This thread is over.

[kevinthenerd]

...

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: BudAshes
You certainly seem to think you are awesome.

sounds like high narcissism, with a side of superiority complex, leading possibly sooner or later to a god complex.

Seriously, have some empathy for the people. things like

What bothers me is the ignorance of the population.

Aren't exactly normal thoughts and behavior. No Not everyone will be educated in all things, not everyone is going to research alloy properties. Welcome to the world and life. People might not know everything and understanding and living with those that are different from you and accepting it is the basis for civilization and society.

Welcome to life. You are not special, you are no unique, you are not a standout no matter how highly you think of yourself, there's always someone more accomplished, more intelligent, better than you. Hell there's probably someone out there or a good number of people out there that can complain about your lack of knowledge on various subjects so humble yourself and play the game we all cal life.

Sounds like I came off harsh, but in the end, you are no more special than anyone else.

I spent my first semester coping with I'm no longer the big man on campus when I came here. I'm no longer "the shit", or the best at football, the best engineer, but it's something you have to learn sooner or later or there will be consequences.

Also, you mentioned depression, might want to get that looked at first. Egotism is hardly an effective cure for that and depression does typically suck the joy out of life and things you like doing. SSRIs are now very effective in helping depression patients lead normal, happy lives.

 

[kevinthenerd]

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[Capt Caveman]

Wow

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Sounds like you're missing out on everything that makes life enjoyable - other people.

QFT

travel or something, so awesome.

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: elmro
There are plenty of engineering companies out there. Look forward to getting paid to do what you love!

And then quickly learning to hate what you do!

Why the OP is in such a rush to get out in the real world and get pigeon-holed for the rest of his life is beyond me. I'd love nothing more than to be able to go back to college and try experimenting with lots of different subjects again.

 

[kevinthenerd]

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[IceBergSLiM]

nerd alert.

1) go party
2) go get laid
3) chill the fuck out.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Welcome to life. You are not special, you are no unique, you are not a standout no matter how highly you think of yourself, there's always someone more accomplished, more intelligent, better than you. Hell there's probably someone out there or a good number of people out there that can complain about your lack of knowledge on various subjects so humble yourself and play the game we all cal life.

People who are overly humble don't stretch their boundaries. You need that business-like hunger to accomplish things. You need the energy to go out and grab what's yours for the taking. This isn't the characteristic of smart people; it's the characteristic of disciplined and motivated people. There are plenty of people who are smarter than me, but do they want what I want as badly as I want it?

Except you're doing nothing about it. You don't show me any motivation or energy from your actions.

You're all talk, no action.

 

[kevinthenerd]

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[rocadelpunk]

i stopped reading after i saw the word synergistic skills.

anyone else?

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: ahurtt

Originally posted by: elmro
There are plenty of engineering companies out there. Look forward to getting paid to do what you love!

And then quickly learning to hate what you do!

Why the OP is in such a rush to get out in the real world and get pigeon-holed for the rest of his life is beyond me. I'd love nothing more than to be able to go back to college and try experimenting with lots of different subjects again.

I'm still studying chemistry, medicine, and mathematics in what free time I can find. I'm starting to think that the only way I'll be able to be fully utilized in society is to start my own business. How the hell do I get funding for a tech firm, though? They're some of the priciest to start up and some of the riskiest. (A high risk for the investor means that I better promise a high payoff!)

I need to get moving on some patent applications and drawings, but I don't currently have money for the filing fees.

:laugh:

 

[sdifox]

why not go help out at the local soup kitchen. That should cheer you up a little. If you like it, volunteer more.

PS, you just got married and you are bored with life? Did you miss the birds and bees story?

 

[jonks]

G ee
E verythings
T ough

L earn to
A ccept
I t
D ude

 

[SirStev0]

Try death... a lot of people are doing it and it seems like once they try it they never go back...

 

[kevinthenerd]

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[BudAshes]

If you want to be a genius Matt Damon character i'd strive for "Rounders" Matt Damon rather than "Good Will Hunting" Matt Damon. Become a Poker Genius and make easy money then you can save the world or whatever.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Nobody understands you? Damn, kid, that's the kind of shit that bothers high school sophomores, not freaking 22 year olds. At some point you accept it and aknowledge pretty much everybody else feels the same way. And then you go hug the handful of people who almost do or at least try to and move the hell on with life.

 

[RESmonkey]

1. Watch Fight Club

2. Hang out with friends/do some crazy stuff.

3. ???

4. Profit.

 

[kevinthenerd]

...

 

[bignateyk]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Nobody understands you? Damn, kid, that's the kind of shit that bothers high school sophomores, not freaking 22 year olds. At some point you accept it and aknowledge pretty much everybody else feels the same way. And then you go hug the handful of people who almost do or at least try to and move the hell on with life.

(Ok, I lied. I'm not done for today.)

I felt understood for a while until I drastically changed my outlook on life. Back when I used to play computer and role-playing games all the time, I felt more understood by people because they had common interests. Then something hit me when I failed my second semester of college. I failed that semester because I didn't balance the games with what's important.

Then it hit me. I came across an existential crisis of sorts. If gaming is a waste of time for long periods of time, it's also a waste of time for short periods of time. Yes, it's relaxing. To use the words of Robert Pirsig, it builds gumption. Downtime makes a person more productive in the long run. Gaming, however, is 99% a waste of time. You relax, and that's it. The worst part about it is that it can even get stressful when you're trying to boost your character's stats or improve his equipment. People aren't all that lazy by nature; we seek constant improvement of our situation, whether real or imagined. I would rather use downtime to work on hobbies that have deeper meaning and a greater consequence to life. There are more wholesome ways to relax. Now, instead of hacking an imaginary sword against imaginary enemies, I prefer to read about manufacturing methods of fullerenes, for example, . It's just as relaxing to me, and the part that frustrates me now is that other people don't find it as fascinating or as relaxing. I can't stop reading nonfiction or toying with my own various experiments.

