/lit/ - Literature

>>12053071
It's not a waste of time if you got something out of that fiction (unless you read YA garbage and genre fiction, in which case you're fucked lel)

>>12053071
>>>/v/

>>12053071
Look up D-cognition (deficit) and B-cognition (being) :]

>>12053071
The real answer to what?

>>12053247
Exactly

You'd feel the same about it if you had studied STEM
It's all luck, you either somehow fall into good money and are happy or you don't

>be humanitiesfag
>constantly encounter the outer fringes of math in a hundred different branches of philosophy, from analytics to metaphysics
>be amazed by the mystic potential of math being the language of reality itself
>be slightly in awe of STEMfags and assume they tap into this majesty through hard work, and humanitiesfags like me are missing out
>start learning math
>it's tough as fuck
>get to the point where i can just barely understand higher order college level stuff
>eagerly start talking to esteemed, visionary, world-famous mathematicians at my university
>mfw i realize they are all complete, intuitive materialists in their outlook
>mfw they don't grasp an iota of the mystical or metaphysical aspects of higher math
>mfw they don't even really understand what the concreteness of mathematical laws implies, and spend most of their time playing at meaningless quantitative number puzzles
>mfw even professional scientists are childlike retards who are genuinely content with puerile, reductionist accounts of the nature of reality
>mfw the vast majority of high level STEM people are ignorant of other branches of their own field, let alone other fields or disciplines altogether
>mfw even the luminaries of STEM are the biggest reservoir of literally autistic toy collectors in the world
>mfw trying to experience an ounce of majesty is impossible around these eternally plebeian tolstoyan foxes
>mfw the vast majority are just average dumb normalfags aside from their single hyper-focused academic specialty
>mfw they don't read books (like, at all)
>mfw phds in theoretical physics have the exact same political opinions as your dumbass uncle who works at the olive garden
>mfw it is actually staggering how dumb they are in every single respect other than knowing one specific kind of math really well
>mfw disillusioned
>mfw realizing after all that work that math isn't even the language of reality but a closed and self-referential puzzlebox for autistic fucking faggots

>>12053332
>reductionist
continental philosophy is dogshit.
and "reductionism" is reality.
you are a ball of electrical charges.
you faggot

>>12053332
also
>muh mysticism and spiritual fulfillment
you are an emotional fucking woman

>>12053332
How do you go about understanding the metaphysical or mystical potential of Mathematics?

>>12053332
Ok, you've realized the idea of math as the language of reality is kind of bullshit. Now try an actual science like chemistry, biology, or geology. Basically anything besides theoretical physics will give you a much more tangible and interesting look into really.

>>12053332
>these highly esteemed mathematicians don't TRULY understand mathematics like me, libarts undergrad, because they don't subscribe to mysticism
You're this brainlet

>>12053354
Start with Pythagoras?

>>12053361
>Geology is a practical science
m8

>>12053332
based af
you need both STEM and humanities
STEM without humanities is often just an autistic/robotic game that you dont understand completely
humanities without STEM are pointless and unuseful

>>12053332
>mfw it is actually staggering how dumb they are in every single respect other than knowing one specific kind of math really well
This is how modern scince works, dumdum. The age of polymaths is long over. Modern scientists have to dedicate their entire lives to one very specific subfield of subcategory of subscientific area in order to push it forward. They sacrifice everything else, including reading copious amounts of greek pedophile erotica from Plato, in order to advance mankind just one inch further.

>>12053332
>>mfw even the luminaries of STEM are the biggest reservoir of literally autistic toy collectors in the world

This point is not to be underestimated. Where do you guys think these $10,000 donations for gamergirlcocktease420 on twitch are coming from?

>>12053332
Read Road to Reality, faggot. Most mathematicians are greater thinkers than you can hope to me.

