#but we are all science nerd >:) in biology and maths and computer >:)))!!!

[thinkingnot]

clawing at the walls thinking about sbi as a family and they like go on roadtrips and visit places and nerd out about those places

[sciencestyled]

The Alchemical Marriage of Pi and DNA: A Hilariously Twisted Saga of Mathematics in Science Education

Ladies, gentlemen, and distinguished nerds of the jury, strap yourselves in and adjust your monocles; we're about to embark on a wild ride through the whimsically warped world of mathematics in science education. Imagine, if you will, a universe where Pythagoras DJs at the biggest raves, Newton’s apple is a viral meme, and Einstein's hair isn't just a style statement but the ultimate symbol of scientific rebellion. Welcome to the chaos.

Now, let's get down to brass tacks, or should I say, brass abacuses? Science education, that hallowed ground where the brave dare to tread, has long been the breeding ground for future world leaders, Nobel laureates, and that person who finally figures out how to get printers to work on the first try. But at the heart of this intellectual jungle gym is the unsung hero, the silent beatboxer to science's rap battle: mathematics.

Ah, mathematics, the language of the universe, or as I like to call it, the universal gossip column spilling the tea on everything from the atoms twerking in your coffee cup to the swagger of galaxies on the cosmic runway. It's the tool that transforms the abstract into the "Oh, snap, I get it now!" moments in various science disciplines. Whether it's statistical analysis, modeling, or computational methods, math is the secret sauce that makes the science burger taste so darn good.

Picture this: you're chilling in biology class, right? Suddenly, the teacher drops the bomb that DNA replication is basically just a very meticulous braid of nucleotides, kind of like your cousin trying to explain the plot of "Inception" – it's all about patterns, baby! And who's there, with a smug smile and a calculator? Math, ready to explain the party tricks of enzymes and the RSVP list of amino acids.

Or how about when you're knee-deep in environmental science, crying into your recycled notebook about deforestation, and boom! Math swoops in, cape billowing, with statistical models that predict the effects of human folly on Mother Nature's mood swings. It's like having a crystal ball, but instead of vague warnings about tall, dark strangers, you get graphs and charts showing precisely how screwed we might be if we don’t change our ways.

And let’s not forget the rock stars of the scientific world: physics and chemistry, where math plays the lead guitar and occasionally smashes it on stage. Want to know why atoms don't just decide to break up the band and go solo? Quantum mechanics, with its mathematical autographs, has the answers. Curious about the cosmic mosh pit that is the universe? General relativity throws down the equations to keep the party going at the speed of light.

But, dear audience, it's not all just numbers and equations, oh no. Mathematics in science education is like the ultimate crossover episode where every character from your favorite shows turns up. It's "The Avengers" of academia, where every discipline brings its own superpowers to the table, united by the common goal of understanding this weird, wonderful, and absolutely bonkers reality we call home.

And in this era of technological razzle-dazzle, computational methods stand at the forefront like the cool kids in class, coding their way through problems like hackers in a Hollywood movie, minus the dubious ethics and questionable fashion choices. From mapping the human genome to simulating climate change scenarios, computational science is the VIP lounge of the academic club, and math is the bouncer deciding who gets in.

So, as we stand on the precipice of knowledge, gazing into the abyss of ignorance, let us remember the words of the great sage, Weird Al Yankovic, "I was valedictorian, I got a full ride to MIT, and I was on a very strict diet of milk, fish, and honey - until I started to break out in Pi." Mathematics in science education isn't just a subject; it's a lifestyle, a state of mind, and the ultimate cosmic joke that we're all in on.

In conclusion, as we navigate the labyrinthine corridors of science education, let us clutch our graphing calculators like the swords of yore, ready to duel with ignorance and emerge victorious. For in the alchemical marriage of pi and DNA, we find not just answers, but the right questions, the kind that lead us to the edge of the universe and ask, "So, got any snacks?"

And remember, in the grand scheme of things, whether you're splitting atoms or merely splitting hairs over the Oxford comma, mathematics is there, the faithful steed upon which we ride into the sunset of understanding, leaving bewilderment in our wake. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go help Schrödinger's cat out of the box. It's been meowing for quantum assistance, and frankly, the suspense is killing me – or not.

