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zlatiah

@ zlatiah @lemmy.world

Posts
51
Comments
237
Joined
2 yr. ago

Ask me about:

  • Science (biology, computation, statistics)
  • Gaming (rhythm, rogue-like/lite, other generic 1-player games)
  • Autism & related (I have diagnosis)
  • Bad takes on philosophy
  • Bad takes on US political systems & more US stuff

I'm not knowledgeable about most other things

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  • First of all, good for you lol

    It's € 1.715 with today's exchange rate. The minimum salary where I live is roughly € 1,9k after tax. Not life-changing money, but it's still an absolutely huge amount that is enough for survival & is quite significant

    I mean this is a large amount of money even for Americans though. The absolute highest paying "normal" job I could think of is a stacked SF Bay tech guy who makes $200K/yr after tax... but that's still like 12% of take-home pay

  • Is it just me being unaware or is it generally true that there are no academic people in Right Wing?

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  • Current STEM researcher who also happened to have met a few academics on the right side of the political spectrum... I am very qualified to speak about this I hope. I'll try to use as unbiased language as possible

    First of all, you are correct. It is generally true that most academics are left-leaning (obligatory not all, but you get the point)

    In general, higher education attainment is associated with being left-leaning: academia is known to have extreme levels of education attainment (many jobs require a PhD). On top of it, academic jobs reward intellectual curiosity, do not tend to pay super well, tend to heavily rely on governmental funding... all of these are traditionally more associated with the political left or left-leaning. Still, there very much are right-leaning academics, they just don't tend to scream around a lot about it

    There are notable exceptions however. Economics is quite famous for being politically balanced, although what economics treat as left/right-leaning might be a bit different from the general public. If I remember, business schools (yes there are business professors!) tend to be more right-leaning. This is a smaller field and a bit more anecdotal, but quite a few prominent meta-science researchers are right-wing nutjobs: the "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False" guy and the NIH director Bhattacharya guy are both COVID deniers

    There are also fringe scientists as some others have mentioned, but most people within their fields don't consider fringe scientists as part of the academia so to speak

  • How surrounded are you by opposing political views?

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  • Currently? I am center-left in Western Europe. Political views where I live generally lean left but are quite diverse, so it's hard to find people who are directly opposing... I do have a colleague who is a classic liberal (free market, deregulation and all that), but we are quite chill about it & that's pretty much it

    I did spend 3-4 years living in majority Hispanic/Vietnamese neighborhoods in Houston though, and I'd be considered much more left-leaning relative to the US population. So I was a left-leaning person, in fairly right-leaning neighborhoods, in a left-leaning city, in a right-leaning state... having any discussions about politics was certainly an experience, I just tried to not talk about it for the most part lol

  • You randomly get a free 50k no catch what do you do with it?

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  • Straight into the investment account. It's not nothing but I'm not strapped for cash, and 50K USD alone can't do much where I live...

  • Without video games, would more places currently be on fire?

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  • I vaguely recall some old psychology/sociology research which suggest that violent video games actually decrease violent crime rates (I did find articles like this); one possible explanation is that ppl with violent tendencies might be distracting themselves with video games. So... maybe yes to a certain extent? I don't know by how much compared to other media though, we also have the likes of TV drama, pop music, sports, celebrity worship, ...

    I wouldn't call it empty accomplishments though. In my belief system anything that leads to a healthier state-of-mind is inherently healthy

    For the question itself, I mean people (at least in Europe) are very much rioting in the streets for the reasons you mentioned

  • What's your favorite shaving tool, if any? I'll go first...

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  • I use a straight razor! I think I spent ~100 USD on it... forgot the brand/make, but with a decent water stone + leather strop most half-decent straight razors can be honed to be quite good

    I only use it for face shaving. Because I wanted something that is both 1) highly effective (want to go for a 100% clean look) and 2) environmentally friendly... I started off with a safety razor too, later upgraded to the straight razor since it is as eco-friendly as it gets, no need for shaving cream/cartilages/etc. The razor was pretty cheap all things considered and the plastic handle has already fallen off, but the blade itself still works like new

    Downside is 1) a bit more annoying to use as it has to be honed every time, and 2) much higher risks of accidental injury especially for beginners

    I am considering getting an electric something for shaving other parts of the body though

  • What do you think is the least marketable bachelor's degree?

