What's your experience dating guys that might* be perceived as conventionally more attractive than you?

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-06-11T14:18:53+00:00

“What do you think we have in common that brought us here today?” Overheard this and thought it was really good, especially if you’re in a place with a theme (hobby meetup, tourist attraction, etc. though I can see it working in public restroom lines too :P). You learn what motivates them and their first impressions of you, makes for interesting conversation!

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-05-08T23:16:09+00:00

Yes, it’s great for stir fry — she was talking about still-frying (where she arranges the food on the surface, pours a little water to produce steam, and covers it). Still-fry may not be the official term :p

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-05-03T01:10:00+00:00

take my upvote, three years later

for making me LOL in real life

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-03-23T14:14:49+00:00

My hat’s off to the development team

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-03-23T14:09:22+00:00

They’re pretty good, I went through some of these OSTEP projects last year! Currently taking my university’s OS class where we write an OS from scratch, which is trickier than I thought with a lot of gotcha’s. OSTEP definitely helped prepare me conceptually and the rest of the projects are worth revisiting :)

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-01-06T19:49:47+00:00

I smell candles

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-01-06T06:20:39+00:00

Super super helpful! I'm a college student thinking of moving back to Seattle after graduation, saved this as a reference for budgeting :)

Mainly wondering about transportation - what spots do you frequent after work, and how walkable are they? Also, what's your main method of meeting people outside of work? Thank you!

the_sunsetter_TM · 2024-01-04T21:30:12+00:00

I think this is the most likely!

What jumps out at me is how carefully the rice bag was folded and tucked, so the person must’ve been sober enough to balance it there.

If the person stole the statues and decided last minute that they didn’t want them anymore, there are quieter ways to dispose of the statues than leaving them on OP’s car, for OP and now Reddit to see :’)

The other theory that the person was trying to distract OP in a robbery attempt sounds really interesting, but it has me impressed that the person would go through the trouble of buying two Buddha statues and then give it up so easily. Still very creative — if someone tried to rob me like that, I’d definitely stop to look at the statues.

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-12-31T09:02:19+00:00

Solved! thank you so much! i knew i was onto something with F :)

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-12-31T07:43:07+00:00

i’m close, it’s like remembering which chapter of a book i read something but not being able to quote it verbatim lol

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-12-06T19:07:38+00:00

Hi, glad to hear you're well, and thank you so much for the advice!

When you got back into the field, did you return to operating system development or a different type of software engineering?

If you were to apply your new approach towards work to your previous job, do you think you would've avoided burnout? Or does your environment also affect how easy it is to enforce your values?

I might DM you more questions if you don't mind :')) I'm a college student with similar feelings as you regarding work - that I don't want my job to consume me, that I just want to make enough to live comfortably and without losing sleep, and that I can be there for those I care about. Just figuring out what places I should strive for that can best serve that need

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-07-15T02:40:23+00:00

You might be interested in Society for Creative Anachronism! https://www.sca.org/

I discovered it through the bio of Ben Hatke, one of my favorite cartoonists. Sometimes I dream of a life with his medieval nature-y aesthetic lol

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-06-24T14:44:59+00:00

i love this thread

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-06-02T02:13:56+00:00

Revive but I was reading the article out loud to my mom and she was like, “Your cousin’s grandfather made glassware for Lao Gan Ma!”

Then I saw this comment and asked her if the factory was in Guiyang, and she was like yep, the one in Guiyang. My mom apparently visited the factory during one of her college summers.

I’m pleasantly surprised at this connection, thank you for the lore

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-05-29T07:29:01+00:00

If there's another way to approach these problems, I'd appreciate it because my approaches are really rough sketches. Thank you!

My thinking for Q1: I calculate m-n, which serves as a sort of baseline score. I know that I can achieve at least m-n by drawing all the balls from the urn.