[valentine-love99]

Big Fat Notebook Series

I discovered the book series called Big Fat Notebook from Amazon. I been buying these books that I enjoy are math, science, and computer science. I really like the doodles and pictures that makes it helpful to understand the information.

I enjoy math especially geometry, scientific notation, and multiplying fractions. I am giant math nerd because I believe math is everywhere all over the world such as the fractals of never-ending perimeter, the golden ratio that can be found in nature, you can even try to figure out the flag pole’s heigh by measuring the shadow and the hyponetuse. Whenever I learn from math class to see the shapes and numbers even to look over large buildings thinking how they are being measured.

I bought this biology book because of the section that talks about ecology such as climate change and figure out how to protect ecosystem and biodiversity. I remmeber I would head over to the bookshelves in the library to read about renewable resources such as wind power and solar panels, the pollution that affects in wildlife, and how to reuse, reduce, and recycle. It is like noticing much of crap happening onto wildlife even there are still pollution since this planet Earth is only living planet we ever got in whole space that we can actually survive or else it can get worse for both animals and people.

Finally I bought this computer science book since I think computer programming is very unique to learn espeically how you can code to build something such as write up code to create websites and games. I actually want to get a job someday to be game designer which I am still currently learning about Python.

I am thinking of getting more from the book series that is history next.

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

tl;dr political rant post:

it had been my goal from 12 years old to do an arts degree in philosophy (yes what a nerd- thanks to my dad playing a Great Courses philosophy dvd one morning in 2007 and my dad always taking me to the botanic gardens/the uni some weekends).

i graduated from my arts degree in 2018, with a major in english and a minor in philosophy. i was so, so lucky to even get into my communications & media degree (at first i was originally going to do marketing communications, advertising & PR)... but i realised that i was not made for business subjects- despite my mark101 tutor telling me she thought i had knack for marketing- something under this policy that i wouldn’t undertake due to the price hike for commerce/business degrees. nor was i made for a media degree. so i changed to arts & humanities.

although under this atrocious policy, english subjects are made “cheaper”- why on fucking should the rest of someone’s arts/humanities degree be so much more expensive, all depending on the fields they choose???? so you’re telling me, if i was instead to enter undergrad this year to do my english degree... that my english major would be subsidised, but my philosophy minor would be at double the cost (along with the few first year business and communications&media subjects i did), unless i forced myself to pick maths or science subjects that i would most definitely fail, no matter how much work i’d put into them??? or there’s languages- but much like maths/science- there’s the problem with my handwriting that stopped me trying french and even japanese (ironically, since it’s know for its ~painstakingly neat and orderly~ script- but my handwriting is still messy, disorderly and confusing asf).

*please note that most of this next section is just me being highly spurious and cynical. it’d probably work out fine*

but you’re also telling me that under this policy that i’d also probably have to forego my reasonable adjustments in those subjects (yes i still have trouble with my handwriting to this day) mostly because a lot of software still won’t let you write out maths problems properly or i’d have to spend twice as long trying to get a graph to work in excel or idek matlab (please teach me maths nerds)???? and most maths working out is probably better handwritten or whatever??? and that’s besides the point that i still can’t use excel at all 😂.

so with these classes then, would i be battling from day one of first year with professors to let me use a computer during exam periods (unless of course they use online/take home exam methods like philosophy)???? probably (im being very suspicious here because i don’t know how science/maths etc faculties work).

although i did get this once with one particular english professor; who used the excuse that he didn’t know how to set a computer up for exams because he had been on “sabatical for 4 years” or whatever and so “didn’t know the policies anymore”.... so then according to him it was apparently “the students job to do it.... especially since you’re in third year, miss williams”..... however, i was promptly then told by EVERY uni offical that i approached for help to do it for me.... and my other professors across my course that had done it for me, that it was in fact the PROFESSORS job/responsibility to set it up, and not the student’s??? like. help your students fuckwit professor grant??? honestly. anyway. aside from my personal struggles in the english department: let’s proceed. (this was a real incident btw).