>>12053071
don't worry anon. STEM leads to misery too

>>12053379
You got meme'd by mysticism, neoplatonism, and metaphysics, and after realizing that your Harry-Potter-ass expectations don't conform to reality, you rejected reality.
Mathematics is merely "the science of precise operations." It is useful in modeling reality because it can talk about things with hyper-autistic precision. Taking "math is the language of the universe" as anything more than poetic sentiment is retarded. The universe is physical in nature, gods are fake news, science is merely a methodological refinement of human thought, and life has no inherent meaning, only subjective meaning that is found via personal experience, not derived from first concepts.

>>12053345
>>12053347
>>12053361
>>12053368
>>12053440
stemfag cringe at its finest. Philosophical materialists are the new fedora tippers.

>>12053489
Fedora tippers have always been philosophical materialists though

>>12053332
This is pretty decent bait, I like it.
Zankyuu anon!

>>12053071
>STEM is the real answer

To what question?

>>12053489
Thanks for sharing your Facebook reactions and feelings about things just like on Facebook!

>>12053071
Interesting. I have the feeling I wasted my youth studying STEM shit.

>>12053313
This.

>>12053071
I grew up going hard on STEM, and I feel like wasted all that time never having any answers really. It starved my emotional and artistic understanding. I got into STEM when I discovered Feynman as a kid, and I got out when I discovered Feynman, although someone who detested philosophy, wouldn’t have been able to go on living without it. The real answer is that there isn’t enough time to do the things that could be described as “the answer”. If you go all in on one thing, you’ll feel you should’ve done the other. If you go partially in on many things, you’ll feel you should’ve immersed yourself in just one thing. On top of that how could your specific “answer” be something you weren’t crazy about enough to pursue it growing up—it couldn’t have happened any differently than it did. Best of luck.

>>12053499
The distinction you're missing is that the cringe stems from what they loudly express. Of course the majority of atheists are inherently philosophical materialists (except sam harris lmao). But it was from the emotional anti-theism and absurd self-assurance that resulted in their cringe being spotlighted all over the internet. That and their "gentleman's getup."

>>12053565
4chan is social media newfriend. Thank you for sharing your tired /s4s/ bait. You're fitting in phenomenally

>>12053461
>The universe is physical in nature
Literally what did he mean by this?

>>12053332
> mfw phds in theoretical physics have the exact same political opinions as your dumbass uncle who works at the olive garden

Majority of the post is slightly retarded, but this part is right on the money.

>Not dropping out doing random odd jobs and experiencing many diffrent work and people and barely scraping by

Hahahaha lifes great

>>12053613
Was Elliot an atheist?

>>12053071
>tfw you stopped reading (except sci fi fantasy) at 15 for STEM subjects and discovered a love for lit in early 20s, getting the best of both worlds with STEM education/job security + benefits of lit as a hobby on the mind.
Feels really good.

>>12053089
Getting something out of reading and reading genre fiction are not mutually exclusive.

it's always a debate between STEM and humanities between you fags. it's a coping mechanism, as deep down both sides know that the STEManities chad is the only true image to uphold yet they are ignorant in either one aspect or the other, hence the insecurity.
stop fighting, for you are all betas. through the power of your combined knowledge alone can you ever hope to become an alpha individual. may you all be fruitful in your endeavor.

>>12053629
I regret student loans. They made me miss out on the vagabond life.

>>12053710
Based centrist, putting everyone in place with his Based And Redpilled perfectly central stance!

>>12053071
everyone who posts these is an on-call IT guy at a small company in Ohio

>>12053985
imagine being so fucking stupid you think that doing two things at once means finding a centre between them

And i know that the only reason you have made this noise is that you saw someone else once mocking a political centrist for their naivety or indecision, and you instinctively reacted, like an insect, to that anon's post, with a desire to recreate the successful takedown of the centrist you once saw somewhere, but you're so fucking stupid you don't realize that the analogy doesn't hold


The worst bit is that you couldn't even give a coherent argument for why political centrism is stupid, even though it is, you're just a recycling can for vapid idiocies to be passed through

>>12053332
Read ISaiF if you want a comprehensive overview of the STEM drone. Kaczynski is brutal.

