The h Bar

John Rennie

16:01

@DanielSank (a) my answer makes sense (b) when people write this is not homework they mean they haven't been set it as homework, but it would still qualify as homework-and-exercises as discussed in my answer.

DanielSank

Ok John, how about this:

> What is the matrix element <0|Q|1> for a transmon qubit?

Is that homework or an exercise?

No.

Should it be supported on this site?

No.

Secret

@DanielSank yes, much better, especially it narrows down to the specific concept and the range of answers the answerer should keep in mind of

DanielSank

Should it be rejected for the same reason as a homework problem?

Yes.

@Secret See what magic a little edit can do?

John Rennie

@DanielSank I don't understand the question so I can't comment.

DanielSank

@JohnRennie Replace it with

> What is the cross section for an electron scattering from a deuterium nucleus?

John Rennie

16:05

That's a homework question.

DanielSank

Suppose I come to that question in the course of my research career at Google.

No, it's not.

I'm not doing homework. I'm doing research and I need to know this information.

John Rennie

Yes it is. If you do a course on scattering theory that's exactly the sort of problem you're going to be set as coursework.

DanielSank

@JohnRennie Oh my god.

Ok fine

What fields can I use for examples that you know stuff about?

John Rennie

Unless you're asking about experimental data ...

DanielSank

It's hard for me to pick an example that you won't refute as "I don't know that topic" but which is also a research question that I think should not be supported by our site.

John Rennie

16:07

Take your pick

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie But now you're advocating a criterion for on- or off-topicness that presupposes some notion of "standard coursework". From my experience from this chat alone, what is thought to be a reasonable exercise during a "standard course" varies a lot

John Rennie

In general I wouldn't close any research question. I might not choose to answer it, but I wouldn't close it.

DanielSank

> What is the hyperfine splitting for an electron orbiting a deuterium nucleus, taking into account all terms in the standard model?

David Z

@JohnRennie I think it covers a part of what is now excluded by our current homework policy. Perhaps it could have been an alternate way of writing part of that policy, back in ye olde days when we made it. If it's meant to contribute anything toward the new policy, I'm afraid I don't see the connection.

John Duffield

@DanielSank : IMHO your revision is way too much. You should not rewrite questions like this.

DanielSank

16:09

@JohnDuffield Noted.

John Rennie

18

Q: Graduate and above level questions aren't homework

I know, I know, it's yet another Meta post about our homework policy. Feel free to downvote and write abusive comments if you're heartily sick of posts about the homework policy. If you're still with me: the homework classification for closing questions has never literally meant that your teache...

DanielSank

@JohnRennie Yeah, I think that's completely wrong.

John Rennie

18 upvotes - it's not just me.

DanielSank

-1

25

Q: Should we rename the homework policy?

The homework policy is a constant source of confusion for new (and sometimes established) users. We see this confusion, for example, when users respond to closures based on the homework policy by defending their post with "This is not a homework problem", or similar. Some users have even been con...

discussion tags questions homework

+25 net score. It's not just me.

Your move.

Secret

@DanielSank I will respond: please isolate the specific aspect in that computation that you have trouble with cause we are not employed to do all the computation for you from step one

DanielSank

16:11

@Secret Yes, see @JohnRennie? That question, although it's clearly graduate level, is inappropriate.

@JohnRennie Actually, now you're contradicting yourself.

John Rennie

@DavidZ I was suggesting that as the policy. It hadn't occurred to me to worry about whether it was new or not.

DanielSank

Scattering cross sections are graduate level, yet you say grad level is automatically not homework.

Explain.

Secret

For me, homework like (or in general problem solving questions) are ok as long it is not a blantant demand people to do all the reasoning and computation for you. For the subset of layman questions, ACM have set up a good example by referring him/her to relevant resources while at the same time explaining the gist that the answer seeks for the question

ACuriousMind

@DanielSank I computed scattering cross sections in undergrad. ::ducks::

DanielSank

@ACuriousMind Oh, do shut up :P

::Throws tomato::

David Z

16:14

@JohnRennie Ah. Well... we are trying to strip the whole idea of homework or homework-like out of the policy entirely. So I don't think what you wrote represents the direction we want to go with this.

ACuriousMind

::eats tomato::

Secret

but then, trying to put layman questions into the consideration of homewowkr policy will introduce loopholes because any sufficeintly wittty user can impose him/her as layman

DanielSank

@ACuriousMind ::throws mozzarella::

ACuriousMind

Damn you, couldn't you have thrown that before I ate the tomato!

