13889 replies to this topic

[pokari]

Prime Minister

I find the President/Prime Minister distinction a little confusing—well, mostly what various presidents' actual job is (in countries with both) is, is the part that seems muddled. Especially when the answer is "head of government vs. head of state". So what, the president is just the ambassador-in-chief? What is he 'presiding' over, then?

I realise every country does this differently and sometimes even the translation to prime minister, president, etc. is questionable in the first place; Japan literally elects a 'Great Leader,' a "dai-touryou"—but we seem to have agreed between our two countries that translates back and forth to and from "President". XD.

...I guess if it were essentially "ambassador-in-chief," the role would have been a lot more powerful in the old days, just like ambassadors were. I mean, I think many countries' ambassadors still do have the huge powers once granted to them (ability to conduct diplomacy independently, even sign binding treaties in the name of thier home natuion home nation), that used to be required because phoning home to talk about what to do wasn't invented yet. But we typically don't exercise those powers anymore, I think, at least not for anything important, not with private jets and instant communication so readily available.

[PItiful Boar]

prime time

go big or big home

[pokari]

Prime rib

...go big and with bone?

[PItiful Boar]

prime numbers

[pokari]

Phone numbers

[PItiful Boar]

number munchers

\

a very fun game I played when i was a kiddo

miss those days...

[pokari]

*hugs*

Table number

Edited by pokari, 07 November 2019 - 07:36 AM.

[penrosecat]

number theory

 

i wonder what all this is about, gotta take a course sometime

[pokari]

It is my vague impression that number theory is vast and deep and nearly pure theoretical maths. I have no idea what a class on it would cover, I usually only hear about it in the context of proofs. ~w~ (I'm sure it's useful for something, though, pretty much all maths are these days it seems.)

Pet theory

[penrosecat]

Pet rock

 

well, i mean all maths is theoretical maths.

 

people generally expect to dive straight into the good bits they have read from random sources (so did i till a while back), but now after doing several mathematics courses i know that there's only going to be like 2/3 eureka days in a semester, and that too if you keep up to speed with whatever is going on every day. also how fun the classes are is definitely heavily dependent on the instructor. always shocking how someone can speak the language of mathematics so well and communicate so poorly. but then not really unexpected. i dont have very high expectations of instructors anyways. most of the learning happens by yourself or by taking some independent project. then you can always be at the edge of your own knowledge without feeling pressured by some insane competition and grading. i mean seriously averages are driven up so high, can't even get an A at 85-90. it feels good when i'm on the right side of this, but sometimes i'm not and all that crap really drives me insane. and then there's all the toxicity, you can't even talk about studying with anyone..etc. etc.

 

pretty crappy everyday life. i just hope i get handed out my dead end job without too much pain. then i can save up money and buy a switch. soon. and sorry for the rant

[pokari]

*hugs*

Relative grading is and has always been inherently dumb. Who even thought making grading a zero-sum game was a good idea? How well your classmates are doing has literally nothing to do with how well you understood the material. And with studies having shown that most students normally learn at least as much from their classmates as from the lecturer... I mean, disincentivising working with others, in general, seems pretty dumb.

But people who were raised on it seem to get stuck thinking that no one will learn anything if it's not a competition. A specific case of that general pattern of thinking that people will "go soft" if things are "too easy", or so I feel—a complete lack of distinction between healthy and unhealthy "challenging" environments.

I'm sorry you have to put up with it :/

Shiny rock

Edited by pokari, 22 January 2020 - 09:52 PM.

[penrosecat]

The worst thing is, that the course is actually easy. So, they make quizzes with trick questions and other stuff which doesn't have anything to do with mathematics. So you always end up regretting that one question. Which maybe you wouldn't have messed up if there wasn't exam pressure and you weren't constantly thinking about other people.

 

Another weird thing is that (here) generally in mathematics courses the professors follow 80+ = A. But all the new faculty which teaches all the intro courses, have been raised on relative grading so that is what they employ. The old people teach tougher courses as well.

 

Shiny ball

by the way, i think i would waste the same amount of energy in memorising all the stuff regardless of what the course is like. on the other hand, i think mathematics has spoiled me. i don't even feel like memorising other compulsory course crap (intro to biology, intro to environmental science, that kind of stuff) because of how mathematics links up and makes sense all the time. 

[pokari]

Ball bearing

Sounds wretched. Thinking one's job is to make the class difficult would seem to be a critical error for a teacher—I can only assume that they vaguely comprehend that some of the most difficult classes are the most informative, but failed to grasp the causation behind the correlation.

Well, I went to hippie college, and a lot of the teachers were reasonably laid back, at least to the extent that their classes allowed, so the only time it got really out of hand was when that one new-ish teacher let her TA's each grade their assigned students however they pleased (that was also the... weirdest class I ever took, but that's another story). And one of them was an... opinionated young man who thought his job was to make sure everyone put in enough effort (this was a minor artsy class, maybe a gen-ed, with completely subjective grading, and for those of us not under his care, like myself, it was a breeze). This was especially disastrous because he went around deciding how much effort was "enough" for different people based on his own perceptions of how much he thought they could do... There was much pointless and ill-deserved suffering in that portion of the class.

He also vocally thought that attaching emotion to music was the root of much evil, I recall. Nothing to do with the above, really, it was just very memorable.

Anyway I am sleepy and should sleep.

Night night :'3

Edited by pokari, 25 January 2020 - 09:35 AM.

[penrosecat]

Soft ball

 

enough "effort" well i know now that even the smartest kids do put in effort. and that more often than not, all the people in the room are doing the very best they can in their exact situation at the moment (in life as a whole), even if what they are doing is not paying attention. also making some other guy judge your efforts is as bad as surprise quizzes. like hell he knows what you have been through. i think that professors (especially the compulsory course guys) should be okay with however kids spend their class time as long as they clear the scheduled exams.

 

You know what, I feel like weekends are slowing me down rather than speeding me up. Surprisingly I feel more motivated after all the lecture classes to do something actually productive. Just being productive right out of bed isn't working well.

[pokari]

Soft kitten

I mean, weekends are supposed to slow you down. That's the whole point. A day or so of rest, where your mind and/or body gets a break for critical maintenance. Not everyone needs them to the same extent, but...

Of course neither all teachers nor all workplaces are known for respecting this when they assign workloads, common sense though it may be.

[penrosecat]

Big kitten

 

nah i don't blame the teachers. i really think i should be more efficient with my mind palace. i get too insecure about stuff and often have to study the same things 2-3 times before being comfy. and then one more time before the test. of course the multiples have decreased with the workload but i am never comfortable. i feel like i am really not doing smart work because of this.

[PItiful Boar]

Big bet

 

It's like me trying repeating locker combination combos several times before I feel comfortable putting the lock on the locker - when you're not completely sure of your surroundings, nobody to help you in case things go wrong. Probably because the environment is hostile - but stress induces growth... which is necessary to make your country great.

[penrosecat]

Bet low

 

can't believe i will be advising juniors soon, i feel like a little kid still

[pokari]

Lay low

So sayeth our entire generation, I feel. How did all our parents and their parents on into antiquity, become adults so quickly?

[PItiful Boar]

lay still

 

Advanced aging brought on by pressure - all those cortisol and no where to go

good to see you checking back in once in a while, thou