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  • I think it goes this way

    • Least: Probably a tie between most liberal arts majors. I can't rank them, but methinks none of these directly lead to employable skills 😂 (which sucks because I think they are wonderful for a well-rounded education)
    • Really bad: "Pre-X" (pre-med, pre-law, ...). The majors themselves are honestly quite adaptable to most white-collar jobs. But their fields carry the stereotype of requiring a super-advanced (often doctorate) degree, so probably high chances of underemployment
    • Bad: whatever major that was previously the part of a boom/bubble, so currently probably stuff like IT/data science. Great all-around majors that probably suffer from extremely lopsided demand-supply after the bubble pops

  • how is Elon the richest..

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  • My personal dislike for Tesla/SpaceX aside, they do employ 6-digit numbers of workers and make impactful real-life products, so Musk's companies themselves would be worth a metric fuckton of money (maybe comparable to Honda/Toyota?) no matter what. But they are also somewhat overvalued on top of their already high inherent worth

    And on top of this, Musk has really large stakes in his companies... I don't know the exact details, but I don't think it's common for a CEO to own 20% of their company outright. So these together made Musk the richest person

    If I am being pedantic, technically the richest entities in the world are countries and their governments... Basically like your examples suggested. No private company in the world can spend as much as the world's largest countries. So by extension, leaders of dictatorships are arguably "richer" because they essentially own their country. Case in point, the House of Saud has a total net worth of ~1.4T USD

  • Correlation == Causation?

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  • Serious: a Google data scientist has legitimately written a book on this topic lol. Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz (see his Wikipedia page)

    The book didn't age super well because they got the causation direction wrong; in terms of real-world implementation Google Trends turned out to be pretty bad at actually predicting flu

  • What is your favorite mobile phone brand, and why?

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  • Technically Google Pixel, because of GrapheneOS. Realistically I don't have a single mobile phone brand that I like

  • What’s the most expensive thing you’ve eaten/drank?

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  • Not as expensive as some of the other comments here but

    Around $70~80 for the cheapest steak at a medium- to high-end restaurant in Chicago. Worth the experience and I bet most ppl would have loved it, but that's how I found out I don't like steak...

    The second most expensive restaurant I've been to (averaging $40~50 per entrée) was legit amazing though

  • Who does the algorithm(s) think you are?

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  • My work account once got placed on a biotech mailing list so there's that

    Outside of work accounts, I don't think the algorithms think I exist lol. I use adblockers everywhere, and the only site with real ad-targeting I routinely use is YouTube... which I exclusively use on private windows while logged out, and with adblockers as well. Mayyybe YouTube/Google thinks there's a weirdo Japanese weaboo (which is only half-correct) living around the vicinity of my house based on my IP address, but that's pretty much it

  • How often do you admit you were wrong?

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  • More often than I'm actually wrong

    Which... is a problem. I think I learned to do this in order to not offend bosses, might have something to do with my field of work...

  • What Are Your Hobbies? Trying to Find Something New

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  • Rhythm games, both in general and in terms of my main game. Don't think I can recommend it to most people though

    Got into it... partly because osu was popular when I grew up, partly because I listened to a lot of "rhythm game music" growing up. This video game genre also always resonated with me quite well, I love extremely challenging video games so there's that

    Reason I couldn't recommend it... First of all it is not an easy hobby to get into outside of Asia, and because of this finding a community (even for really popular games like maimai/CHUNITHM) will be tough. Secondly because of the first reason, getting into rhythm games outside of Asia can get expensive, between arcade visits and homecabs and all. It's also somewhat of an extremely all-encompassing hobby that leaves little room for one to do anything else. Finally there's a pretty significant risk of injury especially at higher levels, I've had a bone fracture before and several ppl I know have had serious injuries, despite the fact that there's little to no "payoff" (such as for-profit tournaments) like most sports

    On the plus side, stomping it out on DDR/ITG (the latter much more accessible) is a really fun way to do cardio!