would i be at a significant disadvantage to other students by not being able to use a computer during maths exams or science exams because of the drawing of diagrams and graphs and “showing your working”???? hell yes. would i want the professors in that department to probably condescendingly telling me all the time to “present my work neater and more precisely”? FUCK NO. it’s exactly why i avoided every maths and science subject in undergrad- even including the astronomy subject that i wanted to do- because it also meant that fellow students had to read my handwriting for practicals etc as well, that i wasn’t entirely keen on either. but i did not need the harsh reminders of “be more precise and infallible in your work presentation�� that i’d had at school constantly for 11 years of maths lessons; affecting my mental health and performance in a subject during a uni semester.

moreover, that’s besides the fact that i’d flat out fail the “year 12 band 4 maths” requirements- unless they want to waive those- for first year maths/science subjects (at least basing it on my local uni).... considering that i actually skipped out on maths completely in year 12 by doing a TVET/tafe/technical college course in live theatre, production and events (which no surprises here, actually included maths anyway 😅).

because, fuck. is ANYONE seeing a trend in my study choices here? hell, i almost did a commerce/business dual degree with a tafe diploma in event management for crying out fucking loud. and you’re telling me that’s also doubled in price?? it’s obvious that i was interested in the arts & humanities and business subjects from the get-go. but under this policy- i’d be charged double for having my interest in event management, instead of say, biology (which is a subject that if it weren’t for mark scaling in my final hsc exam- i would have failed completely)??? utterly ridiculous.

i even contemplated doing a double degree with law at one point (or doing a legal studies major/minor- which is now a course at my local uni, but was not while i was there). however, law course fees have also doubled under this new policy. leaving that out of reach for me, despite that a double degree with law was out of reach for me anyway..... since my mark average was 65% and not at least 75% lol. but as if those marks averages will actually matter under this new policy.

under this bullshit policy, i’d be forced to take science/maths or even teaching (another field i had to avoid, since people can’t read my writing on a whiteboard from a distance half the time either.... besides the fact that i’m not really the ~teacher type~) subjects- all so that my degree price overall will be ”reduced”..... meaning that i would have to trade out my philosophy minor for something in maths/teaching/science (or maybe creative arts- since those fees stayed the same roughly)... instead of sticking to what i was good at: philosophy and other humanities/social science fields like sociology and history????

i understand that many people will snub me with saying “oh why did you even BOTHER going to uni if you were THAT indecisive about what you wanted to do?” which is something i’ve seen many older people saying on posts about this policy. but hell, i was 19 FUCKING YEARS OLD WHEN I STARTED UNI, FOR GODS SAKE. OF COURSE I WAS GOING TO BE FUCKING INDECISIVE ABOUT MY DIRECTION IN LIFE! because, newsflash fuckwits: not everyone has a defined career goal at 19. hell, i still don’t have one at almost 25..... since i’ll admit here, that i flunked out of my postgrad library course.... because i realised that i simply couldn’t cope with learning simple HTML, CSS and javascript coding for website design & user experience design 😂 (again help me computer wiz friends). yes, believe it or not, librarians have to know that today. and most people think that it’s just all about books (okay that was me, but i was wrong). also, if you’re wondering: postgrad library courses aren’t affected, thank god. but my point is, aren’t we meant to fuck up and pick the wrong things in life sometimes??? aren’t we meant to be indecisive about our choices in our late teens up until our mid 20s???

but now you’re telling students that their very first year of uni is practically set out for them, even for arts/humanities degrees (im not counting properly prescribed degrees such as engineering/science/communications & media (they had prescribed majors and prescribed first year subjects, which is why i left it. because i felt trapped in the prescribed marketing et al major etc); all because the government is telling them that “oh to make your first year cheaper: (A.) get good marks.... so that we don’t cancel your HECS place and (B.) pick subjects outside of the arts/humanities like science/maths/tech related subjects so that you don’t pay a whopping $14,500 for your first year of uni and will be more likely to be “job ready”. whatever the actual fuck “job ready” really means. and this all as if there ISN’T enough pressure for a 18/19 year old to succeed in their first year of uni already.

although, the one thing i’ll say is that my one year advanced diploma in marketing that i did in 2014, was $16,500. i still haven’t made any moves to pay it off. but it was constantly in the back of my mind during uni, both undergrad and postgrad. it was there as a reminder to pick cheaper subjects, so as to not greatly increase my combined hecs debt and vet-fee help debt; which is now sitting at $42,500. which under this new policy is the new price of ONE arts & humanities undergrad degree. i’d hate to be going into uni next year at 19 years old (or any age really) with that price tag on my degree.

anyway. that’s the end of my non-sensical rant. morrison and the rest of the libs etc can go fuck themselves.

