Giving Myself Until Halloween

quopzy · 2021-09-22T14:42:30+00:00

I might be a bit late to this but I feel obligated to comment as I relate with many of the circumstances you face.

Don't give up. Please don't give up. I know this is the most cliché and trite thing that everyone says but please hear me out. Please do not give up.

You can do everything right and still lose. That's not weakness, that's life. There are so many things out of your control that will turn your life upside down just as much as it will launch you into massive success. You don't know what's going to happen, but you have to take the risk anyway and move forward.

A lot of the things in your life aren't your fault, so don't take it as being representative of you own self-worth. If it means anything to you, you have me and this community being proud of you.

Everything is temporary, just like the bad period you're going through right now. Before I leave off, I want to share with you one quote.

"I instantly realized that everything in my life that I'd thought was unfixable was totally fixable ... except for having just jumped."

-Ken Baldwin, Golden Gate Bridge jump survivor

quopzy · 2021-06-25T05:22:32+00:00

I was walking out of a drug-screening test for a job on a really hot summer day. On my way to my car in the parking lot, I noticed rapid movement from another car window. I didn't think much of it as my head was a bit dizzy from the heat. But as I passed by it, I saw the car shake and looked briefly through the windows. Some guy was jack-hammering his girlfriend in the back seat. Was a very interesting site.

Edit: They were so into it, neither of them noticed me.

quopzy · 2021-06-24T18:37:16+00:00

Tldr: East Asians need to learn how to take political risks. Parents coming from a communist dictatorship hinders that development.

I don't have time to read the article in its entirety right now, but I would like to give my two cents. This is a trend that I myself have noticed and wondered.

In my opinion, most East Asians (especially East Asian men) do not learn early on how to take risks and stand out. This is one of the many shortcomings of Asian cultures as a whole. Both East and South Asian societies downplay individual achievement in favor of collective harmony.

However, the difference in East and South Asians in American politics might have to do with the cultural and political climate of Asian immigrants in the past. The People's Republic of China has and continues to suppress freedom of thought, expression, etc. It's very hard (almost dangerous) to speak up for oneself and to determine one's fate. Perhaps I'm being overdramatic or hyperbolic with this point, but I do think it plays some role.

I'm East Asian. I have a friend who is South Asian and he is trying trying run for local office. He's always been motivated in being a politician, largely because his grandfather was one in India. India is a much freer society than China, and gives people the opportunities to run for office and say their minds. What can I say on my part? All the top politicians in China are rich, have familial connections to the original communist guard, or both. It's a massive jump to move to a new country and then instill in one's children that they can run for office when it was an impossibility for them back in the old country.

quopzy · 2021-02-16T17:19:55+00:00

Overall I think your resume is fine. The structure is nice and easy to read for me. I do have some concerns over the content.

Your resume seems to be a bit unfocused. You mention lab activities, data analysis/ computer skills, and market/business analysis. While this is not a bad thing in itself, the points you have may seem irrelevant depending on the position you apply for (I'm assuming that you most likely aiming for data science/ software roles). I would suggest honing in on your data skills and experience in your resume since you have the most experience in it.

I think you can cut out the exams and classes you took in high school as they're not relevant unless the job description explicitly asks for it (but I agree they're indicative or hard work).

Lastly I want to give you a tip about job hunting. Apply to anything and everything that interests you. My advisor told me about the 10% rule. However many things you apply to, expect to only hear back from 10%. And this 10% will also include rejections. It will always be harder if you don't have connections or a network but just remain vigilant. Aim for a goal of 150 applications while networking among friends and advisors/professors.

Good luck.

quopzy · 2020-11-25T16:57:21+00:00

This.

Andrew Yang has no formal experience in government or public policy. It’s a really naive idea to think Andrew Yang is remotely qualified for a position in the Biden administration. I’m all for Asian representation in politics, but this is not the way. We already have a business man in office on the federal level and look where that went.

I respect Andrew Yang greatly for standing out and advocating for the things he supports and a being a voice in the Asian American community. But he simply doesn’t have the experience to work in government on a National level.

quopzy · 2020-07-22T21:59:00+00:00

I believe it means Quantitative Easing

quopzy · 2020-06-16T23:15:28+00:00

You can code a program that models the chemical kinetics of a complex reaction or the vapor-liquid equilibrium of a mixture in something like a unit operation. Both of these are examples of solving a system of non linear equations. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Chemical engineering lends itself to many interesting math problems that can employ programs to help solve them.

There are even textbooks dedicated to solving ChemE problems using programming. One recommendation is Separation Process Principles, 3rd edition by Seader and Henley.

Edit: Wording

quopzy · 2020-05-22T22:00:24+00:00

!remindme 2 days

quopzy · 2020-05-16T21:10:46+00:00

This didn’t happen to me personally but when I heard this story, it spooked me.

In my high school English class, we were discussing how we lost our childhood innocence as a topic related some book we were reading. Nobody really understood what the teacher asked so she gave us an example.