  • Which music player do you use on android?

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  • Just VLC. I don't stream music and most of the stuff I listen to have no lyrics so it works fine as-is

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  • I wonder if this has something to do with "whom you primarily identify with"? Seems to me that the primary identity comes first in naming systems

    Because there's some interesting parallels. Even though the order is reversed, in CJ cultures (don't know about K, presume similar) people overwhelmingly refer to each other via family names (which comes first) instead of given names. Where I grew up in China people almost never refer to your given name; most people refer to others with some honorifics + family name (brother Li, lil' Liu, teacher Zhang, etc). In Japanese culture referring to each other via given names is reserved to close friends only. Also in these cultures the given names have a lot more diversity than in Western culture

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  • Based on my records, probably averaging 40-50% on needs. Exactly 30.7% on housing, somewhere >10% on basic needs food, and maybe just a bit more for emergency. The numbers for food is a bit fuzzy since I don't specifically separate out, say, a 6-pack beer or a really nice chocolate bar from other groceries

    For context though, I make above average salary for my area, am relatively young & healthy (so almost no healthcare needs), and didn't mind living a bit frugal...

  • What do you do simply for the love of it and not for validation?

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  • Everything I post about that is video game-related. I do post sometimes but I don't think I really did it for validation (not that many people look at it anyways)

  • What is the number one problem you are facing?

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  • Split between either housing or bureaucracy

    Housing is... not actually about affordability, but rather the plain difficulty of even getting a rental. I'm living in supposedly a part of Europe with a good housing market, but even here every decent rental on the market would instantaneously get 20+ applicants, so it's quite competitive... not as bad as NL, but still pretty rough

    Bureaucracy because of expat/immigrant/etc shenanigans

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Does your hobby have a "random person in Nebraska" project? If so, what is it?

  • science @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Do obesity drugs treat addiction? Huge study hints at their promise

    www.nature.com /articles/d41586-026-00734-2
  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    When/how frequently do you replace your phone with a new one?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    How does trash collection/recycling work where you live, and do you like the system?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    People who are learning a foreign language: what are you learning & how is it going?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    People who prepared costumes for Halloween: how much money/effort did you put in it?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Do you use a system-default or a custom wallpaper for your personal computer? If custom, what kind of wallpaper & why?

  • Today I Learned @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    TIL the Dutch Grand Pensionary/Prime Minister, Johan de Witt, was killed and partially cannibalized by rioters in 1672

    en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Johan_de_Witt
  • Today I Learned @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    TIL about Adolphe Quetelet, a pioneering statistician who developed the BMI among other things and played a key role in the development of Eugenics

    en.m.wikipedia.org /wiki/Adolphe_Quetelet
  • science @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    The 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners

    improbable.com /ig/winners/
  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    What music tempo/BPM is considered fast for you? (examples welcome)

  • science @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    AI tool detects LLM-generated text in research papers and peer reviews

    www.nature.com /articles/d41586-025-02936-6
  • science @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    My blue is your blue: different people’s brains process colours in the same way

    www.nature.com /articles/d41586-025-02901-3
  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    What do country names (ones you are affiliated with or know of) mean in their own language?

  • cats @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Look at this perfect loaf

  • cats @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Tommy

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    If someone is described as "good at something", in your opinion how good is that person at this activity?

  • cats @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Accidentally took this gem of a picture for Tommy

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Are there tips & tricks to quickly spot whether someone is a narcissist or otherwise on the "Dark triad"?

  • cats @lemmy.world
    zlatiah @lemmy.world

    Tommy enjoying a can of freshly opened coconut water