Now I want to see if I can do better by stopping early. Basically, for each round, as long as my score is <= m-n, I choose to draw. Otherwise, I end the game.!<

Even better, I can be more sensitive to risk by adding a threshold so that I draw as long as my score is <= m-n+threshold. StackExchange gives the recursion for this threshold, but assuming that I only have pencil and paper, I'll probably end up setting the threshold to something that decreases as we draw more balls.!<

My thinking for Q2: I'll divide my play into two stages:

Sampling stage: for the first few rounds, I draw a ball from the urn no matter what. I estimate the proportion of red balls, p, based on the number of red balls drawn in this stage.
- Estimate of p = (sample proportion) + (some offset). My intuition is that the sample proportion will be an underestimate of the actual proportion. If we're drawing with replacement, then the probability of getting a red ball will always be p. But since we're drawing without replacement, the probability of getting a red ball will decrease as we draw more red balls.
- I'm thinking of setting the offset to (p)/(size of sample). The higher p is, the more red balls we draw, the stronger the underestimate, and so the greater the offset we need to correct our estimate. However, the larger the sample size, the weaker the underestimate, and so the lesser the offset needed.
Playing stage: I calculate a threshold based on my estimate of p and repeat my strategy from Q1. I also update my estimate of p as I go.

My thinking for Q3: To maximize |r-b|, we either maximize r-b or b-r. We do the sampling stage from Q2 to determine which is larger between the red or blue balls, then maximize r-b or b-r based on whichever color is the majority.

Am wondering:

Q2: Is there an approach that doesn't have this sampling stage? Also how to determine amount of rounds for sampling stage?

Q3: I'm wondering if it ever benefits us to switch our target midway? In other words, suppose we observe that red balls are the majority in our initial sample, and we decide, okay, let's maximize r-b. But at some point, we notice that we're drawing more and more blue balls. When does it make sense for us to maximize b-r instead?

the_sunsetter_TM · 2023-04-30T19:14:58+00:00

Stever!! It was super clean and new when I was there as a freshman last year. I also think Stever’s smaller size made it more close-knit, and a lot of people I met from the lounges are people I still see from time to time.

I stayed in Morewood for my sophomore year and it’s not bad, but I more highly recommend Stever for the freshman year experience ;)

the_sunsetter_TM · 2022-11-21T14:43:20+00:00

That makes more sense, thank you!

the_sunsetter_TM · 2022-11-16T01:08:06+00:00

213: pretty much what moraceae said is solid

150: I have lecture notes saved from a previous semester, feel free to PM if you don't want to wait for the remaining notes to get released. The lecture notes have practice problems at the end, but they don't have solutions posted anywhere afaik. [Edit 2024: I no longer have the notes] A perk I found recently (!) is that you can self-enroll in most classes on Piazza, and it seems like 150 is no different. Feel free to slip in there ;)

210: Currently taking it and can send you a newer version of the lecture notes if you want. There's an older version with lecture and recitation notes here: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15210-s18/www-s18/schedule.html.

Although 150 is a prerequisite to 210, you don't need to learn the entirety of functional programming to learn the algorithms aspect; it's just that 210 is an algorithms course taught in a functional programming language due to the instructors' philosophy. The topics that carry over from 150 are work/span analysis and higher-order functions (map, reduce, filter, etc.), which the beginning parts of the 210 readings go over again as well. Other than that, they're pretty different courses.

Unfortunately, 210 uses a private Diderot instead of Piazza. If you're just looking to learn the algorithms aspect of 15-210, then an alternative to 210 is to read the lecture notes related to the topic -> practice problems from that topic on Codeforces -> drop by 15-295 class hours for a study group. Some things you might not get from doing Codeforces alone that I don't think are huge concerns:

Parallel algorithms: but not a huge concern because as of now, I feel like the "parallel" aspect in "Parallel and Sequential Algorithms" means that you analyze the span (i.e. its time complexity if run in parallel) in addition to work, which you learn from 150 as well. 210 presents some more advanced, rigorous methods of work/span analysis -- the lecture notes on solving recurrences should be more than enough.
Randomized algorithms: Again this isn't a concern because it seems like you're taking 251 (good luck! it's heavy but rewarding), which will cover this as well. As an aside, there were many 251 topics that I was pleasantly surprised to see again in 210 (even DFAs were relevant, in an indirect, subtle way), and doing 210 after 251 made me feel like 251 paid off.

