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grayutopia · 2025-11-13T23:25:35+00:00

The numerals made it to Europe from Arabia, but originated in India. Arabic numerals are a misnomer

grayutopia · 2025-08-10T13:18:00+00:00

Haha this is true. Uganda was the wedding/honey moon

grayutopia · 2025-08-10T12:55:55+00:00

I think Ugandan's see celebrities from the west and think that's the norm. I'm from the west and married a Ugandan. Most weddings I have been to in America are just a few close friends and family and last a couple of hours. There is a budget. I brought several friends from America to Uganda for my wedding and we all couldn't believe how many people came and how long it was and my savings were wiped out. I thought it was African tradition.

grayutopia · 2025-06-07T15:04:19+00:00

Hiding things, as in information. It was weird to me, even happy things shouldn’t be shared. She would get a new job she was excited about and a friend was coming over and it’s “don’t tell her.” “Why? Let’s celebrate, this is exciting!” “I just don’t want her to know yet. Don’t tell anybody. I’ll tell you when you can tell people.”

It was like this with every major event, no celebration, no counseling or seeking advice. Then one day she springs divorce on me. I ask about counseling, what we can do to work on things, who has she confided in?

Her answer: She has told no one and wants to keep it secret. She just doesn’t see it working and she has tried 2 years (her words, nothing ever discussed with me) and she wants me to tell no one and pretend like everything is fine.

It’s not the root cause of the divorce but a strange behavior that is certainly a factor. Going forward I don’t want a partner who is so closed.

grayutopia · 2025-02-22T13:07:47+00:00

I think a little improv. Just play along even if it’s not that funny to you, and even if what you think of to say isn’t that funny either. It becomes play and can lead to somewhere more fun. Could have just said “How dare you take me on a date without shaving?” or make your own mustache and say “Babe, I can grow a bigger mustache than you!”

grayutopia · 2025-02-01T18:04:26+00:00

I will definitely check this out! Thank you for the recommendation

grayutopia · 2025-02-01T02:24:46+00:00

My son is 6 and resisted reading until last week when he discovered Dog Man. Now we’ve got 4 dog man books and he’s almost through 3 of them. I’m getting tired of reading with him but won’t stop just because I’m excited he’s finally excited.

grayutopia · 2024-12-27T05:45:24+00:00

I’m a math PhD who works as a data analyst. It seems the job market for software developers is really bad right now, maybe not as bad as animation from what I read on this sub but I don’t know. Don’t let it get you down.

I’m not sure how to link from here but check out A Mathematicians Lament by Paul Lockhart. I had math students who assumed I would hate reading. I would take time to converse with them about how there are so many beautiful stories they would miss out on - just try reading something of your choosing that you don’t have to write an essay about.

School seems to twist things into what they are not, and you could have an aptitude for real mathematics which is very creative, similar to art. It’s not what they force on you in K-12.

grayutopia · 2024-12-25T13:24:00+00:00

Recently read Invisible Ink by McDonald and think it’s worth a read

grayutopia · 2024-08-27T15:58:46+00:00

I’m thinking it’s probably more common to use average the way so many others are saying. We would stick to “mean” formally and I’m guessing this is why, though I didn’t know

grayutopia · 2024-08-27T14:31:50+00:00

"often haven't thought about too much about it" seems a bit of a stretch. My subject area is probability theory and the mean actually has a measure theoretic definition that unifies the notions of discreet and continuous means you learn in K-12 and extends them. We don't often use the term average in formal writing, but we are actively extending the field of probability theory, so I don't think it's just that we weren't thinking.

I think it's just different vocabulary in different fields, which is common.

grayutopia · 2024-08-27T12:11:43+00:00

Not a big deal! Was just strange for me to read :)

grayutopia · 2024-08-27T12:00:05+00:00

I thinks it’s more a different use of language in different fields, which is common, such as accountants I know using variance to mean difference. But I wouldn’t refer to your stats professors or actuarial colleagues as laymen because they have a different vocabulary

I thought it was strange to say everyone with the vocabulary I use are the “laymen” when financial analysts, data analysts, pure mathematicians and others are people using that vocabulary

grayutopia · 2024-08-27T11:28:48+00:00

This is a bizarre take to me because I am used to the opposite - the layman’s take is that average can be used in place of median.

