>> You think *that* is bad?! I used to be able to sleep properly...
> 
> Heh, I've never been able to sleep properly.  Better now than it used to 
> be, but still pretty restless.

Oh man, I used to be *awesom* at sleeping!

Like, I'd go to sleep, and wake up the next day even if my alarm clock 
was switched off, and feel wide awake and not tired at all. Like, I'd be 
standing outside the university building at 7:30 AM on a Sunday waiting 
for the sleepy-eyed [and most likely highly under-paid] technitions to 
show up at 9 AM to open the building so I could get into the computer 
room, hit the Internet, and code some serious Smalltalk. (Or possibly 
Java. Or, hell, maybe just sit around all day and write LaTeX? Who knows.)

Now I just seem to be permanently tired, and every now and then I become 
almost totally unable to sleep at all... I *suck* at sleeping! >_<

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> I did actually get my BSc. And yet, nobody gives a **** about that. 
>> How is a PhD different?
> 
> What's the difference between being a sailor in the navy and the captain 
> of the ship?  In one, you're swabbing the decks when the captain tells 
> you to. In the other, you're responsible for making sure the ship gets 
> where it's going.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that was the ship's engineer. ;-) </sarcasm>

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> I guess it's just that I've spent my entire life surrounded by people 
>> telling me how stupid I am, 
> 
> They're wrong. All my teachers thought I was crap too. I was just bored 
> for the most part, and uninterested.

Heh. I still remember my science teacher's words: "Andrew, if you don't 
buck your ideas up, you're going to fail." I walk into the room holding 
my B-grade - the highest possible grade for that particular paper, I 
might add - and he's all "well I always said you could do well". WTF? NO 
YOU DIDN'T!!

Still... that guy really did love himself. :-P

Of course, if it was just some dump-ass teacher, it wouldn't matter so 
much. The problem was that *everybody* told me I was stupid. Throughout 
my whole life. Hence my self-evident mental issues. x_o

>>> Know what? My wife has a PhD too. Know where I met her?
>> Heh. What do you have a PhD *in* though?
> 
> Both our PhDs were in computers.

OK, that's pretty crazy...

...wait, are you that guy who has a Chinese wife?

>> I rather doubt there are many females who have a PhD in anything 
>> remotely related to computing. 
> 
> In my university, it seemed pretty close to even, IIRC. At least in the 
> PhD program.

OK, that's just mental. At college, we had 14 guys, 0 girls. At uni we 
had [approximately] 75 guys and 5 girls [almost all married with children].

>> Like I say, I couldn't figure out the application process. Maybe 
>> because I don't have a clear idea of how this stuff is supposed to 
>> work...
> 
> Oh. You mean, you were blocked by HR? That's not unusual.

More like, I read the webpage telling you how to apply, and I just say 
there going "wuh?"

> I'm serious. Don't look at it as a destination. You want to get out of 
> where you are, so think of the PhD as a place to go, have fun, meet 
> people, and do exciting stuff.

Heh. My mum's first reaction was "and what are you going to do after 
that?" Not that my mum's opinion is especially important. I was just 
wondering how much she'd freak out. ;-)

> It doesn't matter if you finish or not, 
> any more than running a marathon is about whether you come in first.

I never understood this... The ENTIRE POINT of a marathon is to finish 
it! How is not finishing it still OK? Weird people...

> That's fair.  Part of the fun is living in a different country, mind. 
> (Not that I did, but ...)   I can completely understand if it isn't fun, 
> tho. Do take advantage of the fact that you speak one of the languages 
> that ran rampant all over the world not too long ago, so you can get by 
> language-wise pretty much anywhere. China was the only place I've been 
> that people generally didn't know enough English to get by.

Ah. Is *that* why every country in the EU speaks English, but the 
English can't speak any damned language except English? :-} I often 
wonder about that...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Hmm, OK. That seems simple enough. I guess the problem is that all that 
> relational calculus stuff is abstracted to the point where it's just 
> moving symbols around and it's difficult to determine how this is 
> related to reality.

Um, yes. Indeed, that's precisely exactly why you would use formal 
relational calculus stuff: it's just moving symbols around with no relation 
to reality. That's why you can program computers to do it - that's all 
computers can do.

That's true of most all formal math, tho: everything related to algebra or 
calculus is ultimately moving symbols around with no relation to reality.

>> There are, of course, standard rules of deduction, like
>>   "for all X, pred(X)"
>> is the same as
>>   "not for some X, not pred(X)"
>> and so on.
> 
> But, notably, if X being true implies Y being true, then X being false 
> does not necessarily imply Y being false.

Um, yes? :-) Was that supposed to be a relevant comment?

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   My fortune cookie said, "You will soon be
   unable to read this, even at arm's length."