87. Science and technology provide the most important examples of surrogate activities. Some scientists claim that they are motivated by “curiosity” or by a desire to “benefit humanity.” But it is easy to see that neither of these can be the principal motive of most scientists. As for “curiosity,” that notion is simply absurd. Most scientists work on highly specialized problems that are not the object of any normal curiosity. For example, is an astronomer, a mathematician or an entomologist curious about the properties of isopropyltrimethylmethane? Of course not. Only a chemist is curious about such a thing, and he is curious about it only because chemistry is his surrogate activity. Is the chemist curious about the appropriate classification of a new species of beetle? No. That question is of interest only to the entomologist, and he is interested in it only because entomology is his surrogate activity. If the chemist and the entomologist had to exert themselves seriously to obtain the physical necessities, and if that effort exercised their abilities in an interesting way but in some nonscientific pursuit, then they wouldn’t give a damn about isopropyltrimethylmethane or the classification of beetles. Suppose that lack of funds for postgraduate education had led the chemist to become an insurance broker instead of a chemist. In that case he would have been very interested in insurance matters but would have cared nothing about isopropyltrimethylmethane. In any case it is not normal to put into the satisfaction of mere curiosity the amount of time and effort that scientists put into their work. The “curiosity” explanation for the scientists’ motive just doesn’t stand up.

88. The “benefit of humanity” explanation doesn’t work any better. Some scientific work has no conceivable relation to the welfare of the human race most of archaeology or comparative linguistics for example. Some other areas of science present obviously dangerous possibilities. Yet scientists in these areas are just as enthusiastic about their work as those who develop vaccines or study air pollution. Consider the case of Dr. Edward Teller, who had an obvious emotional involvement in promoting nuclear power plants. Did this involvement stem from a desire to benefit humanity? If so, then why didn’t Dr. Teller get emotional about other “humanitarian” causes? If he was such a humanitarian then why did he help to develop the H-bomb? As with many other scientific achievements, it is very much open to question whether nuclear power plants actually do benefit humanity. Does the cheap electricity outweigh the accumulating waste and the risk of accidents? Dr. Teller saw only one side of the question. Clearly his emotional involvement with nuclear power arose not from a desire to “benefit humanity” but from a personal fulfillment he got from his work and from seeing it put to practical use.

91. Also, science and technology constitute a power mass movement, and many scientists gratify their need for power through identification with this mass movement (see paragraph 83).
92. Thus science marches on blindly, without regard to the real welfare of the human race or to any other standard, obedient only to the psychological needs of the scientists and of the government of ficials and corporation executives who provide the funds for research.

>>12053313
I grew up studying science, biology since before I could read. I don't regret it at all. If anything my regret is missing out on math and not having access to more advanced science when I was a child. Of course now I appreciate philsophy more as an adult. Fiction seems okay, and I enjoy it but I just don't have motivation to continue reading a fictional story. I really regret not getting into poetry sooner.
Studying science is very important, same with math, tech and engineering can fuck off with that dumb-ass acronym.

>>12053332
I know your pain anon, I go to a STEM-focused meme school for math and have never felt more isolated and alienated from my peers in my life. A lot of people here unironically only study math to try to use it for fintech applications, it's fucking depressing. I don't think I'll continue in it after I graduate, the atmosphere is unpleasant and the insane amount of autistic dedication you need to do a PhD seems like too much to ask from me. I'll keep studying math though, I want to learn QM too since from what I understand once you zoom in that far to material reality it basically all collapses into abstract mathematical formalisms.

>>12053347
Why do the defenders of masculinity always make it sound so shit?

>>12053379
geology is used extensively in the mining industry, so it does have practical applications

>>12054009

>tfw bad at math

why is everyone on 4chan so retarded?
"STEM" is bullshit, you get a college degree so you can go med school, dentistry, or pharmacy

>>12055984

>>12053313
Even many people who fall into good money aren't happy. My girlfriend comes from a family of millionaires and they are some of the most miserable people I've ever met. Spending $2 million on some painting doesn't fix that.

>>12053089
i'm not a native english speaker, so, wtf is EXACTLY genre fiction?

