In response, I would ask if your friends who are pursuing these incredible academic feats are truly happy? They may be excelling in studies but slowly dying inside.
You have plenty on your plate right now. The amount of stuff one can handle fluctuates throughout life.
Edit: Reread my last paragraph, that’s the most important one. Stress is a killer. Look at any list of careers with the highest suicide rates in the US and the most stressful and/or highly educated jobs are at the top.
Is it possible that you’re spending too much time and energy goofing around online? I don’t know how fast you type, but most people don’t read much faster than I do, and I find these boards a tremendous time suck. I’ve said in the past that if I’m very active in here fighting the gender wars, or whatever, chances are I’m barely working out, if at all.
I also have a private message board with 4 friends that serves as something of a shared journal, and this week, for instance, I barely posted despite getting a raise and a bonus at work, having camping plans for this weekend about which I’m ambivalent, etc. These are big doings in my world. But my dog is in a cone and has to have ear drops and her paws and belly medicated twice a day. It’s not a HUGE deal, but it knocks out my before-work posting time.
Just a thought.
Week 2: Day 4
Tier 1 Squat: 1x3-60,70,80,85, 90; 3x2-90
Tier 2 Paused Deadlift: 5x5-70, superset with 4 chinups
Tier 3 giant set: leg extensions- chins- plank hold
3x(10leg extensions-55lbs+4chins+30sec plank hold)
Conditioning: 10-1 db devils press-20lb Dbs, 20-2 alt lunges btw sets
How do you sort through 182 bookmarks? I’d need to crack out an index for that quantity.
@kdjohn it’s insane how quickly the body adapts to temperatures.
This morning I was walking to the gym and forgot to bring my coat. it was 40F and I was only wearing a thin thermal undershirt. I actually felt quite toasty. In the past, I’d freak out and throw on a puffer jacket if the temps drop below 50F
Our survival mechanisms are very strong, we just live such comfortable lives that we never get to experience what we’re biologically capable of.
Week 2: Day 5
Tier 1 Bench: 1x3-30,40,50; 4x3-55
Tier 2 and 3
Giant set 1: close grip bench- pullup- lateral raise- burpee
5x(5 close grip bench-40kg+5 pullup+10 lateral raise-7.5lb Dbs+ 5 burpees)
Giant set 2: rows- tricep pushdown- burpee
5x(5 rows-40kg+5 pullup+10 pushdowns-17.5lb Dbs+ 5 burpees)
Super set: row- face pull
3x(4 rows-45kg+10 face pulls-22.5lbs)
pullups: 1x5
Updates:
yesterday was absolutely insane… meeting from 1-1:30, another meeting from 1:30 to 3:30, seminar from 3:30 to 5, then a small project group meeting from 7:30 to 8. In between meetings, I got a homework assignment done, worked on my model and read two papers. It honestly felt like an out of body experience- like I was watching myself do things.
It seems that I don’t digest squash well. I had some today and got bloated and an upset stomach… like the other times… I ignored it the other times because of confounding factors, but after 5 times, it’s a pattern. This is very very saddening because it is f-ing delicious and cheap.
The draft of the paper I’m “co-author” on is out. It’s going to look good on my application, but I’m not too stoked about it tbh. All I did was code responses and spam ppl on reddit to take the survey… It’s another example of “looking good on paper”. It would be cool to write a model for it though (adapt an info disclosure model and tack on the cost of keeping info hidden)
I’m starting probability theory today. Every saturday and sunday, I’m going to spend an hour going through the MIT opencourseware lectures
Probability threw me for a loop when I encountered it as a grad student. It’s quite different form calculus and DEs. Don’t be surprised if you struggle with it especially if you are good at calculus (in my class those of us good at calculus struggles more than those who excelled in Algebra).
I already know I’m going to struggle- I’ve always struggled with it when it came up in middle and high school maths, game theory, stats. The nice thing is that I won’t be graded, which takes off 90% of the frustration
Edit: FInished my first lecture. It wasn’t bad, very intro stuff. I’m going to treat this like an actual class. The problem sets+ solutions and exams are on the website.
I don’t have CMU classes on Friday so this will be a class that “meets” Friday 11am and saturday 6pm
I don’t. It’s mostly become a database of things I found worthwhile to bookmark. I can skim through it pretty quickly when I want to revisit something. But yes, I should start maintaining a wiki at some point.
@Voxel and @wanna_be, yes, it’s fairly horrifying. I looked at my own and three other posters’, and there’s a huge range. Some of that has to do with who can post at work and who is limited to off time. I’ve been both over the years. I was posting here when I was in graduate school and it was a very handy procrastination tool. I’m honestly not sure whether it was a positive for me during that time for the relaxation or a negative. Maybe I’d have found similarly distracting stuff to do if I’d been pre-tech, who knows. I’ve also leaned heavily on these boards and others when I’ve been anxious or lonely. Again, positive or negative? Hard to say.
Anna is quite prolific, but it seems that this is not a topic she’s prepared to discuss at present.
I spend quite a bit of time here but it’s out of boredom. A lot of “reading” I do is literally scrolling to the bottom of the thread.
I also post/ read the politics section on select issues to expose myself to different opinions and to practice communication/not reacting to stuff that bristles me
I do not procrastinate work, or if I do, it’s procrastinating work with other work. I’m the kind of person who starts assignments the day it’s out.
Regarding discussion of the topic, it’s not that I’m not willing to talk about my internet use, it’s that I find it a distraction to my log and would prefer the discussion elsewhere. This would actually make a nice thread in the off topic section
And then:
Lol, I understand.
I don’t find it an interesting enough topic to start a thread as I already know a great deal about social media and its impact on people generally and me personally, but if it’s interesting to you, please go for it.
I think you’re getting mixed up
If I didn’t scroll Tnation, I’d be just as stressed and unproductive… just without a safe outlet
If I didn’t have time, I wouldn’t scroll. Theoretically, I could transfer time from scrolling/responding to do something productive, but the reason I’m not is because I don’t have the mental energy to.
Btw, I’m responding right now bc I’m on a walk
Okay, new decision
I am going to take two days off at least for the rest of gzcl
I feel like my standards are slipping yet again. I COULD/SHOULD do some easy cardio, but mentally I’m just not there
I do short conditioning workouts 4x/week and throw in giant sets with burpees which get my HR up and my walks, is that enough or should I suck it up?
Rest days aren’t sedentary. I go on a walk in place of a workout
Random thought:
I was talking to one of my friends about feeling bad about my friend (that one) being better than me
She said that he and I were “basically the same person”
I dismissed it, but after some thinking, she’s right in a lot of ways. The big things like not having much interest outside research/academics and persistence and little things like playing tv shows in the background when working.
The difference is that he’s more focused, hardworking, more meticulous and a better person
Maybe that’s why I use him as a measuring stick
Also, I’m not so sure about the psych minor anymore.
Pros:
Cons:
I’m pretty sure that’s not the program…
Lower your standards. Isn’t the guideline for cardio something like 150 minutes a week? Honestly, don’t you think that’d just have diminishing returns or eat away at the progression of something else?
Given your profession, what are your thoughts on escaping when anxious/lonely? Such as by visiting online communities. What’s the long-term trade-off? What are we inhibiting ourselves from developing by engaging in this behaviour?
@anna_5588 if you think it is disrespectful that I raise this tangent here given
I suppose @EmilyQ and me can continue it elsewhere.