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>> Hmm, OK. That seems simple enough. I guess the problem is that all 
>> that relational calculus stuff is abstracted to the point where it's 
>> just moving symbols around and it's difficult to determine how this is 
>> related to reality.
> 
> Um, yes. Indeed, that's precisely exactly why you would use formal 
> relational calculus stuff: it's just moving symbols around with no 
> relation to reality. That's why you can program computers to do it - 
> that's all computers can do.
> 
> That's true of most all formal math, tho: everything related to algebra 
> or calculus is ultimately moving symbols around with no relation to 
> reality.

The trick is to be able to associate all this abstraction with reality 
in your mind, so that you can use it to do Useful Stuff. ;-)

>>> There are, of course, standard rules of deduction, like
>>>   "for all X, pred(X)"
>>> is the same as
>>>   "not for some X, not pred(X)"
>>> and so on.
>>
>> But, notably, if X being true implies Y being true, then X being false 
>> does not necessarily imply Y being false.
> 
> Um, yes? :-) Was that supposed to be a relevant comment?

Apparently large numbers of people aren't aware of this particular fact.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Of course, if it was just some dump-ass teacher, it wouldn't matter so 
> much. The problem was that *everybody* told me I was stupid. Throughout 
> my whole life. Hence my self-evident mental issues. x_o

Yes. Getting constantly put down will eventually lead to problems.

Get over it. You're not stupid. Everyone else was, for telling you you are.

> ...wait, are you that guy who has a Chinese wife?

Yes.

> OK, that's just mental. At college, we had 14 guys, 0 girls. At uni we 
> had [approximately] 75 guys and 5 girls [almost all married with children].

Undergradutate, yes. We had something like 25 guys and 3 girls in the 
classes when I was undergrad.

> Heh. My mum's first reaction was "and what are you going to do after 
> that?" Not that my mum's opinion is especially important. I was just 
> wondering how much she'd freak out. ;-)

I think the right answer is "live far away from *you*!" :-)

>> It doesn't matter if you finish or not, any more than running a 
>> marathon is about whether you come in first.
> 
> I never understood this... The ENTIRE POINT of a marathon is to finish 
> it! How is not finishing it still OK? Weird people...

I didn't say finish. I said "win" the marathon.

In any case, getting the PhD is a learning process. If you stop early, it's 
because you decided you don't want to learn what it is you started studying, 
and you're still no worse off than you were.

> Ah. Is *that* why every country in the EU speaks English, but the 
> English can't speak any damned language except English? :-} I often 
> wonder about that...

Yes. You didn't figure that out? That's why there's like 200 languages in 
India, but everyone speaks English. And why Americans mostly speak English. 
And why lots of Africa speaks English. And why lots of central and south 
america speak spanish or something close to it.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   My fortune cookie said, "You will soon be
   unable to read this, even at arm's length."

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> I did actually get my BSc. And yet, nobody gives a **** about that. 
>>> How is a PhD different?
>>
>> What's the difference between being a sailor in the navy and the 
>> captain of the ship?  In one, you're swabbing the decks when the 
>> captain tells you to. In the other, you're responsible for making sure 
>> the ship gets where it's going.
> 
> Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that was the ship's engineer. ;-) </sarcasm>

No. The ship's engineer makes the ship run. It's the captain's 
responsibility to make the ship get there. That's why the ship's captain 
traditionally has ultimate authority as well as ultimate responsibility.

Don't confuse ability with responsibility. :-)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   My fortune cookie said, "You will soon be
   unable to read this, even at arm's length."

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> The trick is to be able to associate all this abstraction with reality 
> in your mind, so that you can use it to do Useful Stuff. ;-)

Yes. The problem comes when people think that the math implies something 
about the real world they don't have to check for accuracy. :-)

>> Um, yes? :-) Was that supposed to be a relevant comment?
> Apparently large numbers of people aren't aware of this particular fact.

Well, yes, there is that.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   My fortune cookie said, "You will soon be
   unable to read this, even at arm's length."

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>>> What's the difference between being a sailor in the navy and the 
>>> captain of the ship?  In one, you're swabbing the decks when the 
>>> captain tells you to. In the other, you're responsible for making 
>>> sure the ship gets where it's going.
>>
>> Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that was the ship's engineer. ;-) </sarcasm>
> 
> Don't confuse ability with responsibility. :-)

Ah. Sorry... I'm used to working in a place where I get held responsible 
for things I have no ability to control. :-}

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Ah. Sorry... I'm used to working in a place where I get held responsible 
> for things I have no ability to control. :-}

That's called scapegoating. It's held in great regard here. People base 
religions on it, even.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   My fortune cookie said, "You will soon be
   unable to read this, even at arm's length."

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