As a kid I dead-pan told my mom that I’d like to be a "white-collar office worker. Because I wanted somewhat of a predictable routine without too much unexpected things happening

Considering that this is already my second postdoc (somewhat of a scientist training… intern… thing) “job” (no employment contract btw) within 2 years of my graduation, during which I have moved twice including once across a continent, and once getting work-related anxiety so bad I got sick for a month… I think young me’s plan is preferable at this point

As a researcher doing data-stuff: there actually is a somewhat objective way to answer this! I don’t know the answer to the question itself though… and the method is quite boring

Usually how data scientists do this is to first collect a bunch of data… let’s say we have a 200~300 question comprehensive survey about ppl’s political beliefs. This survey would have a dimension of 200-300. We can include all of them but they would offer diminishing information (& is very confusing), so usually people trim it down to the most important dimensions only. We then apply dimensionality reduction/manifold method to reduce highly similar dimensions. I think in social sciences people call this factor analysis. Usually in my field people do PCA followed by UMAP, social scientists I think may do something differently but PCA is quite universal

Then researchers will be able to tell a few mathematically identified dimensions that contribute the most to the results. Say if the first dimension contributes 70% of the variation of people’s differences, and the second dimension another 25%… then we would have a 2-dimension model that can explain 95% of the differences and would be good enough. If the first dimension only 10%, second 8%… then a good model will need a lot more dimensions. This doesn’t tell what the dimensions are though, that’s up to the researchers to identify. If all of these work well, we’d have a simple, N-dimension model suggesting how people’s political beliefs are… and some of these might not map to what people would intuitively think of

Unless I’m mistaken, Big Five personality traits is developed this way for example… About politics, I found a 2013 research article that suggested two political dimensions: economic and social ideology

I guess this doesn’t quite answer the question… it just states how political dimensions (or any dimensions in data fields, really) came from, and the fact that there’s an old paper suggesting a two factor model of economic + social ideology. I don’t know how many dimensions are sufficient for politics, not to count for the fact that different countries/cultures treat this differently

In terms of absolute length in years? Minecraft. First played it in middle school when it was still in beta, a few months (or maybe a year?) before Nether even was a thing. Last played… maybe 1-2 years ago? If Luanti/Mineclone also counts then last month. Ironically I never liked Minecraft that much… only “gotten back” into it for like a week or two at a time

Second longest is probably Skyrim (honorary mention of The Binding of Issac, but rebirth is technically a new game so…), both of which I liked a lot. Played both quite a bit in high school, and still played a bit within the past year

My actual comfort game hasn’t even been developed until 7 years ago

It’s a small brand started by a few Chinese marathon runners, modelled exactly after HOKA. So it’s equally as comfortable at like 1/2-1/3 the price. Only available in China unfortunately…

The main annoyance is that this pair doesn’t have much sideways support, so it’s easier to slip sideways. Probably not a worthwhile concern for most people of course

Also… Durability isn’t a strong suit for HOKA shoes, so I’m not sure if I can really recommend them for daily drive regardless

I just realized that nearly all of my daily shoes were replaced by my dad… who is a semi-professional marathon runner and would go through shoes in months… So probably every 1-3 years, depending on when my parents visit I guess; I think their definition of wearing out is when there are a good amount of rips/holes

My last pair was a pair of HOKA that lasted a year and a half; they are designed for long-distance running and have massive toe boxes (which I need) but are not known for their durability… Dad basically urged me to get a pair of Chinese HOKA knockoff to replace it, got it half a year ago. It’s showing signs of wear but I think it can still go for at least another year

I’ve actually been looking into how music genres/subgenres are defined for the past few months due to the fact that my favorite genre “doesn’t exist” (I’m not joking someone wrote a research paper on this)

I think there are research articles on this if one wants to go into details… Like how certain genres separate. Sometimes there are strict definitions (most techno I think are quite well-defined). But practically I think most ppl tend to enjoy ranges of genres that are close to each other… There are also plenty of genre-blend songs too so there’s that

Also I second for Every Noise At Once, they have some really obscure genres too for detailed comparisons

1st to 2nd grade so this was what my parents relayed to me after I grew up a bit more

Apparently I was so aggressively autistic (and relatively smart) that I not only did close to perfect on all my exams, I once did the calligraphy/writing homework so well that my teacher had to talk to my parents to know if I cheated by having them do my homework for me… FYI: my handwriting now is as bad as a doctor’s

I am doing it… My local convenience store also sells tooth cleaners shaped like tiny brushes which I use. It does help a bit but not entirely

… This may sound a bit pessimistic, but I think the main thing to look for is whether there are viable ways for one to enter said new country in the first place

Using the Low Countries as an example… For non-EU (or a select few countries) citizens, these three only grant residency permits to people who have a really good reason to be there… I believe they allow things such as having a job, having family, going to university, and some other situations. NL has the DAFT visa, but that’s only for American citizens (I believe?) and is quite difficult to follow-through

Depending on how young… maybe uni would be a good bet? NL has some extremely strong universities. I’m not familiar with the system there though, from what I just looked up looks like they’re quite expensive for non-EU citizens

There are a ton of other things to consider too but at least for me the most difficult part is to get a job in the first place so… everything else (climate, culture, language, …) was an afterthought by that point

Wing it

I did worse than wing it actually… half of the groceries I got over the past few weeks were from Too Good To Go, so near-expired food that the grocery store winged-it for me💀

I’m usually a bit excessively modest, but if I’m reflecting on it… I left my precious job in the US & pulled off a successful cross-continental move with little to no outside help (even though there was a lot of stuff involved). Had a ton of fun traveling during the past year too as a result of that. I guess that would be the thing I’m most proud of

I remember every single place I’ve lived in (over a dozen) and remember the address of most of them; the ones I don’t I can look up quite easily

I do feel quite sentimental about two specific places (ironically the two “worst” places I’ve lived in), not much with most others; one I almost hate with a passion

Physically, I don’t think so; the main enzyme in saliva mainly digests starch, which humans are not made of

More likely, you’d drown eventually due to not being let out, which would be one of the crazier ways to die I guess, up their with that time when some nobles drowned in fecal matter

Quite a few!