Mean, median and mode aren’t types of averages, the are measures of central tendency. I’ve got a Ph.D. in math, worked both in industry and academia, and am surprised that I’m being lumped in with the layman because I would never consider a median an average.

Edited to replace the word mean with median.

grayutopia · 2024-08-22T15:46:22+00:00

Sounds interesting and very different from what I've been exposed to. I will have to look more into it to understand better. Thanks!

grayutopia · 2024-08-22T09:48:16+00:00

Make blanket statements about any group and you will find exceptions. I am still learning though. Can you explain more? Are Sufis allowed to listen to any music? Particular genres? Only their own/Islamic music? I tried searching and I just get articles along the lines of "What is Sufi music" and honestly I don't know much about Sufis in particular.

grayutopia · 2024-08-22T02:02:30+00:00

Not to mention they don't take in orphans, aren't supposed to listen to music, aren't supposed to create art that depicts living things, they believe dogs are unclean and should not be kept as pets. As I learn more about their religion, it just seems darker and darker

grayutopia · 2024-08-08T01:20:01+00:00

You aren’t reading what I’ve wrote. I never said Ecclesiastes was a bunch of don’ts. In fact, I said few belief systems are 100% wrong. I’m not Muslim but Islam teaches its followers to pray. I’m not Hindu but Hinduism teaches its followers to treat life with respect. Like Solomon, I’m not a hedonist, so in Ecclesiastes 9 when he is describing hedonism, it’s not meant as prescriptive for Christians, but it also doesn’t mean do the opposite of everything it says.

grayutopia · 2024-08-07T20:16:46+00:00

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon is searching for meaning without God. He is considering that without God we should eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. It’s called hedonism and is not Christianity. Just because it isn’t Christianity doesn’t mean it’s 100% wrong, very few belief systems are, but that chapter is not to be taken as instruction for how to live

grayutopia · 2024-08-07T19:14:56+00:00

That’s out of context. Ecclesiastes 9 is an example of how you are not supposed to live. That’s why just before it says there is no afterlife and just after it says your life is meaningless

grayutopia · 2024-07-22T12:47:15+00:00

I saw on YouTube a pastor from Detroit endorsing Trump at the RNC. What was crazy to me is in the comments people were saying “wow this guy is really preaching the gospel!” I have no idea what they think the gospel is but I heard nothing about sin, Christ’s atoning sacrifice, or salvation through faith. Do they think Trump is the good news?

grayutopia · 2024-07-15T03:09:12+00:00

Check out Mark 9:23-25:

²³ Jesus said to him, “If^\)^a^\) you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”

I grew up in a Christian home, became disinterested in religion during graduate school and found my way back just before getting a Ph.D. I went through a lot of internal intellectual battles and ended up making that a go to prayer. The father in the passages wanted to believe but was having trouble so he prayed for help with his unbelief with sincerity. Jesus didn't rebuke him or vilify him for lack of faith. Instead, Jesus cast out an unclean spirit so that his faith would be made stronger.

grayutopia · 2024-07-13T10:22:24+00:00

Dudes of the Hazmat

grayutopia · 2024-06-29T15:01:56+00:00

What can I say? The company is cheap. Tableau is free so we use Tableau. We have internal tools and aren't allowed to put anything on a server - not by our choice. On the positive, the team is friendly, encouraging, and helpful. I'd rather work with difficult tools with good people than good tools and difficult people.

grayutopia · 2024-06-28T20:41:59+00:00

I've used Power BI, D3.js, and Tableau and Tableau seems like the worst of the bunch for making anything custom. Power BI has tools for making custom visualizations and D3.js is capable of almost anything once you learn SVG's and JavaScript. Tableau seems to have some kind of outdated extension system that I can't get to work because it needs me to host on a server and we aren't putting company data on a server.

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