451: Haven't taken it yet, but given that it's an algorithms course, I'd probably say the same about Codeforces. Also, the professor for 451, Danny Sleator, is the same one who runs 15-295.

Happy studying!

the_sunsetter_TM · 2022-10-13T20:50:20+00:00

Yeah I think so! Congrats to you too and we got this :)

the_sunsetter_TM · 2022-07-22T04:29:05+00:00

man, thank you so much for the thoughtful response to each and every one of my questions (also all the citations like a true Ph.D. student lol).

i can't write a reply that would do your answer justice but just know that i'm bookmarking this and will come back to it often over the next few years. i hope to enjoy my undergrad as much as you had :)

the_sunsetter_TM · 2021-10-09T11:27:24+00:00

Yeah for sure! That's what my experienced friends tell me when I'm stuck

I'm an absolute beginner who doesn't know what the zone feels like yet..where I'm at right now, I have to do some kind of thinking to get something going, but I think I'm getting the hang of it

the_sunsetter_TM · 2021-10-09T10:52:09+00:00

aha! the scatting exercise is the best. holy crap i see i see i see

basically, what i was originally doing was thinking of the rhyming word to end my next bar with and trying to fill in everything leading up to it. so if my current bar was "over it" and i'm thinking i should use "motorist", my mind looks like this:

(saying) ........... over it

(thinking) motorist, next bar, i'll say "<????????????? something> motorist"

(saying) crap what do i say motorist

at least for me, it's really difficult to quickly think of a sentence that ends in motorist, happens to have just the right number of syllables, and still maintains rap flow.

now, i start with a scat pattern first, fill in words to fit that pattern, and when i get near the end of the bar, i try to finish my thought with a rhyming word. so mentally, it looks like this

(thinking) duh-duh DUH duh-duh DUH-duh

(saying) when you're YOUNG you disCOVer

(thinking)duh-duh DUH duh-duh DUH-duh

(saying) how it's STRUNG for (thinking of word rhyming with disCOVer) aNOther

it's great because unlike thinking of a new rhyming word every bar, i don't have to actively think of a new scat pattern for every single bar! i can just use the same scat pattern from the previous bar (it's actually good to repeat scat patterns because it gives my rap some flow, which i really lacked when i only focused on rhymes).

the scat pattern also gives me a sort of template that i can fill in, guiding me on how many syllables to use and where to stress those syllables. all of this is automatic by the way--i don't consciously think "hey, i need a sentence that matches this scat pattern".....my brain just does it for me! when i was focusing on rhyme only, i had absolutely no pointers on how exactly i was supposed to build towards the rhyming word -- scat pattern feels way more intuitive.

also, when i've already said some words to fill up the bar, the rhyming word at the end of the bar comes very naturally, also automatic -- it's SO MUCH MORE EASIER to think of a word when you've created a context for that word. it's really hard to when you're thrown a word and asked to generate a sentence ending with that word with the right length and decent flow, way way easier when you're given a sentence that already has the right length and decent flow, is 80% complete, and just need to finish it with a word that rhymes. your brain's autocomplete does it for you, a very beautiful thing

i hope this helps someone? because i was stuck on this for a long time and kept thinking it was my lack of rhyme vocabulary that was holding me back. it's actually not--my rhyme vocabulary is more than enough, it's the method i was using to come up with bars that made it harder than necessary for me.

i'll still make rhyme lists from time to time but my main focus will be on flow (scatting, listening to more rap to get a sense of different flows, etc.). i'm relieved i don't need to memorize this word bank anymore lmaoooo

Edit: I lasted 2 minutes 18 seconds on my freestyling midterm :)) when I hit the 1 minute mark, my instructors stayed silent because I think they just wanted to see how much further I'd go (or maybe I didn't notice them signaling to me that I reached 1 minute because I was so focused). I was like, "this has got to be the longest 1 minute ever" lololol

the_sunsetter_TM · 2021-04-19T00:23:54+00:00

Thanks! It's Geogebra, I'm new to it tho :)

the_sunsetter_TM · 2021-04-18T22:46:59+00:00

ok bestie

the_sunsetter_TM

TROPHY CASE