[successfullyshroobifiedsmbau]

Trivia about... Dr. Agoiraku and Penny.

Dr. Agoiraku

Full name: Herbert “Herbie” Curio Agoiraku

Age: 70s

Gender: male (he/him)

Race: Shroid (currently), RC Shroober (formerly)

Most notable details: magnetic, pointy moustache, lab coat (sometimes)

Likes: his granddaughter, science, physics, (ecto)biology, maths, algebra, mechanics, engineering, inventing things, performing experiments, slow jazz music, travelling

Dislikes: humans, the death of his son and daughter-in-law, when his granddaughter behaves non-civilised, failing experiments, plans going against his expectations, chocolate, having to ‘oil’ himself every now and then, rust

—

“Thanks to my late son’s amazing engineering and mechanics abilities, I’m still there, and I even got to experience the arrival of my granddaughter Penny back then! Being a ghost surely wasn’t pleasant, and I’m only very glad to still be around. Plus, being a Shroid is pretty neat, if you ask me!

Because I’m a Shroid, I don’t really have to worry about all of the hubbub in the way of retirement, since us Shroids don’t even age… indeed, I still work among the other engineers, scientists, ectobiologists and physicians at the Shroob Castle, and I love how diverse this very job is! One time, I test certain elements if they go together well, while the other, I let new Shroobs be born via test tubes without parents… yes, I’m one of the very few ectobiologists who is actually able to perform this perfectly. One should follow very strict schooling for it, and even though it wasn’t easy for me, it has absolutely been worth it, and I’m only happy to help expand the number of living Shroobs in our nation, especially since we successfully invaded the Mushroom Kingdom of the so-called past.

At home, I also enjoy mechanics, science and all that jazz. I guess you could say that I oftentimes practise stuff for the next day at work that way? Just except for the fact that in this case, it doesn’t come to ectobiology, since that’s absolutely not something to try at home!”

—–

Penny

Full name: Penny Lane Agoiraku

Age: 13 or 14

Gender: female (she/her)

Race: RC Shroober

Most notable details: round glasses, pink heart ornament on head, lab coat (sometimes)

Likes: science, physics, math, algebra, (ecto)biology, inventing anything, robots, experiments, computers, school, singing, foods

Dislikes: humans, any experiment going wrong, getting low grades, being hazed

—

“I’m one of Mars’s classmates, but seemingly more intelligent than John and Jade’s heated friendly rivalry altogether, as I’m the only one who mostly gets A’s and A+’s. Of course I don’t mind being called a nerd, because I know I am one, too! Not because of my glasses that I also have to wear due to nearsightedness, but like I already mentioned, the high grades!

My parents’ lives were also taken by the hands of those nasty humans, but fortunately, my grandfather, who is a Shroid, was lucky to have survived by not showing up when those humans came to what used to be known as Toad Town, but is nowadays known as Shroob Town. I live with him ever since losing my parents, and we perform all sorts of experiments together, because as a child, I was very interested in his experiments and often wanted to perform along with those, but he never allowed me to do so until I only just turned 13, which expanded my horizons so much!

Also, since our species are slowly fading away from existence, I perform a weekly session of ectobiology in the hope that we can still keep on living forth in the (near) future, which makes quite a difference to having to go through tons of childbirths as a female Shroob, as the process goes a lot quicker, too. Ectobiology is a fairly new something in the world of science and biology, but only my grandfather and I know how it goes without fail, so it’s a secret for everyone else! Yes, even for our monarchs, and you, the one who reads this!

However, when I’m not focusing on anything in the way of science or ectobiology, I sing all sorts of songs. If you want to hear my golden voice (or so my grandfather calls it), I’m to be found in the main karaoke bar every Friday evening!”