• Spicy food: didn’t grow up in a spicy-loving part of the world but tried a lot of Indian food in college and decided to just upping the spice level. I can handle some pretty extreme stuff, which always comes as a surprise when I meet Southern Chinese ppl
• Coffee: turns out it was less of an issue with my tolerance and just that I needed a good setup and locally-roasted beans
• Beer: surprisingly easy to get into, similar to coffee I just needed high-quality beer. I prefer the fruity ones over blondes/browns/pils though
• K-pop: unwillingly, because I play a “K-pop” game… I think I’m starting to get the appeal now though

There are! Problem is that most of them seem to be either “jobs” that companies don’t want to pay a full-time employee for, or require lots of entrepreneurship skills that I don’t think fits most people… I don’t see how someone living in a developed country would benefit more from an online gig than getting a shitty minimum-wage job at the local grocery store, but there definitely are options

A few non-scummy ones (at least by my standard) I could think of:

• Most practical one I could think of is to teach English/foreign languages. The East Asian countries (especially China) have a huge demand for these types of roles, and I’d presume they have platforms where you can do it as a freelance tutor (at least that’s what my parents told me lol)
• If you have any in-demand skills, it is possible to become a self-proprietor to do contracts for businesses… ranging from the classic IT consultant to selling art commissions on Twitter/X
• If you are good at crafts, I believe it is possible to make a small but reasonable amount of money by selling crafts online on places like Etsy, some ppl are really into these and I think ppl generally have a very positive view of these type of careers. Bonus is you might even be able to do some in-person events at conventions/markets/etc
• If you have a fun personality (or if you are a complete train-wreck), content creation/streaming. Standard Twitch streaming, YouTube streaming, making edutainment like the funny bike guy, if you are willing to let go of some morals then Kick… Quite fun if you are into it, but competition is fierce and most people don’t make it; and a lot of people who “made-it” chose to relocate to low cost-of-living countries where they only need like $500 a month so…
• Extension of previous point, if you have any sex-appeal… lots of places to “sell your body” online and make decent profits. Not doable without good genetics though

A bit of a hot take… bigger communities tend to get harder to please, regardless of anything else

I saw a few gacha game communities (please don’t judge me lol) grow in real time, because gacha games need as large as a player base as possible for their business strategy (which is a separate topic)… Saw the level of toxicity rises in real time as my main game’s community get bigger. Like the community literally went from being okay with just about anything to arguing over the weirdest details on character designs and complaining about every live-service event. And then there’s all the rumor about communities of Hoyoverse games… including once when someone almost murdered the company CEO over a bunny girl event (I’m not making this up)

Among similar sized ones I’m not entirely sure

I assume you mean ppl who literally have “mathematician” as a job title? A few I could think of…

• I’d guess most likely as an academic researcher. There are academics in just about any field you could imagine, a lot of which are even more abstract/“useless” than advanced math. Not a traditional “job” in the sense that academics don’t directly add value to the economy… but are paid to do research that hopefully other people can add value based on. Downside is that these job openings are insanely competitive especially for the aforementioned “less useful” fields, because they are based on an organization having spare money to support research…
• As a cybersecurity researcher maybe? A lot of modern-day cybersecurity (the original “crypto”, before it became associated with bitcoin) are based on advanced math, so I’d imagine such expertise is still needed
• Somewhere in finance maybe? A lot of modern-day finance are built on data science/statistics, although I suppose this job fits statisticians better…

Disclaimer: level 1 ASD, low support needs

Was it ableist for my ex-friend to say “[all] autistic people make her uncomfortable “?

… maybe? It is true that the majority of Autistic people (including those with subtle symptoms, maybe especially those since uncanny valley and everything) tend to make NT people uncomfortable whether we like it or not, so just having that thought alone might not say much. I would assume most reasonable people would prefer to keep thoughts like that behind closed curtains even if they have those

As for your ex-friend’s specific case… I think the bigger issue is that your ex-friend was an asshole more than anything else. My understanding is that talking behind someone’s back is a big no for most people. There are… some parts of Asian culture where this type of behavior is more accepted, but if your ex-friend is American then I’m not entirely sure what’s wrong with them

That’s cool! For me Chinese (Mandarin), although it has something to do with language regulations: a lot of Chinese dialects really should be classified as different languages…

Speaking of that and Spanish… I was quite curious about Catalan actually, have a colleague that’s from that part of Spain. My understanding is that Catalan is considered a separate language but is quite similar to Spanish?

I have a pet rat that seems to be sick. My local vet has a long waitlist: do you have any suggestions on home remedies that can help them feel better in the meantime?