>>12056423
It's a loose term for non literary, usually escapist fiction that falls under a genre such as science fiction, fantasy, crime, thriller etc.
Whereas literature is just literature. 1984 may be technically science fiction, but usually grouped as such because it's proposed to have more literary merit.

>>12056423
the simplest explanation is that genre fiction is fiction written purely for entertainment while literary fiction is written as a work of art

>>12053612
maybe looking for a answer at all is the biggest hole you can fall in

>>12056431
>>12056464
who decides if the book is art (literature) or not? it's a kinda hard term to exist, huh?! it intrinsically comes with the question about what is literature

>>12054249
you are only bad at math if you skip the basics

>>12054059
Based as fuck

>>12056493
Not always true, true for many who claim to "suck at maths"
It's the issue that many people have with maths because progress is so linear in maths. You can take a year out of most subjects without being lost, but most concepts in maths build on what came before it. I've seen people struggling with entry level algebra simply because they were confused about how negative numbers worked. Once I taught them properly, they could do it fine.

>>12054059
>>12054062
>>12054069
Ellul said it better.

Glad I didn't fell for the Uncle Ted meme,

>>12056527
You just restated what anon said, did you not?

>>12053332
basically you romanticized math somehow and then talked to some people who actually understand it

>>12056486
Yes, but most of the time it's pretty clear.

>>12056575
That's not it. His romantisiciation is perfectly fine. One may also call it passion. His disillusionment stems from the fact that he isn't motivated enough to work towards his understanding of the material. Either it is only that, or that in conjunction with the fact that anon has genuine insights into such subjects, but focuses more on the focus of others rather than the specific category of self-knowledge needed for math excellence. Whichever the case, he'll get over his disillusionment once he understands his deficits and accepts them. After this acceptance it is solely on him to measure his potential against his aspirations.

Godspeed.

>>12056486
I'm not sure. For me super hero movies are art. The funny thing is, the people who watch them and are real fans usually don't think that, they say it's entertainment and separate them from indie/art movies. I think the classification you are looking for goes more into the direction of academic/non-academic.

>>12056570
I meant to elaborate on it, for those that the anon who claimed to be bad at maths.
But also add as a caveat that it's not always true, and there are some who just don't seem to grasp it.

Imagine being this much of an utilitarist bugman
Times is only wasted if you make a waste out of it

>>12053637
He was a maltheist

>>12056605
yeah, there are people who are dumb as fuck when it comes to math, I've a friend who's like that, he openly admits it and we joke about it, I tried to teach him, the high school teacher tried her best, nothing worked, he got a passing grade and doesn't have to do math in his current job, someone who can connect at least a few dots can get pretty far with the right amount of works and some of them are just plain lazy

>>12056605
>and there are some who just don't seem to grasp it
Why do you think this is the case, anon?

>>12056587
That's true tho, i don't know exactly why, but some books feels like pure art, poiesis

>>12056666
Ah, Satan Sr. Your son has been acting up.

>>12056205
It’s just true. Professional degrees are the only way to survive now.

>>12053574
This.

>>12054059
What the fuck am I reading?
>Some scientists claim that they are motivated by “curiosity” or by a desire to “benefit humanity.”
Thats just false dilemma. "Scientists" do not collectively "claim" anything. There are probably millions of reasons why men engaged with sciences. Curiosity and desire to help mankind among them, but also lust for power, fame, and wealth, fear of unknown and natural attempt to make it known, some people simply discover that they have an aptitude towards all things science and it gives them joy to do what they're good at.
>But it is easy
10/10 philosophy. I always begin my arguments with "gah, this is fucking obvious you faggots"
>Most scientists work on highly specialized problems that are not the object of any normal curiosity.
What the hell is 'normal curiosity' and who defines it?
>For example, is an astronomer, a mathematician or an entomologist curious about the properties of isopropyltrimethylmethane? Of course not. Only a chemist is curious about such a thing, and he is curious about it only because chemistry is his surrogate activity.
Are we not mixing causes and effects? Could it be, that chemist is a chemist BECAUSE he's interested in chemistry?
>Suppose that lack of funds for postgraduate education had led the chemist to become an insurance broker instead of a chemist. In that case he would have been very interested in insurance matters but would have cared nothing about isopropyltrimethylmethane.
Tons of people do science for no monetary reward. Tons more do that while actively harming their social lives and health.
>The “benefit of humanity” explanation doesn’t work any better. Some scientific work has no conceivable relation to the welfare of the human race most of archaeology or comparative linguistics for example. Some other areas of science present obviously dangerous possibilities.
Jesus fucking leld, this is a kind of thing I would expect a woke 15 year old to say. At this point I gave up reading this drivel further.

