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[Vector]

Nah, I know.  I'm going to get some low-wage jobs and retool my skillset in the meantime.  Just letting the reality sink in.

[Ameablable]

i have such a bad headache right now. my sinuses are full too. i feel like im dying...

[alway]

Apparently my mom is crying in the other room because I'm immature, naive, and don't make 80k a year fresh out of undergrad.

How many people with math degrees actually make that? There's only so many University tenures to go around, and I can't imagine there's all that many high-paying jobs for any sort of theoretical science outside of Universities.

This I know only too well. Nobody goes into academic science to make cashmoney. Its not like gansta rap...

Wait, does any career path make $80,000 right out of undergrad?

Starting pay at Microsoft for someone I know with a BS was around 6 figures + benefits + stock options + 5k signing bonus + 5k relocation. So yeah, programmers. Myself, from my first co-op job, I was offered "somewhere between 50k and 100k, and probably closer to the 100k figure," to quote the boss trying to hire me. And that was a full year before I even finished my BS coursework. [Though currently I'm working for 55k for another company simply because their projects were much more interesting.] Become a good programmer and you're living on easy street.

A math BS on its own probably won't get a great job like that. Combine it with decent programming knowledge, and it will. Mostly because the strong mathematical thinking is useful for algorithms, data structures, interpretation of academic papers, and generally coming up with creative solutions to highly complex problems. A degree isn't necessary. What is all but necessary is having a portfolio of your own little programming projects with pictures (if relevant), descriptions of what you did, and optionally source code downloads (though be very careful with this; if you're code uses terrible coding standards and is undecipherable, it may hurt more than it helps). Most in our major use wordpress or similar pre-made sites, which is preferable unless you are going for a web-dev position; in which case your portfolio site should itself be a cool project.

Also, as telle said: statistics is big. Statistics and/or AI (which these days is really just automated applied statistics; yay Bayesian models) are really well paying math applications. Try looking at medical statistics work; basically doing all the probabilistic reasoning surrounding medical trials.

Edit: Example of a good game dev portfolio: http://mculek.blogspot.com/
That guy [last I heard] works at Microsoft on the DirectX team.
Also take note of the resume setup. It's a good one for a programmer, and is based on a document one of our professors wrote which details how to make a good programmer resume, based on years of industry feedback.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/14/theres-thief-4-gameplay-footage-too/

Day is pretty ruined, honestly. Thief is and was one of my favorite stealth games ever.

[Vector]

. . .

For some reason, it really bums me out to see the people who abused me go on to lead happy and productive lives.  It doesn't seem fair that they can have what I have and more.


Sorry for all this complaining recently.  I'm moving quickly from "I haven't spoken to anyone but my parents and senile step-grandmother for a few weeks and that's okay," to "It's not okay at all and I can feel any sensation of competence and self-worth beginning to evaporate into bloody panic."

Yup.  But I also sort of don't want to talk to anyone.  It's a conundrum.

[Pnx]

I know the feeling. Karma is really just a myth, people do bad things all the time and get away with them, and sometimes even wind up benefiting from doing bad things...

Anyway, I think I'm feeling pretty ill... I'm not sure what it is but I've somehow been drained of all energy, I spent a good 14 hours lying in bed, had a horrible night's sleep, and am just feeling sort of ick and heavy headed in general.

[GlyphGryph]

Vector, I think you just seriously need to get away from everything, go out there, find your passion and pursue it. I know you'll succeed, wildly, at anything you put your mind to - you just need to get away from the people dragging you down, and find it, and stop worrying about what you SHOULD be doing.

There's NO reason you need to make 80k a year. Is that even something you care about? If I know you at all, the money wouldn't matter beyond allowing you not to think about it. You've never seemed like the time to get joy from simple accumulation.

What are you involved in? What are you actually doing that you're passionate about right now, hobby-wise? Forget your math degree for a moment, and just... if you could do anything, be anything, what sort of work would you see yourself doing? What sort of things do you really and truly want to accomplish?

[Vector]

(Let me be clear: I am well aware that a lot of this is hormones dragging me down at the moment, so it's all stuff that would normally make me riotously mad or unhappy, but I'd be more patient with being upset instead of just kind of beating myself against the walls.  I've also been sleeping badly for the past few nights, which doesn't help.)


You're right.  I'm going stir crazy, and I really don't care about money very much outside of land ownership, world travel, and medical bills.  Well, and raw materials for projects.  In general, I'm an enormous cheapskate.

Right now... ?

Well, to be honest, I feel pretty physically shitty at the moment, so all I want to do is lie in bed.  But after that I have been doing the following worthwhile and satisfying things:

a. Promoting published book (makes me happy, people are actually buying it, and I feel like a total boss emailing random people and asking for favors)
b. Working on co-authoring more Russian translations

What I would like to be doing in addition:

c. Working on translation of short book (about 1/5 done?  I'm not sure)
d. Working on translation of French poetry collection
e. Taking math classes
f. Developing that new kind of dessert I invented
g. Short art project thing I've been planning for months
h. Learning to program
i. Reading incredibly obtuse literary theory

What I am actually doing:

j. Applying for interesting jobs I can't have and getting out from under piles of backed up correspondence and necessary maintenance of crap that went bad while I was in college/couldn't do because I was tied down, which is exhausting and killing my creative drive.

It is stuff I do actually need to do, though, like "learn to drive" and "make it so my bicycle actually works."  However, it's very good at making me feel like I'm not actually getting anything done.  The origami boxes I made last weekend were the most exhilarated I'd felt in weeks, because the colors were actually good this time around... I'd tried something that had a failure potential and it worked out.

. . .

Anyway, I'm going to go get back in bed with a nice, cool glass of water for a while, and I'll take a walk this evening, and as soon as I'm feeling better (which will be soon!) I'll start thinking about living life more dreamily.

[JoshuaFH]

So I guess that girl I was dating and thought was really into me is using the tried and true method of "If you don't like a guy, just ignore him til he gets the point" method of turning someone down.

And really, that doesn't make me sad or feel sorry for myself, it just makes me openly furious. It's not an acceptable way of treating someone, imo.

[Devling]

So I guess that girl I was dating and thought was really into me is using the tried and true method of "If you don't like a guy, just ignore him til he gets the point" method of turning someone down.

And really, that doesn't make me sad or feel sorry for myself, it just makes me openly furious. It's not an acceptable way of treating someone, imo.

That's the worst way to break up with someone. I would rather someone spit in my face and leave then just ignore me until I stop trying.

[Sirus]

That bites, dude. Kinda a scummy way to break up with someone :/

[Jopax]

In that case you stop trying immediately and say to hell with them. If they ever try to reconcile the relationship you simply tell them to fuck off. Personal policy of mine, works like a charm really, you are treated the way you treat others and all that.

Anyways, the sad part, drunk talking with friends, they have some worrying conspiracy theory views about how the world operates. I was like that once I guess, but I've since learned to take everything with a grain of salt, and have since learned about the Occams Razor and the nature of human stupidity/ignorance. They seem somewhat reluctant to accept that the world is far too chaotic to be run by a handful of individuals.

[FearfulJesuit]

Never attribute to malice what is more easily explained by incompetence, stupidity or sheer stubbornness. Sometimes I feel like I'd have a higher opinion of humankind if our problems were caused by evil masterminds than glorified mid-level managers...

[kaijyuu]

I dunno, I'd say malice is worse than incompetence, stupidity, and stubbornness put together.

That some people are a bit slow is reassuring, at least compared to the alternative of them WANTING to cause problems.

[Devling]

I don't know, I would rather have someone hurt me because they are dumb, then kill me because they hate me.