An existential crisis is an important part of growing up.

Private school, Mississippi.

I was a YEC before going to university. I studied geology. After two years, I accepted that evolution happened. After four years, I was an atheist. I went on to get a doctorate, and I have published quite a few papers about rocks that are >2 billion years old.

As a kid, there were literally 0 authority figures in my life that accepted that evolution happened. It was taken as a given that it was ridiculous. My biology teacher skipped the chapter on evolution, saying, “this is controversial.”

Patience, love, and making critical information available gives kids like I was a chance.

Depends strongly on the community. Every sub discipline has its own standards of respectability. Publishing outside of those constraints can cause articles to be ignored.

I wasn’t sure if this was true or a weird misunderstanding or conspiracy type thing. Seems to be true. Here is an accessible writeup: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231127-brazils-mysterious-tunnels-made-by-giant-sloths

Reminds me of the time I was rear ended and the guy told me it was because he was playing candy crush.

Yes. In the heirarchy of science, it ranks just below literature.

Simply put, it’s not that simple.

My wife made this joke during a presentation that was part of a job interview. Nobody laughed. Clear sign of a toxic environment.

Depends on the program you are in. The view from being a doctoral student to being a postdoc to being research/lecturing staff is very different. Not all advisors expose their students to the realities of higher levels of academia. And when a woman or minority is being mentored by a white man, they may not be aware of biases that can affect the student’s later career.

Chess is free. No DLC. I have never stopped playing.

If that doesn’t work, restart it and then try.

Thanks, I still have no idea how this place works…