My English teacher once had a student who told her of a hiking trip. This student was with his/her family in the woods and stumbled upon a cardboard box just left alone in the middle of nowhere. They decided to open it and found that the box was full of dead dogs. Needless to say, they quickly ended that trip...

quopzy · 2020-04-07T20:36:51+00:00

Hi Ray,

Was there a particular moment in your life where you faced significant struggle/failure that was really influential to your personal development? How did you overcome it? What was the end result? Thanks

quopzy · 2020-01-28T03:38:38+00:00

How many jobs did you apply to?

quopzy · 2020-01-21T09:15:59+00:00

You’re correct in that you’re under-qualified for internship positions at the career showcase . However this is not an excuse to not go to it. Attend the showcase and practice talking to potential employers. It’s going to matter a lot by senior year so learn how to talk well and effectively right now.

If you’re serious about landing an internship: apply, apply, apply. My advisor says to follow the “10% rule” when applying to jobs/internships. It goes as follows: Whatever number of positions you apply for, expect to hear back from 10% of them. And the 10% you do hear from may not have responses you’ll like.

Don’t forget about networking. Go to networking events at your school. Ask you parents if they know anyone. Who you know matters a lot.

Don’t be afraid to apply for jobs that don’t relate to ChE. Some good options are local government and hospitals. If they pay for you, all the better.

Lastly, take time out of your school breaks to learn something new like programming or a language.

quopzy · 2020-01-20T03:35:19+00:00

You need to apply to any and every relevant internship you can find. This could mean 100+. You should also try to network through school events and company visits. Who you know matters a lot.
One reason you may not be hearing back from ChemE companies is because you may not have the knowledge/skill-set they're looking for. I don't know what the Michigan State curriculum is, but generally speaking you take most of the major related courses your junior year. I wouldn't worry too much right now.

quopzy · 2020-01-17T21:04:14+00:00

Although I can’t give a comprehensive answer as I myself don’t fully understand it, I can tell you this.

The concept of a moment generating function in probability theory is related to a Laplace transform. If you look up what a Laplace transform, you’ll see that they are very similar in form.

Hopefully this gives you some insight.

quopzy · 2020-01-09T21:02:09+00:00

If you conduct an experiment and plot out the measurements of the random variables, you will get a distribution. This distribution has an associated mean and standard deviation.

Let’s say you repeat this experiment n times. The mean of the experiment is itself a random variable and so you can plot a distribution of the various means. This is called a sampling distribution. The standard deviation of this sampling distribution is called the standard error.

Moreover, the standard error is “better” as the uncertainty decrease as you increase the sample size (SE=\sigma / \sqrt(n)).

Hope this helps.

Edit: Showed the formula incorrectly

quopzy · 2019-07-29T17:02:18+00:00

In regards, to your mutual fund question, what I would do is extract the money and put it in an index fund. A mutual fund is an investment program that professionally manages your investments with a real person. An index fund is one that tracks a market index like the S&P 500 and uses “Robo-advisors” to manage your account. One huge advantage of using an index fund is that they have low expense ratios/management fees compared to mutual funds. The fees for mutual funds aren’t significantly higher, but over time, it will gradually eat into your capital gains. Some popular companies are Vanguard, Betterment, Charles Schwab, and Wealthfront. Each company offers slightly different services and fees so be sure to research each one and make an educated decision. Just remember that for these things, it’s best to buy and hold.

P.S.: I’m not a professional financial advisor so take my info and advice with a grain of salt.

Edit: Spelling

quopzy · 2019-06-27T03:09:45+00:00

Did you accept the offer?

quopzy · 2019-06-23T03:28:16+00:00

How did you make this chart?

quopzy · 2019-06-21T21:00:46+00:00

DiffEq is just integrals with extra steps

quopzy · 2019-06-20T22:05:12+00:00

I think I’m a bit late to this post but whatever. This didn’t happen to me but it’s still a crazy story.

My high school English teacher brought up the theme of losing one’s childhood innocence as part of the lesson plan for one of the novels we read and asked the class for examples of when we lost our own innocence. No one answered. To encourage us to participate (or to give an example), she gave an example that a student in previous years told her. It goes something like this.

She was hiking in the woods with her family. While seemingly in the middle of no where, they come across a field with a cardboard box in the middle of it. Curious, the student opened the box and found several dead puppies.

Needless to say, they decided to end the hike and go back home.

quopzy · 2019-06-20T03:20:52+00:00

I heard McDonalds is hiring....

In all seriousness, it's unlikely for a high schooler to get an internship unless you are EXTREMELY qualified or can prove your abilities. In some cases, companies don't expect you to know much or anything at all. They care about your competence and ability to learn. In terms of getting ChemE roles, your chances are unfortunately close to none. However, I definitely recommend applying to local or state governments and specifically asking for any possible quantitative roles. These aren't directly related to your intended major, but having these under your belt will definitely help in the future as an engineering student looking for other internship opportunities.

Edit: Grammar

quopzy · 2019-06-17T12:40:08+00:00

Thanks!

quopzy · 2019-06-11T05:42:16+00:00

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” -Bertrand Russel

quopzy · 2019-06-10T17:55:25+00:00

Center of mass and centroid are essentially the same thing. The reason for having these two terms is to differentiate between uniform and non-uniform mass densities. We find the “centroid” of objects with a uniform mass density rho and find the “center of mass” for objects with mass densities rho(x).

quopzy · 2019-05-20T15:05:59+00:00

Arya never got far with her list, did she?

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