>>12056373
They're miserable because they've never experienced poverty.

>>12053393
how to get both?

>>12053368
Anyone who doesn't subscribe to mysticism is absolutely a brainlet.

>>12053332
>>12053332
Exactly, that's the nature of all disciplines, and the reason is that there are almost never, far-transfer gains from practice, except perhaps of the metacognitive kind that might actually be a little more global, but rarely do people in engage in metacognition. In addition, reality is a self-referential puzzlebox for autistics, schizoaffectives, geniuses, and normies alike. Our culture is bounded by the elbow space that the transformations of the dynamic language game that the whole of language is and its relationship with cognition, probabilistically allow. Making it in this way a song of perspectives like the one of the Woolf's waves, where sometimes some transcedental illusions come into play that we end up believing all the way from principles that rest upon experience up to the remote conditions upon which we rise, crossing all categories, generalizing beyond the basic operations (as in operationalism) of the process that truly constitutes reality (and hence its undivorceable relationship with subjectivity, entailing the dissolution of the analytic/synthetic distinction and along it the posteriority of all knowledge to experience.) Under this vision, with the contraption of cognition taken as a blackbox, it is the present moment, the vessel that seals through the absence of recognition our deeper ideas (see encoding specificity principle). Sometimes we believe that the world is our object, but we are always in bodily relationship with it, embodied within and partaking in its song! That's the beauty of bracketing, of the suspension of disbelief that makes the imaginary castles of the web of belief stand for the territory.

>>12053313
>Starts into dysfunctional family with abuses, drugs ans incest + parents are into huge debt
>got into humanities
>Turns down high paying job as a civil servant
>starts doing odd jobs and having my own place
>writing novels and trying to get published

Never been happier in my life. Still thinking of learning webdev and coding to ensure future financial stability, but fuck it, I'm living the /lit/life and I'm happy to get out of bed most of the time.

>>12056493
>>12056527
I skipped classes starting all the way back in elementary and never did my homework. I got a bunch of books /sci/ recommended but I don't know how able I will be to teach myself.

>>12057879
It this a fucking copypasta.

>>12053379
Top brainlet

>>12053454
This. All paths lead to misery ime
t. STEMlord

>>12054038
Based

>>12053332
>mfw the vast majority are just average dumb normalfags aside from their single hyper-focused academic specialty

I am currently writing my master thesis in engineering. The professor I work with is a physicist. He is brilliant when it comes to physics, but except for that he is your average german meganormie.
He literally thinks Trump is the second coming of Hitler and Clinton would have saved the world from all evils.
Its really hard for me to work with him sometimes, because he cant stop giving his utterly retarded normie opinions fed to him by the German TV program.
>"We need more females in tech! We need more equality for women! But Islam is also great! I am not a racist! We need a global One World Government! People without a university degree should be allowed to vote!"

This is stuff he says. Its infuriating.
I am reading pic related right now, after reading Spenglers Mensch und Technik and Kaczynski's manifesto.
So far I think its even better formulated than the works of Spengler and Ted.
But why are books printed in the USA so low quality? The pages feel like toilet paper and the letters are all washed out, it feels like reading on a 640x480 display

>>12058096
>"People without a university degree should be allowed to vote!"
I meant "People without a university degree shouldNT be allowed to vote!" obviously

>>12058057
Start at the very basics and work your way up. Don't be afraid to start with very simple things - it's useless trying to grasp even linear simultaneous equations if you don't properly understand the rules of arithmetic.
It may be frustrating at first, but you should pick up speed after getting the foundations.

