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MetaFight
MetaFight
12:15
@RobertHarvey I live in Oxford right now, the capital of "I'm a PhD student therefore I must know more than everyone around me." It never ceases to amaze me how those 3 letters can sabotage someone's ability to learn from their peers.
 
2 hours later…
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
14:40
Oh yeah, I had one guy (first year, like me, but he had almost completed MBA first...) get really mad when I tried to google something he had just told me, after prior times I had demonstrated his knowledge to be incomplete just by shooting from the hip... maybe that's why he got mad. He also got mad at the professor when I correctly answered a quiz question that he got wrong, and didn't accept my explanation... The ego thing probably helps you study harder.
But when you're wrong, you get rekt.
 
3 hours later…
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
18:00
@MetaFight The aspirational ego. They're probably hungry to prove themselves. That probably makes them a bit unbearable.
Telastyn
Telastyn
18:31
there's also being the smartest one around for 20 years. It becomes part of their identity, and when that's threatened... bad times all around.
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
I was used to being the smartest guy in the room my whole life too. Well, I recognized a couple of other guys in my high school as peers, but we didn't go to the same elementary school. I was lucky to share a couple of classes in high school with them.
I found a lot more intellectual peers in college. I was very disappointed with the rate at which my old classmates actually attended college. They would choose to go to the 2 year junior college when I knew they could handle the local university.
So many seemed to completely lack ambition.
I think the guidance counselors are somewhat to blame.
I think the teachers, for the most part, did their job encouraging them to strive for more.
If the guidance counselors had a slogan, it would be, "It's ok to be mediocre!"
I'm sure according to their discipline and training they were doing their jobs, but they absolutely did not give me a good impression.
Tom
Tom
seems to me that as "counselors" their job is to keep the emotional level up more than directing kids to a good future...
user114359
18:50
at least in high school, guidance counselors are dealing with a student body where 90% will be mediocre, and the other 10% already know they can do great things.
Tom
Tom
I honestly don't know, but am making an "intelligent" guess for what it's worth, so maybe I shouldn't be talking. At my school, we were pushed to be the best we could, within our limits, and many times, we saw our limits were higher than we thought
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
19:28
@Tom Then perhaps their job title is misguided. All of the "counselors" I dealt with in community college and above were supposed to be career counselors. Their job description was to align the classes you took with your educational and career goals, not to act as a cheerleader or psychologist.
If they helped you to figure out what you were good at and encouraged you to pursue it, that was a great bonus. But my experience with "counselors" is that most of them thought their job was to hand out the curriculum requirements, and that's pretty much all they did. The color of the paper that the curriculum is printed on changed depending on your choice of major.
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
Well we can still be ambitious for each other, can't we.
Oct 15 at 10:08, by amon
@AaronHall This is your occasional reminder to please learn more than one language. Paul Graham introduced the Blub Paradox, arguing that some languages are more powerful than others and programmers in an inferior language don't recognize a more powerful one. He concludes that Lisp is the best language. I disagree there, and have found that there's no total order of language expressiveness – different languages have different strengths. There is no absolute best.
Thanks, @amon!
:D
Tom
Tom
19:49
Either way, it sounds like the career counseling job needs to be re-thought and overhauled
MetaFight
MetaFight
@AaronHall Or, maybe, they just wanted different things than you? People achieve their zen states in different ways.
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
Well, the classic process of registering for classes was terrible anyway. Halfway through my associates degree, I stopped bothering to try and register for classes that were always full, and started crashing them on the first day with an add slip. I had better success with that than I ever did with registration.
Tom
Tom
I never had that problem after the first term of my sophmore year, as that term was a weed-out term
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
Community College is technically your freshman and sophomore years anyway. I completed my graduate degree somewhere else that didn't have a class registration process.
Tom
Tom
I did 4 years at community college (took all the extras I could), but had to re-do from my sophomore year on at the 4 year college as the curriculums didn't align.
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
20:03
Yeah, been there, done that.
And of course, they change the curriculum like they're changing their underwear. Classes taken at a Community College are only good for about a year, and then you'll have to realign to the University changes.
Tom
Tom
yeah, but at least the assembly, java, and other extras I took helped me understand development better
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
Nothing wrong with taking classes just for the learning.
Ho-hum. The Software Engineering front page is boring today.
Tom
Tom
nope, and in january, i get to take even more if I want to as I just hit my 1 year anniversary at the school I work at.
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
20:28
53
Q: What are the alternatives to compound interest for a Muslim?

Fahad UddinI have read the importance of saving early and the power of compound interest many many times. However I am a Muslim and cannot participate in anything involving interest. I also learned that keeping money in terms of just cash is the worst form since there is inflation etc. I would like to know ...

compound-interest
Reminds me of this:
Shabbat elevator
A Shabbat elevator is an elevator which works in a special mode, operating automatically, to satisfy the Jewish law requiring Jews to abstain from operating electrical switches on Shabbat (the Sabbath). == Description and history == Jewish law prevents Jews from undertaking various forms of "work" on the Sabbath, including that they may not create sparks or fires. In recent times, this has been extrapolated to also cover the operation of electrical equipment. An elevator may be marked with a sign noting that it is specially configured for Shabbat observance. There are several ways the elevator...
Tom
Tom
20:51
well, at least the front page is getting interesting again this afternoon
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
The Shabbat Elevator story gets better. Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv — at 99, widely considered the most influential Torah sage of his generation — introduced a caveat based on new technology in elevators. The rabbis wrote that this new technology, which was explained to them by elevator technicians and engineers in “a written and oral technical opinion,” made them aware for the first time that using Shabbos elevators may be a “desecration of the Sabbath.”
"They did not name the offending technology. But for several years there has been debate among Orthodox rabbis in Israel over whether devices that measure the weight in an elevator car, and adjust power accordingly, effectively make entering a car the equivalent of pressing a button."
Is the Elevator Kosher?
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
21:20
This needs one more vote to close.
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
21:34
in Show me the money!, 54 mins ago, by Aaron Hall
Any suggestions on improving this post?
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
22:10
Too Broad.
@AaronHall Doesn't really seem suitable for the Personal Finance site.
Maybe that's why it didn't get a very good reception. The post is perfectly clear, it's just probably in the wrong place.
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
And why the downvotes on the answers?
I'm suspicious.
Medical billing practices are opaque as you can get.
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
Well, I don't know a lot about the Personal Finance site. The accepted answer basically says "vote with your wallet," and comes off as little more than a rant.
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
Nobody commented though.
Tom
Tom
finances have a lot of emotion attached to them, especially where they shouldn't. I can't say I'm surprised at the question or answers
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
Actually, I and the answerer commented briefly, and a moderator commented that the answer seemed reasonable.
Tom
Tom
22:20
seemed about as reasonable as possible to me
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
What can be done about opaque medical services pricing?
Tom
Tom
I'd answer that, but it'd be a fairly long rant, taking up several pages of 8 point type
Aaron Hall
Aaron Hall
23:05
news10.com/2016/11/02/…
Tom
Tom
23:16
what most people don't know is that you can negotiate with hospitals, demand detailed bills, and if they refuse to cooperate then they can get in plenty of trouble. Many times they'll add on extra garbage that doesn't apply or was never used, and need to be held accountable

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