BourneApprox

BourneApprox

113p

1,630 comments posted · 432 followers · following 0

7 years ago @ The Toast - An Open Thread, and Se... · 0 replies · +55 points

Thanks for being there when I needed you, The Toast. When I was sad, when I was happy, when I was angry about men, when I wanted some nerdy Art History humor, and when I needed people to shout about Dragon Age: Inquisition with. It's been an honor.

Nothing left to do but take to the sea, I guess!

7 years ago @ The Toast - The Final Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +10 points

HOLY MACARONI

7 years ago @ The Toast - A note on The Toast · 0 replies · +23 points

I am literally tearing up on BART here.

7 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +22 points

The loss of the 1000+ comment thread on the immortal Saga of Bob and Eli post stings to this goddamn day.

7 years ago @ The Toast - Friday Open Thread! · 1 reply · +5 points

*Raises hand!* I did this last year! I fucking hated my postdoc job, had no control over the tasks I worked on, and no mentoring or recognition, and I had long fallen out of love with my work and into deep burnout and chronic depression. Twelve months later, I'm working in an entirely new field for 3x the pay in a job I love. I got really goddamn lucky in the end, and it took lots of hard work to get out, but I know tons of people who've made the jump. So it can be done!!

My main advice is to start making concrete plans for what your exit strategy is. It sounds like you're already doing that, but for dealing with the current job, it might help psychologically if you know there's something else on the other end. Figure out what tasks you would need to accomplish to feel like you can leave academia cleanly. Treat the job like a job - you're no longer going for academic glory, so do the things you have to do and nothing more. If you can spend your weekends and evenings relaxing to regain energy or taking classes / doing research on you new thing, do that. Job hunting coming out of academia will suck hard, but eventually you'll make it, and it will feel so much better.

7 years ago @ The Toast - How Do You Solve a Pro... · 0 replies · +2 points

That is a good way of putting it!

7 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +17 points

Why can't they just go into the Face/Off machine and get a whole new face??

7 years ago @ The Toast - How Do You Solve a Pro... · 3 replies · +16 points

It's been almost a year since I left physics, and I can now admit to myself that I left because I was getting somewhat bored of the science. I worked in a vaguely related but actually quite different area - experimental rather than theoretical, and high energy particle rather than astrophysics. The experiments were getting too big and cash-strapped, the results too far spaced apart, and the problems too insanely specific.

Reading this great article, though, reminds me that Dark Energy and cosmic acceleration were one of the few topics that still really fucking excited me before I left (and still do!), both from a theoretical and experimental point of view. It still feels like unknown territory, with something exciting right around the corner. So, thank you for this excellent, very clear article!

7 years ago @ The Toast - A Slightly Subdued Ope... · 1 reply · +2 points

"Kardboard Alenko" aahahahaha.

7 years ago @ The Toast - A Slightly Subdued Ope... · 0 replies · +1 points

Aw, I'll miss talking with you too! Do feel free to join the Steam group, though be warned that having a Steam account is a gateway to getting suckered in by Steam Sales. :D