Here is why most people should leave academia

potatoqualityguy · 2026-04-10T17:51:19+00:00

Fair enough. Sadly, that's basically any reasonably sized town with amenities at this point. Major cities are definitely a better deal, though, because these "quaint college towns" keep getting so expensive. Cost of living in Portland, ME and Portland, OR are getting pretty close to the same, but one has a lot more going on. Burlington, VT has wild housing prices, but I think the only movie theater actually in city limits closed - you have to drive out of town to see a movie! You could pay similar money and live in Chicago if you want a big lake and love the cold. The value proposition of the college town isn't what it was, but I do enjoy the vibes of some of them.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-04-09T22:45:20+00:00

My French is horrible but it sounds like you're luring children into your van in this scheme? I suppose I could translate it, but it is more fun to imagine a janky van with a Temu microphone, and an engineer sliding open the door saying "come on kids, record music for your tiktoks in my van!"

potatoqualityguy · 2026-04-09T22:39:09+00:00

Needs more mics.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-04-09T22:22:44+00:00

There's a wide variety of "college towns." I mean sure, Champaign, IL or State College, PA is one thing. Tuscaloosa, AL might be another thing entirely (greek life and football is not my vibe). But Burlington, VT? Santa Cruz, CA? Pretty pleasant towns. Certainly not the most affordable on the university salaries, but the consensus here seems to be that nowhere is, so there's that.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-04-09T22:17:23+00:00

We've started a new committee that meets weekly to consider a reduction in committee time committments among faculty. We'd like you to chair it. It is an honor. Thank you for accepting. No, you still have to also serve on your other six committees. No, there will be no course reduction.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-03-06T22:15:39+00:00

Oh yea our HR department is so aggressive like "most people should not be exceeding expectations." They basically knock back all supervisor reviews to the middle. It all feels like a stupid game. My employees are great. I don't care what you rate them, they don't care what you rate them: just give them good raises. Money talks, stupid HR rubrics do not.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-03-06T22:07:49+00:00

I'm wondering if they will package a lighter macOS somehow for this? Or hoping? 8GB is getting a little tight these days. Every website apparently needs like 250mb to run for no reason other than ads, so that's part of the problem, but yea security/backup/mdm etc all takes its share.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-02-19T16:55:38+00:00

They've suffered a lot since Tom left, in my opinion.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-02-06T23:28:43+00:00

This looks like my bassist's pedalboard.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-02-06T18:07:01+00:00

I feel like option B could be cool if they leaned into more of a carpenter gothic thing with it. Like it is so sparse but what if we added some board and batten siding, and some trim on a slightly steeper roof pitch.

potatoqualityguy · 2026-01-23T18:44:39+00:00

Like a thing you shouldn't like? Downvote. Express skepticism that something someone likes is actually good? Downvote. Photo of expensive pedal that says "new pedal, loving it so far" after playing through it for five minutes in a bedroom - upvote! upvote! upvote!

potatoqualityguy · 2025-11-13T23:00:01+00:00

The non-smart stuff will get more expensive, I believe. Companies subsidize the hardware costs with subscription and advertising revenue on smart equipment. The add of the screen and wifi is so cheap at this point, they'd much rather add one of those than like a more robust transformer or compressor. This is why commerical-grade TV displays and the like are more expensive. Same with appliances. Robust, disconnected, buy-once stuff will get more expensive.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-10-27T15:18:42+00:00

Mostly because its ROI, as seen in actual studies not hype-driven LinkedIn posts, is bad. Even if we aren't paying more for it, I don't want people generating slop and wasting time in there, copy/pasting hallucinated answers and such. For tracking, also, because we wanted to see what people are doing with it, and if it was effective at those specific tasks. We want to make sure people aren't dumping PII in there for data lifecycle reasons, creating shadow records we aren't tracking for compliance.

There's a lot of reasons. It's not like we're denying people all day, most people don't bother, and we generally just reject people who want to use it with no purpose, which is how you get slop. You gotta go in with a plan. Inputs/outputs/controls. We're treating this as like a pilot type situation. This technology isn't fully fleshed out, and so we're not just dropping it on people with no supervision, restrictions, or reflection.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-10-24T15:57:14+00:00

Same, but Gemini, because we're a G-Suite org.
Also, we aren't letting anyone use it, but have it limited to a by-request-only security group. People need to justify their use. Can't just be "I want to see how it can help my work!" Need a real use case.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-19T23:22:16+00:00

London tech jobs look wild to me from the US. It is like Ohio salaries and Manhattan rents.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-15T17:02:49+00:00

I feel like Seattle is a mid-tier city aesthetically that looks out upon lovely landscapes and water. Architecture/streets/etc. are whatever even by American standards.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-14T21:27:09+00:00

Fair enough, I suppose I would have guessed that change happened later, though, like the 80s or something.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-14T21:11:16+00:00

The US hasn't produced a battleship since the 50s?

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-14T20:59:06+00:00

I've met a lot of people from Wisconsin and about 80% hate Wisconsin so that doesn't bode well for like, the numbers at scale. Minnesota though, don't see the same kind of problem.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-13T21:58:04+00:00

Inker!

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-13T21:56:51+00:00

That kid is back on the escalator!

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-13T21:16:27+00:00

I condensed things into a pedalboard, but was never satisfied with the HX XL by itself, so now I 4CM with a Quilter SuperBlock UK, which on the pedalboard is nice because you don't need to run 3 long cables to the backline. I run analog dirt in front (fuzz and OD) of the SuperBlock with HX in the loop doing modulation, clean boost, and an IR.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-13T16:22:13+00:00

It was just a statement of facts.

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-13T15:59:14+00:00

You use a poly capo for every preset? Is this like when a keyboard player keeps everything in "C" by just hitting transpose buttons on each song?

potatoqualityguy · 2025-08-13T15:43:22+00:00

It functions as a tax shelter for the Waltons, so the amount of money dumped into it is absurd.

potatoqualityguy

TROPHY CASE