::grudgingly eats mozzarella::

DanielSank

::throws basil::

(The whole plant, still in a clay pot)

ACuriousMind

16:17

::gets hit in the face by a pot of basil::

Didn't expect that!

Secret

::Dodge, vase hit the ground, pick up the basil leaves, wash it under the sink and enjoy it like a rabbit::

DanielSank

^ I like this guy

@ACuriousMind Oh jeez, sorry!

0celo7

What is going on here

ACuriousMind

Fun

@DanielSank It's okay, I heal fast

0celo7

You found the field with one element?

Secret

16:28

@ACuriousMind Is it possible to experimentally suppress a decay channel of a particle, say a hadron so that its decays slower? (similar to how in chemistry we can stablise reactive species by supplying energy, or use of solvent counterion etc.)?

0celo7

Make it go really fast

ACM got like 1000 rep once for saying that

ACuriousMind

@Secret You can't really influence decay channels, since there's no "mechanism" - decay is probabilistic and "just occurs".

0celo7

@BalarkaSen What I can probably show is that $$\sum_{i=1}^n|x^\alpha_i-x_i|^p<\epsilon$$

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Yes, and it is glorious

Secret

hmm ok

0celo7

16:31

so that in the limit $n\to\infty$ we get $||x^\alpha-x||_p<\epsilon$.

Yes, I think that works!

type type type

@ACuriousMind You'd be proud of me

Yesterday I solved two eigenvalue problems and a quadratic equation.

ACuriousMind

My pride knows no bounds

0celo7

great!

Secret

profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/…

> Since motion energy is positive, particle 2 must have mass energy less than or equal to the mass energy of particle 1. But the motion energy of particle 2 is positive, so if the

> mass energy of particle 2 is less than that of particle 1 that means particle 2 must be moving. But particle 1 started out at rest, so that means it had NO momentum. Particle 2 is

> moving, so it has SOME momentum. That’s impossible; momentum is conserved. Therefore the decay is impossible unless the two particles have equal mass. But in this case, if particle 1 could decay to particle 2, the reverse would also be true: particle 2 could decay to particle 1. Well, that’s not a decay at all; it is a mixing between the two types of particles, which is a qualitatively different phenomenon.

Well, we could have some kind of quantum version of an object exploding into two bits...?

(perhaps I am still thinking all of this too classically...)

anyway, moving on

> Since the photon is (as far as any experiment can tell) massless, there is nothing to which it can decay. That is why light waves can travel across a room, across space from the sun, and across the universe without disintegrating in flight. The same is presumably true for the graviton.

Meanwhile the gluon are stuck in the hadrons because of their color charge

> Decay rates become very slow when the children from a decay have masses that add up very close to that of the parent; that’s not surprising, since by rule 2 the decay rate has to decrease to zero once the children have more mass than the parent.

But the really odd thing is that if you put a neutron in certain atomic nuclei, it becomes stable! Helium, for instance, has two protons and two neutrons. Even though a neutron by itself lives a quarter of an hour, a helium nucleus will live for the age of the universe and longer. In fact this is true for the neutrons in the nuclei of all of t…

Hmm, let's see...

Sir Cumference

16:51

So, uh, does anyone know the answer to this?

3

Q: Understanding "dex"

Hi I am trying to understand the concept of dex and how to use it in calculations. The usual definition is that it is the order of magnitude, so $10^{0.1}$ is $0.1$ dex. I want to do a simple exercise of calculating the value of the RHS of Eqn 4 in this paper arxiv paper, the gammas are incompl...

supermassive-black-hole magnitude initial-mass-function

I really don't want my bounty to go to waste

Secret

> The punchline is this: the interaction energy among the protons and neutrons is negative, and of sufficient magnitude that in some nuclei, a neutron decaying would cause the energy of the system (the leftovers from the nucleus after the neutrons’ decay, and any other particles emitted in the decay) necessarily to increase, thus violating the principle of the conservation of energy. Since energy is conserved, that makes the decay impossible.

Ok later when I learn QFT, I can do a side project on it. If it is all about interaction energy, then perhaps there is a theoretical way to subject an unstable particle of interest into a condition simialr to neutrons in a nuclei thus "convining" it to not decay

it might be not so much about mechanism, but still a possible way for me to realise a dream of bagging a higgs boson and place it in my bedroom (fro god knows what reason)

That reminds me I need to add something to the AMA

0celo7

@ACuriousMind Nope.

