On Failure
College is an interesting place. You come to this place to learn about life, and people. It is yet another microcosm of life where you can explore clubs and other extraculicular activities. And then there are your classes.
It would make sense that since you pick your classes they should be the most exciting part of your days. My day spent learning all these cool stuff that I did not know could be done with a computer. When I am not talking computer science classes, I am talking physics and biology learning amazing things about the universe and my own body. So it makes perfect sense that I cut classes in favor of coding a sourceforge project or just sleeping. Then midterm time came last week. I switched into frantic cramming mode. Normally this works fine since I am very careful and precise in my study habits. I target morsels of data that are more likely to appear on a multiple choice exam. This cuts down what I really need to know.
I also have this habit of racing on exams in easy classes. If I understand the material and I am in the class with another smart friend, I am obligated to finish the exam before this chap. So I raced to get the physics exam. The results came in today.
Physics: B- Bio: C
Considering the conditions those grades are much better than they could have been. That is what I call the loser response. A grade can always be worse, and it can always be better. It is only my fault that it is what I got. I spent this evening trying to decide if it was appropiate for me to blame the tests for being hard, or myself. After a trivial amount of reflection is it obvious that I was cocky. I just need to study more often. Most of the my time is spent sleeping anyway. Getting bad grades in these situations pisses me off because it is so preventable. Like lung cancer or car crashes, what makes them that much more frustrating is how preventable they are. It is probably inappropriate to compare bad grades to car crashes, but for a self-absorbed person like myself the analogy could not be more fitting.
In more depressing news, I have rejected from another 2 interships. This is of course in addition to the one I applied to, after working there the year before. I really am pathetic at this whole "getting a job" thing. It seems I am better at projecting an aura of competence than pounding it into a piece of paper. So I think I am going to work off references and places that my friends work. After all doesn't every company need a crazy Common Lisp coder!
From a meta-note, I have not placed a single comment on Cogntive Science related concepts. This is a pretty big tragedy in my opinion so I will rectify this at a future point. For now I want to propose three ideas I have been kicking around in my head.
Can a computer abstract conceptual data from an image? This includes 3-dimensional data such as texture and depth.
Is the passage of time a function of the speed of our thoughts?
Is there any learning algorithm that does not decompose to some regression problem or bayesian reasoning problem?
It would make sense that since you pick your classes they should be the most exciting part of your days. My day spent learning all these cool stuff that I did not know could be done with a computer. When I am not talking computer science classes, I am talking physics and biology learning amazing things about the universe and my own body. So it makes perfect sense that I cut classes in favor of coding a sourceforge project or just sleeping. Then midterm time came last week. I switched into frantic cramming mode. Normally this works fine since I am very careful and precise in my study habits. I target morsels of data that are more likely to appear on a multiple choice exam. This cuts down what I really need to know.
I also have this habit of racing on exams in easy classes. If I understand the material and I am in the class with another smart friend, I am obligated to finish the exam before this chap. So I raced to get the physics exam. The results came in today.
Physics: B- Bio: C
Considering the conditions those grades are much better than they could have been. That is what I call the loser response. A grade can always be worse, and it can always be better. It is only my fault that it is what I got. I spent this evening trying to decide if it was appropiate for me to blame the tests for being hard, or myself. After a trivial amount of reflection is it obvious that I was cocky. I just need to study more often. Most of the my time is spent sleeping anyway. Getting bad grades in these situations pisses me off because it is so preventable. Like lung cancer or car crashes, what makes them that much more frustrating is how preventable they are. It is probably inappropriate to compare bad grades to car crashes, but for a self-absorbed person like myself the analogy could not be more fitting.
In more depressing news, I have rejected from another 2 interships. This is of course in addition to the one I applied to, after working there the year before. I really am pathetic at this whole "getting a job" thing. It seems I am better at projecting an aura of competence than pounding it into a piece of paper. So I think I am going to work off references and places that my friends work. After all doesn't every company need a crazy Common Lisp coder!
From a meta-note, I have not placed a single comment on Cogntive Science related concepts. This is a pretty big tragedy in my opinion so I will rectify this at a future point. For now I want to propose three ideas I have been kicking around in my head.
Can a computer abstract conceptual data from an image? This includes 3-dimensional data such as texture and depth.
Is the passage of time a function of the speed of our thoughts?
Is there any learning algorithm that does not decompose to some regression problem or bayesian reasoning problem?
posted by James Ridley at 12:55 AM
1 Comments:
Yes college is fun. In regards to point 3 it is trivial to generate a tree since the structure is a mutally recursive structure. By that I mean the patterns you make for each branch can probably be identical and no one will notice. I will try to elaborate in the next entry.
Post a Comment
<< Home