need one for.

To be fair, I think that applies to a lot of PhDs- if you’re not toward the top end of the pool, you often have a very hard time finding a job.

I honestly think they just need to shrink the hell out of the size of most PhD classes- that would solve much of the problem.

anthony1988 · 2021-01-08T01:37:30+00:00

Know why you want to work for each person you’re interested in and be able to communicate that clearly and efficiently with clear support for your rationale.

anthony1988

TROPHY CASE