[jojal-jojalkorean]

💖Introducing Ourselves!💖

To start off our 2020 year renewal, we are here to introduce ourselves!

Admin Sun

grade :  2nd grade of Highschool

dream job :  College Professor (preferably teaching politics or European history) or a Diplomat

my personality :  I'm an INTP! I love MBTI, it's super fun😆

what I usually do in the Jojal-Jojal team :  I was the main admin the past year and was in charge of uploading the posts and editing them before they go into the queue. I answered messages from followers too! I also did most of the Event posts, and some culture posts, and some language stuff too. I'm sort of in the 'leader' position, I guess.

some of my Jojal-Jojal posts : 

Popular Korean Apps

Korean Flag Taegeukgi

Hangeul-day

History Trip to  Deoksugung-palace

favorite subject :  My favorite subject is History, philosophy, World geography, and English.

what I like : I'm a giant history nerd, and I love musicals too!(My favorite musicals are Hamilton, Wicked, and Six) I love reading, especially history books. The 18th century is my favorite period to study, it's interesting. I like Classical music too. My favorite composer is Shostakovich. I play the clarinet too, I used to be in the orchestra.

my hobbies :  I play my clarinet or piano when I'm bored. I also love talking and ranting. It's definitely my hobby🤣. I overthink and ramble a lot. You can talk to me about any of my interests and I can write essays about it. My favorite hobby these days, now that I have more free time because it's spring break now, is writing historical stories.

random facts about me : 

I can procrastinate professionally. 

I'm in the middle of trying to learn Spanish. I am failing badly😭🤣

I have a travel bucket list, detailing every place I want to visit (Mostly historical sites)

I spend most of the time reading. Historical books, fantasy novels, or Fanfiction. I like to write too, especially historical stuff but I'm too shy to show it to anyone.

I suck at math. It's my worst enemy. I do not understand how Admin Yu enjoys it.

Admin Do

grade :  High school 2nd grade

dream job :  Veterinarian

my personality :  ISTJ

what I usually do in the Jojal-Jojal team : I’ve written posts. I also provide art for the team. The drawing of the Admins above are done by me:D

some of my Jojal-Jojal posts :

Korean Artist - Kim Hong Do

Korean Names

favorite subject : My favorite subject is art!

what I like : I’m currently into gastroventures.

my hobbies : I like to play Piano in my free time. I also enjoy reading novels.

random facts about me :

My favorite Korean food is 떡볶이(tteok-bokki). If you are fine with spicy food, you should definitely try it out some day!

Admin Yu

grade :  high school 2nd grade

dream job : computer engineer, CEO

my personality : ENTP

what I usually do in the Jojal-Jojal team : I’ve mainly written posts and revised other admins’ posts last year. This year, my main job is to edit and put posts on the queue. Basically managing the system. I’ll still write posts though! (my posts are already in the queue😉)

some of my Jojal-Jojal posts : 

Chuseok Day

Hangeul - Consonants

Vocabulary - Emotions

favorite subject : I’ve recently fell in love with biology! The genes and cells...they are so interesting to learn about. I actually enjoy learning all science subjects. Math is also an intriguing subject. I get thrilled when I debate with others to find the better ways to reach the answer when studying math.

what I like : I’m a big fan of BTS💜 My favorite songs are Mikrokosmos, Magic shop, Make it right, and Spring day. I like Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series. I like watching theories about the books and movies on Youtube. I also enjoy watching math and coding videos on Youtube. Oh and I also like listening to ASMR.

my hobbies : I like watching Youtube in my free time. Doodling is something I do whenever I have a pencil and a sheet of paper. This is not much of a hobby but I do like discussing about what we learned in school with my friends. 

random facts about me :

Actually ‘Yu’ isn’t in my name, ‘You’ is. But it would be weird to say “hi I’m Admin You” so I just roll with it.

I love Hangeul. I love King Sejong. He is awesome.

I’ve lived in America for a few years.

When I get obsessed with a song, I tend to listen to it over and over and over. But I don’t really get sick of it.

I just randomly sing sometimes.