Not a threat.

Clearly meant to be one, but it was broken off.

Secret

My interest on particle physics are not as pure as my quantum interest: This is because one reason I learn particle physics is due to my scifi x collector of exotic stuff tendencies. That is particle physics is a means for me to learn the knoeledge so that I can bag those particles so I can store them at home

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Things that are clearly meant to be threats are threats.

0celo7

@ACuriousMind No

Without the full statement, nothing is certain.

Secret

16:59

Having said that, the above discussion is actually stem from me reading an NMR article about characterising an unstable species

ACuriousMind

Nothing is ever "certain".

@Secret: Re "communication" - do you notice that you are writing a lot of things that are not responses to anyone, and that no one responds to?

0celo7

@ACuriousMind Except for your unconditional love, right, mama duck?

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 My love is conditional, I'm afraid.

Balarka Sen

@0celo7 Careful with that. Are you fixing $n$ and increasing $\alpha$? Or fixing $\alpha$and increasing $n$?

0celo7

wtf, what are the conditions

@BalarkaSen WORKING ON IT

I have a proof in my notes, transcribing it now

Balarka Sen

17:03

Good luck

0celo7

"proof"

Balarka Sen

In analysis a "proof" is often garbage.

0celo7

I'm pretty sure this is correct

Balarka Sen

As in the 99% certain proof you had before.

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 I'm afraid I'm unable to share my source code.

0celo7

17:04

stahp interrupting me

Balarka Sen

:P

OK, work on it. I am being a noise, sorry about that.

0celo7

the real noise is my topology class in 20 minutes

I have to complete this proof before then!

Balarka Sen

says who

0celo7

my sanity

ACuriousMind

How can a non-existent thing tell you anything? ;P

Balarka Sen

17:05

didn't know you had any o' that left

Secret

ACM: Generally yes (I will fix that communication), but for the above case, I actually have some desire to share about my thoughts of how one can work towards bagging particles and seek for comments, but I am not really sure what comments I am looking for, nor based on the level the subject is, it does not seemed a sensible discussion. Thus it got stuck into something like that, sort of waiting for someone interested to leave behind a comment

Balarka Sen

jinx, @ACM

0celo7

@ACuriousMind not nice

Secret

Perhaps that's might be one of the cause of the the diary, blog problem that 0celo7, Danu, you and others point out

0celo7

I'm adding more lively commentary, too

Balarka Sen

17:07

my proofs always contain a lot of lively commentary

ACuriousMind

@Secret But...a chat is not a place where you dump your thoughts and wait for someone to come along to be interested in them. A chat is a place where you (try to) talk to other people.

One might sometimes just drop some random thoughts into a chat, but it seems to me this is your primary mode of communication.

And this is why I often have a hard time understanding you: You're not talking to me, you're thinking at me.

I'm not saying this to be mean, but because you have repeatedly asked that we try and find where the problem lies.

Secret

sometimes I seek comments, but I don't know what comment or discussion I am looking for. That is one of the reason I don't even have an idea how to start a discussion for some topics. I think I should organise my thoughts a bit more and try to talk them out

@ACuriousMind I never aware it is that serious until now

ACuriousMind

@Secret Either I am overreacting, or people might be afraid to tell you because they don't want to offend you.

Secret

I am not worried about being offended as long it is the truth.

0celo7

@BalarkaSen Done.

the key is termwise estimates, I think

Balarka Sen

17:14

OK?

0celo7

and you need Cauchyness

ACuriousMind

@Secret Well, most people easily get offended when one tells them they behave "wrong", no matter how true it is.

0celo7

This prof doesn't care if proofs come out as $<2\epsilon$ or whatever, btw

I'm not writing a textbook solution

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Oh how I hate the "magic $\epsilon/3$" pick at the beginning of a proof just because they want a clean $<\epsilon$ at the end.

0celo7

@ACuriousMind Yes, he agrees

ACuriousMind

17:16

I like this guy

0celo7

In this case it'd be like $\epsilon/2^p$.

Balarka Sen

@ACuriousMind Me too.

0celo7

er

something like that

maybe $2^{1/p}$

@ACuriousMind He hates algebra

ACuriousMind

I...can respect this guy

0celo7

@ACuriousMind He likes me

@BalarkaSen I am confident in this proof

ACuriousMind

17:18

Does he have feathers and is made of rubber?

