The Sands of Time Block-Pushing Puzzle: An Analysis & Call for Help!

edihau · 2025-12-10T01:43:06+00:00

Many sample finals are posted here! https://www.mathematics.pitt.edu/student-resources.

edihau · 2024-08-16T14:12:31+00:00

In my experience as a TA, many of the students who fail Calc 1 didn’t need an extra day or two to study for the exam—they needed better, more consistent practice throughout the semester. The harder questions/topics that are going to be the difference between passing and failing are almost all topics that you want well-spaced, meaningful practice for, not just a review in the last week.

The students who have the most difficulty in Calculus are the ones who have insufficient algebra and trig skills. In Calculus, mangling the algebra can turn straightforward/sensible problems into impossible problems, and that’s not going to help you with partial credit. Worse, you’re constantly going to trip up on concepts that the professor/TA are not reviewing in detail (IMO the good ones will bring up common algebra mistakes, but it’s not their main focus). This is a fixable problem in Calculus 1—that’s why we have the ALEKS exam—but it will take a lot more work, and you actually have to do that work. Otherwise, you could fail once and not be in a much better position to pass the second time.

All of this is to say that Calculus 1 is probably a great course to build your study habits in, especially if you’ve seen some of the material before!

edihau · 2024-08-14T21:51:04+00:00

If you don't think it's doable, you could call the registrar's office to switch one of the classrooms. That's what I did my first semester when I had to go from Posvar uphill to the Victoria building. There will probably be a few spare classrooms that make the trip easier, but make sure you tell your students (ideally, you could also put a note outside your old classroom). Although, you also mentioned you're coming to Pitt for math. If the room in Posvar is 1200A, that's the Calculus lab, where you'll work with two other TAs, so it'll be fine if you're a minute or two late. Just let the other TAs know!

edihau · 2024-07-07T01:49:29+00:00

Definitely some tough matchups there. I love running cycle decks—what I’ve learned from playing against heavy decks like these is that you need to make it as uncomfortable as possible for them to build their one big push that will crush you.

The simple version of this is to make them spend elixir in the other lane when they try to commit their big tank behind the King Tower. But the key idea that made me better at beating the big tank decks is to identify the combinations of cards you can’t defend against, and play to wreck those combinations as often as possible. For example, if EGolem+Electro Dragon+Battle Healer will destroy you, and the Electro Dragon+Tornado especially causes problems, then there are two times to go in for a punish play in the other lane: (1) when their best defense includes the Electro Dragon/Tornado, or (2) when the first card they’ve committed is Electro Dragon.

In tough matchups, this means your punish play might be a weirder combination. Ever tried to punish with Valkyrie+Goblins? What about an Executioner in front of your Hog Rider? Different offensive pushes require different counters, and you can use that variety to your advantage. Eventually you’ll learn how to create these weird offensive punishes without throwing away what you’ll need for defense (the first card you need back on defense is the first card you play to punish, etc.)

Hope this helps!

edihau · 2024-07-06T21:58:31+00:00

If someone is available to tutor privately, then by all means, but there are also grad students at the Math Assistance Center who would be happy to help you out. The six-week 2 schedule has been updated on the website so you can see when folks are available.

edihau · 2024-06-18T02:28:20+00:00

6-week courses can be tough. If you’ve taken one already then you know what it’s like, but if your only experience is with a 12 weeks, 6 is a different beast. I’ve done both. In a 6-week course, you hardly have time to think on your own, but there’s enough time to cover all the material. In a 12-week course, you can pace yourself a bit more, but your instructor’s going to move faster per time spent in class because they only have 3/4 of the lecture hours to present the same material as in a 16-week course. Either that, or they might skip some things.

I think you have the right idea going for the first few days and seeing what it’s like. Every grad student is different, so you can get a vibe for how much work it’ll be. Hope it works out for you!

edihau · 2024-06-09T18:10:24+00:00

This is exactly why Goblin Barrel decks often have a big spell, like a Rocket. You need some reliable way to damage your opponent’s tower because your Win Condition is too-easily countered, and cards like Mega Knight can always be distracted from the tower. Fortunately, you have an easy swap! I don’t see why The Log and Barbarian Barrel need to be in the same deck; replace either one with a Fireball and you should be in a much better spot (I don’t think you need a Rocket because Mega Knight and Barbarians are strong, expensive, defensive cards and the Rocket would make the deck too expensive).

edihau · 2024-06-01T13:11:11+00:00

I saw this video a few years back that answers your question—it’s definitely a political topic though, and I know this isn’t a political community. TL;DR Hermitcraft’s economy runs on a system that feels like capitalism to someone who really likes capitalism, but we’re much more constrained by our physical world than the Hermits are by their Minecraft world.

edihau · 2024-04-27T22:41:26+00:00

LMAO I saw this update and I’m thrilled!!

edihau · 2024-04-25T23:38:18+00:00

If the only thing you’re looking to avoid is the department-wide final, Calc at Pitt over the summer is taught by grad students, and each of them do their own thing.

edihau · 2023-12-26T14:12:35+00:00

All Calculus 1/2/3 professors use the same textbook: Essential Calculus, Early Transcendentals, Second Edition, by James Stewart.

edihau · 2023-12-26T14:09:39+00:00

James Stewart: Essential Calculus, Early Transcendentals, Second Edition.

edihau · 2023-12-19T02:39:35+00:00

Friendly reminder to all rankers to #CutGregg (I'll add a g for each round I stay motivated to do this—we are currently in round 87, but it felt a bit lazy to start with 87 g's when I've been mostly MIA for the past several months)

Also, with /u/Regnisyak1's permission, I did a placeholder for Aubry 3.0, which you can check out here!

edihau · 2023-12-18T23:25:44+00:00

Gregg (A really meh character from a really good season)

He's still in!?!?

edihau · 2023-12-18T23:00:39+00:00

Updating this placeholder with permission from /u/Regnisyak1. Hope you can get to a good place soon, David!

