Comments for Fetzthechemist's Weblog

Comment on Career tip: Scientific networking ought to be easy by tyrosine

tyrosine — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:33:26 +0000

So true. A year ago I wrote to the lead author of a paper I really liked. A few emails later and now we have several collaborative projects and joint graduate students. True story.

Comment on A few authors I learned I do not appreciate by tyrosine

tyrosine — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:27:54 +0000

Pretty funny not liking popular authors, except Dan Brown. That’s like detesting popular music except for Miley Cyrus.
Give Grisham a try. He’s an ex-lawyer who writes law stories and is actually pretty good. Much better writer than Brown.

Comment on A few authors I learned I do not appreciate by Shmoppy

Shmoppy — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:36:36 +0000

I highly recommend Kurt Vonnegut, he’s a contemporary author that is definitely worthwhile.

Comment on A few authors I learned I do not appreciate by fetzthechemist

fetzthechemist — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:17:18 +0000

Lolita was OK, but got its fame on the scandalousness. I read his complete short story collection. Very Russian, a thirty-page description of a walk down a path and seeing an old man by the wayside pr ten pages to describe a dusty room full of cobwebs. Like trying to run through wwaist-deep water.

Comment on A few authors I learned I do not appreciate by psi*psi

psi*psi — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:14:01 +0000

How do you not like Nabokov?

Comment on Games on Facebook – a psychological experiment by fetzthechemist

fetzthechemist — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:37:25 +0000

I know others experience these things, too, because of comments from players on my friends’ list. Most that I have interacted with are like me, no surprise there because the others – the brawlers and bullies – are just a different species.

I am a worker and collector. So it is amusing to see the brawlers begging for collectibles and consumables that they need to play – the phones, computers, illegal records, photos,. The most obvious are those who need the Cuban politico corruptos.If you are a worker, you end up with a ton of those – more than you will ever need.

Like real-world bullies, those in Mafia Wars cannot deal with being attacked themselves. If somebody hits you a dozen times trying to get an easy kill, they get pissed when you put them on the hitlist. Some get stubborn and annoying and keep coming back for the last effort. I just hitlist them again and again. After five or six times of dying, they usually quit or hitlist me in return. Like five-year olds.

I do not think Zynga does this intentionally to drive people crazy. I do think they intentionally set up things for more conflicts, like you cannot fight a war except with a friend. I think they are low-end programmers – the good ones get better paying jobs at bigger comanies. They end up with semi-amateur, immature programmers. The stupid inside joke nature of a lot of the gimmicks shows that. They lose track of the game’s premise.

Comment on Games on Facebook – a psychological experiment by Liz1388

Liz1388 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:42:08 +0000

It occurred to me today that Mafia Wars (and possibly Facebook too) are really diabolical psychological experiments. So I googled to see if anyone else had the same idea. Your post was the first hit.

I’ve played FarmTown, Farmville and am now playing Mafia Wars, so I know what you are talking about. I too am a tidy farmer, although not perhaps as “anal” as you are.

My farm is still there. I reached the largest size at the time, although not the highest level by any means. I got bored once my farm looked the way I wanted it. I agree with you that many farms look way, way too busy – all those awkward “waterfalls”, LOL.

As for Mafia Wars, I also see my own tendencies at work. I am not a fighter either. I just do what I need to do to get loot, or level up. Even if I am winning money in attacks, I try to only do it twice to another player to avoid antagonizing anyone. Depends on my mood.

And I also only attack those at or near my level. I can’t believe some of my gang at 3 and 4 figure levels declaring war on noobs. I refuse to participate. I guess I am sort of like the early real Mafia families, with some measure of principles and self-imposed limits.

I notice how obsessive I am with the cash though. I rush to bank my income as soon as I get on.

It’s the bugs in the game, the frustrations of slowness and constantly changing kinks that made me think it’s a plot to drive players crazy though. This week Zynga (the developing company) brought out a new city (Bangkok) and as usual, the game is all messed up. Facebook is also instituting new changes all the time, many that make the application less pleasurable to use.

This is slowly driving me nuts.

Since this situation has become the rule and not the exception, I am convinced that they are trying to study how humans cope with constant frustration. I’m sure we’ll read all about it in Psychology Today eventually. Hopefully I will still be sane enough to read.

Comment on These are not the criteria by fetzthechemist

fetzthechemist — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:11:29 +0000

I did think of one “ism” that is prevalent in many forms and some of these are quite rampant. Agism. If you are a grad student or postdoc, your ideas are very readily dismissed by many professors. If you are older, the younger scientists dismiss your opinions because things have changed since your era. Even when you reach the supposedly accomplished stage of high peer recognition, you had better be prepared for a few odd reactions and responses if you’ve been precocious. The big names expect you to be of their generation, not a decade or more younger.

Comment on These are not the criteria by fetzthechemist

fetzthechemist — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:32:33 +0000

There is also a failure to differentiate bad PIs from the sexist or racist ones. Some are just terrible with any grad student. They domineer and rant because they have the power. Ascribing that to sexism dilutes the picture and lets the real sexists fade into the background noise.

I have seen tough women PIs really get on the women, thinking it helps toughen them.

But you rarely see that sexist or racist tone in the science because good scientists are at a premium. Creativity and understanding are not as common as most percieve. Innovators will publish first and have better work to talk about, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or any other criterion.

Comment on These are not the criteria by psi*psi

psi*psi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:24:18 +0000

AlchemX: It depends on the lab. I’ve been lucky so far in working for fantastically unsexist and fair PIs, but I know women who have had some rough experiences. I agree that some of the hardcore-women-in-science blogs sound a little over the top, but I won’t completely dismiss what they say. When I was applying to grad school, one (male and feminist) mentor went out of his way to point out groups that were bad working environments for women, and some PIs who had sexually harassed their grad students. As long as anyone sees the need to put out warnings like that…yeah, the disrespect is real.