>>12057459
>ignoring the entire tech industry
>thinking dentistry is a good career to get into

>>12056552
Bhahahah how pretentious. I've read Ellul as well, I've probably read more Ellul than you actually. I've read more of anything than you ever will too. You are just scared of agreeing with a terrorist. You are a coward, you admit it yourself: 'ellul said it better'. Ellul and TK said the same thing, but you pick the inoffensive, academic weakling over Kazcynski because you're more concerned about making friends than spreading truth about technology. This is why I never talk about Ellul, we don't need cowards like you. I'll keep on shilling TK so faggots like yourself don't ever pollute the anti-tech movement.

Ellul was right, but Ellul didn't do anything in his life. If it wasn't for TK, Ellul wouldn't even be re-edited.

>>12057551
you actually think I'm going to read your reply? Bomb something first and I might bother

>>12056552
>>12058879
By the way, this is out of the manifesto. A manifesto is meant to be read and understood by retards. Yes, Ellul has more depth, but what is depth? First, it's useless if anti-tech's goal is to destroy the industrial system. While Ellul explored the infinite depth of the tech problem, TK actually took steps towards its destruction. He didn't need to understand the technification mechanics of the judiciary system and the social implications to act against it. He realized there was a problem and offered a solution.

>>12053489
I'm a biologist and I can almost guarantee I know more about philsophy than you do.

>tfw wasted your life studying STEM
I'm not any more employable and I hate technology. I'm going to burn my CS degree

>>12059037
How have you not found at least some meme software dev work? I don't even have a cs degree and I got into the industry.

>>12053071
>falling for the stem meme
lol

>>12059158
I hated technology so much that I gave up learning programming because I detest it ,programming itself. I instead did a theory track where I learned a lot of logic and useless math which while preferable also leaves me unemployable . Not that I care as I'd rather be unemployed than be a software dev. Programming is incomprehensible nonsense .

What type of work and/or degree isnt a meme? Medicine? Asking for a friend

>>12059527
Just study what you like.

>>12059527
math + programming
most math guys are terrible programmers
most programmers unironically cannot do basic calculus or linear algebra
all the new automation shit requires both

>>12059507
at least it's easy nonsense

>>12059559
>tfw I'm a math guy who doesn't know shit about calc or linear algebra
>>12059613
>tfw programming is hard for me

>tfw cs degree

>>12059664
if you're actually a math guy you should have all the skills to learn those subjects. Start with Linear Algebra done Right and Tao's real analysis text.

>>12059664
>math guy
>doesn't know about linear algebra

pick one

>>12059697
I took a very specific and I guess weird route through math
>>12059689
I mean I don't really care about that stuff. I found out all too late I mainly was interested in logic and probably should have majored in that instead .

At this point I have other goals either way so I don't really care to study more math. But thanks

>>12059527
>What type of work and/or degree isnt a meme?
Just ask yourself "what are some good ways to make the rich richer that appeal to me?" and you'll be on track to making yourself a useful and happy wage slave.

>>12059804
I unironically dream of living in a hippie commune and opting-out of wage slavery

>>12058061
Definitely not a copypasta, but I appreciate the praise :}

>>12059664
>>tfw programming is hard for me
>>tfw cs degree

You are a "math guy" with a cs degree and programming is hard for you? What are you programming, exactly? Graphical space time continuum applications?

>>12053071

>>12058886
kek
He's quite right though. Ted is a fucking retard with a teenager's strictly telical and surface-level view of things.

>>12053071
I'm a STEM major in college because I fell for the meme and I fucking hate it

>>12061909
Welcome to the club, we're doing karaoke this tuesday

>>12060184
he's lying I think. It's not possible to get a cs degree and not go at least to calc II

Math is an abstraction of what the physical world really is. Numbers dont actually exist.

>>12061996
Numbers are an ideal

>>12053071
Honestly fiction is pretty fucking worthless and I’ve come to enjoy nonfiction much more. There’s enough crazy real stories that there’s nothing to gain by reading made up bullshit.