Even people I met as a research assistant weren't as obsessed with physics as I am. What can I do to change my own interests?

I have a few main projects I'd really like to work on right now, in order of cost...

[*] a novel load bearing device for shafts

[*] a novel friction mechanism for belt drives

[*] a novel method to conduct electrolysis of water

[*] As a toy, I'd love to build a very small IC engine of a ridiculously small displacement, say 1 cc per cylinder, with very many cylinders. I'm fascinated by the power-to-weight possibilities of a very tiny IC engine. Such an engine would have very different design characteristics than a street engine. Some effects, such as the strength of the connecting rod or the heat transfer out of the cylinder walls, are governed by the square of length. Other effects, such as the mass of the piston or the amount of fuel/air burned per stroke, are governed by the cube of length. As you change the size of the engine, the relative strengths of these two categories of effects change. In general, small engines can run faster for a given material strength, which helps to increase specific power output. Parasitic losses, however, increase with decreasing size. Detonation decreases with size, which results in a higher maximum compression ratio, resulting in a better thermodynamic efficiency. I want to see first-hand how all these effects play out.

[*] I think I might have come up with a cheap way to make my own electron microscope... perhaps under $2000. If it works, I'd like to conduct my own materials science research in various carbon allotropes. The electron gun, column blanking, sweeping, detection, and focus are all going to be the easy part. Producing the required vacuum, I believe, is going to be the hard part. Luckily I found a text online about high vacuum technology.



The difference is that all of this is real. It's not real yet, but it will be. That's exciting to me.

If you are so in to research, why not go and get your Ph.D and then get funding to do whatever research you please?

 

[sponge008]

Or start a startup. Don't just languish.

 

[kevinthenerd]

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[Modelworks]

From what I have read its seems you need to take a step back.
Your spending all your time spread out on lots of different things at once.
In some ways we are alike.
I studied Electrical Engineering and embedded micros for the first half of my life.
My professors loved to talk to me because I was so excited with the field.

They made comments like "Most students, we just tell them how something works and they except it and move on to the next subject, but you , your here every day wanting to know why its the way it is, why can't it be that way or this way."

Then I got hired by one of the big guys, Cray Research. We developed a chip called the Seastar.
An amazing processor capable of transferring 4.5Gigabytes per second in both directions simultaneously over a network.
And that was 4 almost 5 years ago so it was really something then.
I worked night and day, researched constantly, and eventually the product came about and I was proud of the work.
But then I hit a wall.
What now ?


I had spent so much time in work, research, education, that I didn't have anything else in my life. I had no friends, they all left because I preferred work over spending time with them.
I had no love life, who would want to date someone who preferred reading schematics over going to a movie
I wised up. Learned to do other things and get out some, That while work can be rewarding, don't make it the only thing in your life.

Take a break.
Make yourself stop thinking for a day or two.
Go see a movie, go to the park.
If you don't slow down and learn to relax your going to burn out like I did and so many others I know.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
While I'm not the very best in any one thing, I have an impressive synergistic skill set. I can program in C and BASIC, and I can troubleshoot PC hardware and Windows operating system issues (except Vista). I'm four months away from my bachelor's in mechanical engineering, and outside of the classroom I taught myself matrix/linear algebra (from MIT's video lectures) and Solid Works (from the help files). I'm working on watching the video lectures for a graduate class in automation (even though I'll never get credit for it). I finished building a 3-axis CNC mill, and I was about halfway through the software when a motor broke tonight. I applied for an internship at Lockheed Martin but was turned down due to my GPA and the fact that I'm too close to graduation (even though I had an engineer on the inside recommending me). I subscribe to Racecar Engineering and read it religiously; combining that knowledge with what I've learned in books and Wikipedia and other websites, I can keep up with ANY talk on IC engines. I'm on the computer nightly looking up new and exciting technologies and whatnot. I don't party or go out, and I don't spend a lot of time for empty enjoyment.

This is frustrating as all hell! I'm sick of being a student all the time. I want some practical experience. The physical application of what I'm learning is why I've been spending all this time all along. It was so frustrating tonight that the project that came closest to fruition (due to the financial luck of coming across the most expensive components for free) died. What is the point of the life I wasted learning all this when I'm just going to get "no" for an answer? I want to help the world. I have what it takes to do so. My literary research has been fucking EXTENSIVE as all hell. On my own, in addition to what I've seen in school, I've studied management and business, psychology, history, electronics, philosophy, spirituality, photography, chemistry, physics, biochemistry, etc. While I'm probably not as smart as the movie character Will Hunting, I do find that sometimes the people who understand me best are long dead in a book somewhere.

What can I do? I need some capital funding to get going on an invention or something. I feel totally stuck in life with nowhere to go. While I don't feel lost, I feel like I'm out of gas.

Jesus Christ... what r u complaing about?

$ and toys isnt anything. having a passion you enjoy is what life's all about.

you like to tinker, learn, and build. Kinda like a real life McGyver.

I would trade my fortune to be in your shoes in a heartbeat.

Here's my story

wow.. i replied to this post back in 08/12/2007 11:54 PM