0celo7

I asked you to check the other one because I was unsure about that step

@ACuriousMind erm...no

Secret

On a more extreme note, I am known to some people as uncaring because of how I view the concern of social politeness as a burden to knowledge seeking and discussions. This seemed to cause an issue between me and some phD professors as they found that I can be too demanding sometimes

0celo7

@ACuriousMind My real analysis prof took off points if you didn't do that.

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 ::gets out pitchfork::

0celo7

I once had a limit come out as $<M\epsilon$ where $M$ was the bound of the function and I lost half the points for the problem

Secret

17:22

I remember I used to get confused by epsilon delta proofs because of those magic pick of the form of the epsilons, and I am fine with the end of the proof came out as $< M\epsilon$ as long I knew it is indeed bounded

ACuriousMind

@Secret That sounds...unpleasant. Politeness may or may not be a burden to "knowledge seeking", but conservations with fellow humans are as much about social interaction as they are about the actual topic of conversation. You can't just say "forget politeness, we're talking about knowledge here". All communication is social.

Secret

Yeah, I still need to work on improving that...

ACuriousMind

This doesn't mean you should just conform to all social conventions, but you should be aware of the effects of breaking them, and consider that before deciding to ignore them.

@0celo7 I faintly remember you complaining about that here ;)

DanielSank

17:49

Anyone here use Inkscape?

Secret

I have one installed in mac, I only have used it once so far

DanielSank

@Secret Ok, well, I have an "advanced" problem :P

0celo7

18:14

@ACuriousMind Probably.

There's perhaps one controversial point left in my proof.

Sir Cumference

So...is it true that the majority of SR doesn't involve calculus?

0celo7

Namely that $\lim_\beta\sum^k|x^\alpha_n-x^\beta_n|^p=\sum^k|x^\alpha_n-x_n|^p$

nah

that's correct

@SirCumference Who told you that nonsense?

Sir Cumference

@0celo7 A graduate student

Who studied SR and QM

0celo7

Clearly a physicist

No respectable geometer would say that

user218912

it's wrong anyway

0celo7

18:22

@obe holy fuck you're alive

user218912

xD

Sir Cumference

@obe What, me or 0celo?

user218912

you

0celo7

@SirCumference if by "SR" you mean "baby Lorentz transformations", sure.

But try computing the Lorentz factor along an asymmetric helicoid while spinning without calculus

or try doing anything with momentum, fluids, etc.

I wouldn't trust that grad student

Sir Cumference

Er, if you say so

0celo7

18:24

I do say so.

Sir Cumference

Well, what more than calculus do I need to get started with QM?

I still can't understand the Schrödinger equations

Maybe I just need to study calc more

0celo7

basic algebra and calculus

what classes are you taking

Sir Cumference

Oh...really?

0celo7

yes

Sir Cumference

I'm just planning on learning QM on my own time

0celo7

18:26

calc 3, diff eq, PDE, linear algebra

nothing more really

Sir Cumference

Huh...

And GR?

0celo7

depends what book

and depends if you're a physicist or not

Sir Cumference

Well, what maths should I know before I look into even basic GR?

0celo7

calculus on Banach spaces, multilinear algebra, point-set topology, algebraic topology, differential topology, Riemannian geometry, de Rham cohomology

Sir Cumference

Oh jesus

0celo7

18:28

de Rham is not really important

probably skip that.

Sir Cumference

Sigh...and how long would I need to study GR if I wanted to be a physicist, or a cosmologist?

0celo7

don't know

Sir Cumference

Welp, I guess I'll keep learning calc and look into QM

Seems a hell of a lot easier

0celo7

honestly, how have you not learned calculus yet?

Sir Cumference

My high school's faculty is full of idiots

I'm hoping college will catch me up

0celo7

18:31

online resources?

Sir Cumference

Yeah, I took an AP Calc AB class online

But that was a year ago

0celo7

ok, so teach yourself calc 2 and 3 and ode and pde

not that hard

Sir Cumference

Are Pde and ode not part of calc 2-3?

0celo7

no

Sir Cumference

D:

Ulthran

18:32

@Sir

Sir Cumference

:31885178

Ulthran

@SirCumference I'm doing the same thing

Sir Cumference

@Ulthran What are ya majoring in?

0celo7

>ya

Ulthran

I'm in highschool

0celo7

18:33

please please please use correct language

please

Sir Cumference

@0celo7 lo siento

Ulthran

Hoping to major in Physics of some sort and Computer Science though.