>>12061996
numbers are the only thing that exists mr 12061996

>>12062016
>implying there's a difference
A well-written book is well-written regardless of whether or not it could be cited in an argument on reddit. Goodnight Moon has more beauty and intellectual value than whatever pop history or pop science slop you've been reading

>>12062016
>he doesn't understand works of fiction are channels by which the sublime enriches the material world
not gonna make it

>tfw you realize that you've wasted your life working toward a lucrative STEM career and reading fiction was the real answer

>>12062373
Disregard euros acquire stories.

>>12062016
Honestly Michelangelo is pretty fucking worthless and I’ve come to enjoy statistical diagrams much more. There’s enough crazy images in the world that there’s nothing to gain by looking at made up bullshit.

>>12053332
This is what happened when:
>The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers.

>>12053071
>tfw STEMfag with asperger and hyperactive disorder.
>Read the sf short story Division by Zero from Ted Chiang.
>Inspired by that start making up non-sequential paragraphs of fictional characters arguing about the subject matter from material engineering to mathematics that I needed for exams. Often enough to occupy my mind from morning to midnight.
>Passed courses just by doing this.

>>12063966
This but unironically

>>12053332
If they gave out degrees for being full of shit half of 4chan might actually be employed

>>12059664
>tfw no degree neet
>tfw programming is easy for me

>>12064739
get a job then

>>12053071
>the real answer
there is no real answer it's a senseless dream and then you die
inb4 someone calls me edgy while not providing any proper counterargument(there is none)

>>12064988
people hire degrees not actual skills.
that being said, I am building an online portfolio.. We'll see.

>>12058096
Basiert

>>12053071
>STEM
>real answer
I wasted my youth studying STEM and believe me, I better have been reading any fucking YA, at least it deals with people.

Philosophy is, not the answer, but at least it contains the questions that will bring you closer to asking the real questions. STEM is so removed from everything that is actually important, I have nothing to do but laugh at how ignorant and lost in autistic mind constructions I was up to this point.

I study physics and I generally enjoy it.
Most of the undergrads I've spent the past four years with have pre-fabricated reddit personalities but they're at least pretty easy to get along with, and some are autists that can be genuinely interesting.
The majority of professors are actual intellectuals that have led varied lives, one of my favorites was conscripted into the Turkish army and went AWOL, another was a Serb that fought in their wars in the 90s and constantly gives shit to a Bosnian grad student, one of my friends is a fuckhuge bodybuilding tankie grad student that talks to me about leftist theory.
There's a lot of genuine enthusiasm among them for their work and they do very interesting projects. Some work at LIGO, a few work on Ice Cube which is a giant neutrino detector in Antarctica. I work in a biophysics lab with a Mexican professor that's trying to find ways to fix heart arrhythmias, and he cares about it a lot.
Stem is like anything else, there are surface-level retards getting into it for jobs (typically engineers or CS kids) that are barely any smarter than your average guy on the street. The issue is that they're always the loudest about the "muh stem master race lol english degrees are for baristas" shit when they just end up doing IT work for an office and fixing the fucking printer. Good departments at good universities are full of genuinely driven people that care about what they do.
Of course, I still say they should have more balanced educations. Only a few of the people I know are well-read outside of physics (typically the European/Asian professors). I think a much bigger emphasis on philosophy and language skills should be encouraged from the undergrad level and even going on into grad school, but the American education system couldn't give less of a fuck about that because it doesn't drive industry.

>>12053313
>allowing one's own happiness to be dependent upon externals
ISHYGDDT

Suggest one good STEM book you've read, and I'll rate it

>>12053345
One can have a ball of electrical charges without having something even similar to the anon you replied to.

>>12067149
I just started Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and one of the main characters is a Soviet physicist. I've only read one chapter from his perspective but he was talking about how he felt studying the field and it was interesting. I'm the guy that posted the massive wall of text above you.
>>12067151
Don't even give (You)s to reductionists, they're absolute retards incapable of any serious thought

I’m 24 and work in STEM. Read fiction after work and get paid really well. Feels good.

>>12058096
Can't say I really envy you with professors like that.

>>12053528
How can I afford to feed myself