I think I finally met the love of my life, I don’t think I’d want to risk changing anything

If you’re looking for books, then it depends on what field you want to study. Generally just I’d search for recommended textbooks for that field and then I’d definitely buy it and wouldn’t just download it from libgen.is

I’m basically as old as gen z gets, '97. At home we only had dialup well after broadband was the norm, it wasn’t really worth using. Instead I learnt what the internet is and how it works at school in computer lab classes.

I was probably 7 or 8 when I made my first web page on our school intranet, they really pushed for us to be tech literate. The coolest part about this is that I grew up so tech literate that I was fully qualified for a job as a developer despite having no formal training. I did one introductory programming class in uni for a free HD and that was basically it.

Yeah, I absolutely understand the insanity of having the internet so available. We had it in my early days on school computers, but the real game changer has been smart phones. Being able to carry that information everywhere is the insane part to me.

Parents were strict, but I got around it really easily. I just used the wifi details my dad used for my Xbox to connect my iPod touch. I grew up on YouTube and podcasts from iTunes.

Oh god the case for a photon is super hard to talk about in any meaningful way, photons “see” every point in their journey as happening at the same instant of time and at the same place, null geodesics are nuts.

But yeah, the underlying mathematics that causes this can (kinda) just be pinned on the normalisation of the four velocity, which I think is what you’re describing.

Only a few really dry textbooks I’m afraid, it’s a subject that’s extremely difficult to explain in lay terms as the mathematics is so complicated.

That said if you’re feeling masochistic, Schultz’s first course in GR is the most approachable that I know.

It’s just meant as a physical analogue to demonstrate some features (namely how the shape of the sheet/gravity affects things that travel on/through it) in a way that people can understand easily.

Variational principle goes brrrrr

Oh yes let’s talk about my favourite subject ever!

The coolest thing I know of comes from wondering why bent spacetime makes you move at all. The answer is that you always move through time and the bending of spacetime actually turns a bit of time into space and vice versa.

This leads to my favourite saying about black holes, once you enter them you can no more escape falling to the singularity than you can escape tomorrow.

Yeah my current bike is literally just an abandoned bike that I repaired, so I doubt anyone’s gonna want to steal it. If I get another E-Bike I’ll be a lot more particular about where and when I leave it, and use multiple locks

I bought an E-Bike, the impulsive bit was not getting a normal bike.

I kinda just figured it would be fun, and probably useful for some longer trips through the city. It ended up being one of the most empowering things I’ve ever owned, I have a pretty nasty health condition with lots of really bad fatigue and I live in a hilly area. I was able to look after myself to a whole new level, it was in almost every way a mobility aid for me, it made it possible for me to get supplies and meds on bad days it was a game changer.

Anyway it got stolen a couple of weeks ago so that’s cool

🙏

Holy shit this is some of the absolute worst data visualisation I’ve ever seen, thankyou for this

I joined a climate activism group in my local area, frankly it’s the best possible way to deal with it. You can make a difference, the messaging we get is often intended to make us feel powerless to keep people from protesting, but it’s actually one of the most empowering ways to deal with it. Being with a group of passionate people amplifies your ability to effect change, and given how broken many of our governments are, it’s necessary. The biggest thing stopping us from forcing big changes is our lack of numbers, solidarity is strength.

It certainly beats sitting around feeling angry and stressed.

If only… 🥲

I mostly do security and server maintenance to support a team of developers. It’s kinda a bore tbh, too much paperwork

I’m in a software development-ish role (slightly too specialised to say I actually develop software anymore)

Why did I even pretend I could get away without saying it -3-

ADHD is basically the only reason I’m able to work in the area I do, I have absolutely no formal training in it other than what I taught myself while procrastinating.

Yep, that’s exactly it.

You absolutely don’t need anything this big to tow most of that stuff, most farmers I know do fine with a ute half as tall. The only case I can think of where one of these gigantic US-sized SUVs could be necessary is with an equally gigantic caravan.