Sir Cumference

@Ulthran Oh, what are you going to major in then?

@Ulthran Cool. I just know HTML5 + JS pretty well

Also HQ9+ if you count that

Ulthran

@SirCumference I just spent the whole summer working with JS in an internship.

Sir Cumference

@Ulthran How long have you known it?

Ulthran

18:36

@SirCumference Just learned it this summer

@SirCumference I'm more of a Java and C guy

Sir Cumference

@Ulthran 3 years for me, but I really don't know any other language too well

Oh wait, I think it's about 4 years now

Ulthran

@SirCumference Cool. What kind of stuff have you done with it? Any money making or just for fun?

Sir Cumference

@Ulthran Just for fun. Though I am working on a full-on game

0celo7

There's your problem

Sir Cumference

Where?

0celo7

18:38

Learn calculus, not programming

Sir Cumference

But programming is fun

Ulthran

But programming is so much more fun

:P

Sir Cumference

Plus, to be an astrophysicist, you really oughta know Python

Ulthran

To be an anything you really ought to know Python

Sir Cumference

So I'll need to know how to program and I'll need to learn high level physics

Ulthran

18:40

Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to learning it yet...

Sir Cumference

@Ulthran Me neither, haha

Still reminding myself to learn it eventually

I also wrote a HQ9+ interpreter

Ulthran

@SirCumference I don't think it is really that different from JS so it shouldn't be too much of a leap to go from one to the other

Sir Cumference

@Ulthran Hopefully it isn't. I'm also looking into PHP and AngularJS

Right now I rely a lot on jQuery

Ulthran

PHP is fairly different from the rest. It has one focus and that's about all it's good for.

I tried AJAX and JSON a bit this summer but didn't really get into it that much.

Sir Cumference

This summer I tried Java and C++, but I didn't get into them much either

But really, if ya don't know about HQ9+, read this

Ulthran

18:44

Yeah... To learn those you really have to have a project you care enough about to finish which has to be done in one of those languages.

0celo7

Calculus isn't fun but you need it for fun things

Analysis for really fun things

Sir Cumference

@0celo7 Learning a program language isn't fun either, but it can be really helpful

0celo7

Being a hooker can be helpful too, what's your point

Ulthran

@Ocelo7 ... Good point...

Sir Cumference

Because if I'm a hooker, people can get me infected. If I'm a programmer, I can infect others.

I got the power now

Ulthran

18:48

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Virus Alert

►

Sir Cumference

But really, programming helps ya be really creative

0celo7

Make them wear a condom

Sir Cumference

Plus it's becoming more essential in society

Haven't ya ever wanted to make a game in your life?

0celo7

No

I'm not a nerd

Sir Cumference

Well...uh...

Ulthran

18:50

THen what are you doing on this site?

0celo7

Bored in class right now

Sir Cumference

Haven't you ever wanted to understand technical lingo?

0celo7

Nope

Sir Cumference

But it could be useful

0celo7

There are lots of possibly useful things I do not do.

Sir Cumference

18:54

Oye

Well, computers nowadays are already doing the calculations for us

0celo7

When a computer can prove analysis theorems, let me know

You should be studying calculus

Stop wasting time here.

Sir Cumference

But you said you were in class

Why are you on the chat?

@0celo7 Plus, it's not like humans will always be better at mathematics than computers

If a human can do it, then someone can program a computer to do it

0celo7

@SirCumference not paying attention

@SirCumference lol

Sir Cumference

@0celo7 Wat

0celo7

Nothing

Sir Cumference

19:05

That doesn't seem plausible?

0celo7

Sure

DanielSank

20:04

Look out, Physics.SE, the superconducting qubit people have discovered this site

2

Q: Purcell effect in the non-dispersive regime: atom in a cavity for moderate $\Delta$

The system of interest is a two level system placed inside a cavity. This can be an atom and a three dimensional cavity, a superconducting qubit and a coplanar waveguide resonator, but the details do not matter. We will simply assume that we have a two level atom coupled to a cavity and write the...

quantum-information quantum-electrodynamics quantum-optics

Awwwww yissssss

vzn

20:17

Optical link connects atomic clocks over 1400 km of fibre / physicsworld

Sir Cumference

This guy is arguing with me on a site. He's claiming that Einstein was an idiot and that "Newtonian black holes" are at the center of each galaxy.

