Flowchart for STEM
Flowchart for STEM
57 comments
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30 years ago when I started heading down the computer science path, nothing about it seemed evil.
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Certainly not limited to IT. One of my professors from many years was an aerospace engineer1. He recounts to us the time that he busted his ass on some design for a long time and managed to make some huge cost savings. And then after it was done he realized that all he really did with his extra hard work was help some executives and stockholders get a bit richer. Not long after that he switched to education.
1Not in the defense industry
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I kiss ass so I can get rich while my boss gets richer off me. Perhaps I'll work harder with a gun in my back for a bowl of rice a day.
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I've had this thought for a while and I definitely agree that a lot of software I've built is a net negative to society as a whole and the only reason why I get paid as well as I do is because I'm helping rich assholes suck value out of society more efficiently.
For instance, I've worked on CMSs that automated 90% of the processes for medium-large insurance companies. Sure, it may result in a marginal price reduction for insureds (lol), but it almost certainly has led to fewer staff being hired to the benefit of the overlords. If more and more middle-class white-collar jobs gets replaced by software, that helps put downward pressure on wages. At the end of it all, are the marginally lower prices worth it to society, when everyone has a lower wage or no well paying job forcing them to participate in the gig economy and such?
It's a depressing thought, and I've been trying to break into research engineering roles or something of the sort to get away from my current role but it's been an uphill task.
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In a sane world, automating away tedious work would be an unqualified good. Too bad we live in a capitalist clown world where rich assholes are able to capture 120% of the benefits of automation, leaving regular people to make up the difference.
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Computer science is no more evil than most of the industries on the chart; they all offer ethical jobs as well, they just tend not to pay as well as the evil ones
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I feel like I mostly got away with it without being evil thus far. I ended up working for a foundation and the team I'm in builds internet access (and layer 2 transport) for institutions of higher education. But maybe network engineering isn't really the typical outcome, most of my friends became developers.
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Did you try any of these and not like it? Yes -> geology
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Should be a subbranch of "ambivalent towards safety" - How do you like to endanger yourself -> Blowing things up = Chem Eng or Hit things with hammers = Geology
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Geologists do sometimes blow stuff up
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Then when you go to grad school you realize you have to like all of them.
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Came here to say I felt under represented lol
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Economics is STEM???
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Yes. In the heirarchy of science, it ranks just below literature.
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It falls into both Science and Math
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Hey, if biology qualifies, why not that?
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Not only that, but it apparently doesn't even involve math anymore!
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accurate, and for the record, EPA, you can take my DCM wash bottle out of my DEAD DEGREASED HANDS
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Look, I'm all for green chemistry, and I'll switch to using safer, more environmentally friendly reagents and solvents the second they are close to the efficacy of the real deal.
Until then, leave my acetone and heavy-metal catalysts alone!
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Like, so what if we store our tBuLi with other low-flash point flammables? And pyrophoric oxidizers? In the same bin? That's stuck in a block of ice in the 30-year-old freezer because it hasn't ever been de-iced?
What if the power goes out for a long period of time and the tBuLi goes for a swim? Or we say you have to de-ice the freezer?
Haha sounds crazy. And, I wouldn't have to do the shitty quench before disposal. Or work on that project anymore.
Because you're injured or because PI fires you?
Haha, yeah :)
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:)
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Oh, while you're here, does this still smell like DCM? I can't tell if I rotavapped it all off and the NMR tubes all need aqua regia (sorry my b).
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Aqua regia isn't even that scary. Try pipetting pure bromine while it shoots itself out from constantly evaporating
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Like, so what if we store our tBuLi with other low-flash point flammables? And pyrophoric oxidizers? In the same bin? That's stuck in a block of ice because in the 30-year-old freezer because it hasn't ever been de-iced?
That's just bad management and you shouldn't store tBuLi that long anyway because it'll decompose. You shouldn't put it in freezer either
Oh, while you're here, does this still smell like DCM? I can't tell if I rotavapped it all off and the NMR tubes all need aqua regia (sorry my b).
just put it on high vacuum
What are you working with that requires aqua regia to clean NMR tubes? I've only had to use piranha once in a decade, while cleaning things that acetone, DCM, and basic ethanol won't touch, and this was just after moving to another lab
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"Frickin' beautiful."
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Moment of silence for those who thought environmental science doesn't have maths. (No money is true though.)
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After indirect
Do you want to feel like you are in a secret society? Yes -> actuarial sciences
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There could be one more to differentiate engineers from architects. Do you like to solve problems (engineer) or create them (architect)? Fun flowchart!
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That is literally the path I took to become an Env. Scientist
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Ah, a fellow poor with no hope. How goes it!?
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Same for computer science
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Geologists all end up pulling oil out of the ground.
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Not this one. Environmental scientists end up cleaning up after them.
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57 comments
To be clear: you like money, but you will not earn money.
Poor and middle-income people earn money. Rich people just take it from the people who earn it.
Passive Income has been outpacing earned income for decades. The best job to have is a giant pile of money in a stock account. You barely even have to trade it. Blue Chip stocks are generating double digit returns. All off other people's labor.