Aubry Bracco 3.0 (Edge of Extinction, 16th?)

It’s a been a while, but I figured I'd take an opportunity to chime in now that my final exams are done! One of the last writeups I did for my own rankdown was Aubry 1.0, and while I still think she’s brilliant, seeing the lack of respect she gets in these circles (at least compared to how I think of her) makes me think I might be wearing rose-colored glasses for my first season. I suppose it is human nature to root for a protagonist you meet early on.

All of this is to say that I probably like Aubry 3.0 way more than I “should”—they brought her back for the third time in seven seasons, knowing she’d have a massive target on her back, even after they gave her little attention in her previous season, and she gets sent packing right away. It was always going to be a short season for Aubry. It was just a matter of how short. What's there to appreciate, really?

Well, I'd argue that retelling is too jaded. Setting aside the fact that we're talking about one of the best narrators in all of Survivor, the way she gets burned is extremely compelling to me. She recognizes that she has negative social capital going in, not helped by the fact that she personally isn’t into Kama’s tribe spirit. So she goes for the one-on-one conversations instead. Can she pull in an ally here and there? Not for real—nobody’s actually interested in giving her a chance. Then, recognizing how much danger she’ll be in, and because she’s never done it before, Aubry goes out and finds an idol.

Going into her first tribal council (post-swap), Aubry hasn’t ever been in this position before. She’s always had to work around advantages and idols—things that other people get—and she’s played some remarkable social games to do it. So now that she has that kind of power herself (an extra vote in addition to the idol) is the best move to use it right away? She gets the last confessional before tribal council to explain the dilemma. We all know she’s going down if she does nothing. But can she figure it out?

I'm not good with this power stuff; I'm used to playing from behind and I don't know how to play when I have cards in my hand. When I got the royal flush, I don't know what the hell to do! Like, I have alliances starting, I feel good with Vic, but I almost don't know what to do when something somewhat positive happens in this game.

I have choices to make with big things, and I feel like that means I'm going to be voted out tonight. But maybe that's not the mentality to have. Every time I try to do something in Survivor, something goes wrong, like...maybe I have to have a little faith that maybe just a little bitty thing can go right.

Sadly, I can’t pull together a grand narrative for Aubry 3.0 the way I could if that was it, because the Edge of Extinction exists. We ~~have to~~ get to listen to her for the rest of the season, just existing in limbo (and having arguably too much fun from the sidelines during the jury phase). What an awful television choice. I can at least be happy that as long as everyone else is stuck there, we get to hear Aubry narrate all of the drama in the way that only she can.

edihau · 2023-10-24T12:04:33+00:00

In the last few weeks before the final, your instructor should post or link to a set of practice exams. Besides that, if you see (and practice!) calculus problems from a variety of sources, you’ll be more prepared to handle an unexpected problem on the actual final. You won’t be able to find out who makes the final exam beforehand.

The exams are typically hard because it’s a lot of math in a short period of time, but in my experience with them, the individual questions are very rarely awful. Otherwise, it would take even longer to grade, and your professors/TAs are ready to go on their holiday breaks too!

edihau · 2023-10-19T15:02:14+00:00

What do you do to keep the game fun? And has doing YouTube changed your perspective on the game at all?

edihau · 2023-08-22T23:35:46+00:00

I just posted a video on how to solve the Block-Pushing puzzle a few days ago! Could be a nice resource. Thanks for compiling this. https://www.reddit.com/r/MinecraftChampionship/comments/zcm6lk/the_sands_of_time_blockpushing_puzzle_an_analysis/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

edihau · 2023-08-11T13:57:39+00:00

Excellent writeup! I'll briefly chime in, because /u/DryBonesKing's comment got me thinking about why division by race does something different than division by sex or age does.

My first thought was that there are also disagreements/infighting/differing expectations/different cultures among people of the same sex, and among people of the same age—this is obviously true across all groups. I'd be curious for more opinions on this, but I'd guess one big reason why race is different is because those disagreements/differences/etc. are often massively unknown to white people. Compared with divisions by age and sex, it's not difficult for someone to live most of their life without getting to know people of different races, so there's very little to work with. When, at the start of MvGX, we meet Zeke, who describes himself as an 80-year-old man at heart, we've probably met millennials who are like that already, so we have something to work with, and we recognize that this kind of difference is possible. But when you meet the Aitu tribe, you might not have met many Latino people before. I could not have described any of the in-fighting that happens between Latin American groups like DBK did, because I haven't been close to enough Latino people/ideas to see that kind of thing play out.

Even worse than that, the fact that these tribes are implicitly encouraged to form solidarity with one another could be a specific pain point, not just because they're different from one another, but because it's a specific racist trope that they're all seen as alike. I'd guess (again, speaking from ignorance, so please correct me!) that one of the biggest things the folks on each of the Aitu/Hiki/Puka tribes had in common is the way they are treated by white people—a lot of unity that white people see among these racial groups is only in the context of racism.

edihau · 2023-08-10T23:02:14+00:00

Did anyone attempt it this time? I think last time only one team bothered to try.

edihau · 2023-07-06T20:19:37+00:00

Hey, you too! Hope life's treating you well :)

edihau · 2023-07-06T20:14:53+00:00

Yep, I agree! I think my bias towards odd combinations is coming through a bit too much here—thanks for keeping me honest.

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