Also apparently GR is pseudoscience and Newtonian physics is absolute

0celo7

I'm going to troll you unless you change your tune

(And you will fall for it)

Sir Cumference

My "tune"?

Sir Cumference

21:11

Astronomers have found an Earth-like planet orbiting the closest star to our Solar System, Proxima Centauri. This next-door planet is warm enough for liquid water, is almost certainly rocky and terrestrial, and could even have an atmosphere. It's named Proxima B.

0celo7

21:30

@SirCumference you shit on crackpots when in reality you cannot argue against them

Sir Cumference

@0celo7 What ya mean?

0celo7

@ACuriousMind YOU'RE ONE OF THEM

Sir Cumference

Uh...any astronomers here?

alarge

@SirCumference Well, you can program solutions to many of the equations of physics, and then check if they make sense.

0celo7

proof still wrong.

crap

I used convergence in my proof of convergence.

Sir Cumference

21:38

Goddammit!!!

I hate bounties, they're broken as hell

If you don't get an answer, you lose all that rep

0celo7

lol

ask better questions obviously.

Sir Cumference

It wasn't my question

0celo7

bounty better questions obviously

Sir Cumference

Sigh...

0celo7

want to see a real calculus proof

Sir Cumference

21:41

Too late now. SE doesn't let you take back bounties, for some bizarre reason

@0celo7 Er, not particularly?

0celo7

fine.

I was going to teach you good mathematics

but you turn up your nose

Sir Cumference

Well you brought up trolling me

And last time you supposedly taught me physics, you were trolling me

0celo7

this is for real

My proof that $\ell^p$ is Banach

Sir Cumference

Yeah, that doesn't look like any mathematics I know

I think you're aware of that tho

Emilio Pisanty

@SirCumference Good catch

looks really cool

Sir Cumference

21:51

I'm gonna lose my mind if my bounty goes to waste

I started the bounty in the first place because I didn't know the answer, and there's a badge for awarding a bounty

Strangely, there's no badge for simply starting the bounty. So if I don't get an answer, I'm out of luck

DanielSank

I have never been more dismayed by anything on this site than the comments here:

physics.stackexchange.com/questions/276256/jobs-in-physics

Sir Cumference

@DanielSank Screenshot plz

Deleted

DanielSank

Sending that user to Academics without even suggesting they come to our chat room is... unacceptable.

@SirCumference I'm not going to screenshot it, sorry.

Sir Cumference

@DanielSank Why not?

DanielSank

Original question:'

> I'm a 17 year old student who's currently going to college and I'm intrigued by physics. Many great names in physics like Einstein, Newton, Galileo and Curie fascinate me with their work and amazing breakthroughs. I'm always of the mindset that the world is a vastly large playing field and there is so much to be discovered. I'm torn between pursuing a career in experimental or theoretical physicist and the likelihood of getting a job in either field.

> Though i am fascinated and filled with so much interest for both fields, I don't want to end up as another student who put their all into their dreams, only to end up at home and unemploed

Comment 1:

> This is a question for Academia.SE. We talk about physics here, not how to get jobs in physics.

Comment 2:

> I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it deals with employment prospects, rather than physics concepts.

Then the user deleted the question.

Please, when things like this happen, make the user feel welcome and suggest they come to the chat room.

Sir Cumference

21:54

Oye

DanielSank

Going to Academics.SE could give that person all kinds of ridiculous notions about academia being the only worthy path forward in physics.

Emilio Pisanty

@knzhou see the above

DanielSank

Not a single effort was made to steer that user to the chat, and worse the comments sent the user to what I would personally consider to be a very misleading source of information regarding the real world options for that user.

Emilio Pisanty

@DanielSank It's complicated by the fact that the OP can't actually come to the chat room

DanielSank

I know that statements of emotional state are not useful and often deleterious to constructive conversation, but I am rather upset that this happened.

@EmilioPisanty Yes, but not a single word about it.

No effort at all was made to help this person.

alarge

21:56

@DanielSank Was it a new user, i.e. did they even have access to chat? Chat is anyway a minor feature of the platform, so the commentators might not even have used it themselves. It's not like there are that many people frequenting the chat that could answer the question. Better send them off to Physicsforums or Reddit etc.

Emilio Pisanty

@alarge brand new user

I agree that there wasn't a lot of compassion to go around

but it was just two interactions before the OP (unwittingly) made it impossible to contact them with further resources

over a 20-minute window

DanielSank

@alarge It was a new user, yes.

@alarge Yes but sending them to Academics?

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