[dragon-robot]

Tag Game - 30ish questions

I was tagged by @donttouchtheneednoggle:) Thank you!

1. How tall are you? 5' 5″.

2. What colour and style is your hair? Brown, pixie-ish cut, I like to say it has “unmotivated wave” because it’s not straight, but it’s not really wavy either (insert pun about how I’m not exactly straight or wavy... gay... insert bi joke, ok?).

3. What colour are your eyes? Green? Hazel? I just asked Spouse-Human, he said (from across the room), “brown, possibly,” so no one knows.

4. Do you wear glasses? Yes.

5. Do you wear braces? Not since middle school.

6. What is your fashion style? Does not apply? I guess I most often (by that I mean daily) wear a nerdy t-shirt, men’s jeans, and a men’s hoodie. Or, if forced to not look like the goblin I am, colorful v-neck, cardigan, women’s jeans or dress pants.

7. Full name? Sarah

8. When were you born? September

9. Where are you from and where do you live now? Eh... I hate being asked where I’m from because like... I have very little emotional attachment to the place I spent most of my life and I haven’t lived in the city I was born in since I was too young to remember. So let’s go with “North-east-ish USA” for both.

10. What school do you go to? I’m out of school (and want to go back).

11. What kind of student are you? Nerd. I was a big giant nerd in school (and I still am one, but obviously not in school). I wanted to know the why and the how, not memorize stupid lists, which pissed a lot of people off. My learning/study method was always “find someone who is at the same academic level as me, study with them all the time so we can really get into the subject and make sure we know it.”

12. Do you like school? Loved it, when given the opportunity to study what I wanted.

13. What are your favourite subjects in school? I majored in Computer Science and Biology with a minor in Chemistry and almost a minor in Math. But not hardware. I hate hardware.

14. Favourite TV shows? Too... many... Miraculous Ladybug, Stargate SG-1, Dollhouse, Orphan Black, Grey’s Anatomy, Smallville, Cloak and Dagger, Agent Carter, The Good Place, Firefly, Agents of SHIELD... I’ll stop now...

15. Favourite movies? Emperor’s New Groove, Tangled, Love Simon, Madagascar, Sound of Music, Singin’ in the Rain, others I totally forget.

16. Favourite books? Howl’s Moving Castle, The Magicians, Harry Potter, Ender’s Shadow, Ella Enchanted, Looking for Alaska, The Twenty-One Balloons, wow, I swear I read “grown up books” too, but the quality of these here is way beyond a lot of those.

17. Favourite past times? Writing, binge watching, reading, taking care of my plant-babies, annoying my loved ones.

18. Do you have any regrets? Yeah, a few, but I try to remember that I did the best I could with what I knew and the resources I had at the time.

19. Dream job? My job (code monkey), but I get to actually work with code more than once a week, and when I do, I have support to do what needs to get done and at least a quick walkthrough of the tools we use. And they’re not getting rid of the work-from-home program forcing me to get a new job. And there’s more women and people of color.

20. Would you like to be married some day? I am married, my dude. Though I do routinely ask Spouse-Human to marry me again.

21. Would you like to have kids someday? No. I love being an aunt. I LOVE it. I love supporting my friends and family who have kids, and I love getting to know these tiny humans and helping them navigate the world. I don’t want to have my own children.

22. How many? Zero. It bothers me that this was made into a separate question.

23. Do you like shopping? Depends on what I’m shopping for. Books? Yeah, I love shopping for books. House plants? Yeah, gimme some of those. Clothes? No, thanks. Any kind of big purchase that I will have/use for many years? HATE, PLEASE SAVE ME.

24. What countries have you lived in? Just the US. I have my eye on a few places though... Icelandic is close to German, language-structure-wise, right?

25. The scariest nightmare you’ve had? Either the dream about the Iron Giant trying to smash a Burger King I was hiding in, or the time I woke up and all I remembered was the overwhelming feeling of having wronged someone else through my own selfishness.

26. Do you have any enemies? Like, are there people I consider my enemies and have strong negative feelings towards them? Not really? Are there people who feel that way about me? No fucking clue, my dude. And not really any of my business? Like, feel however you want to feel about me, so long as we treat each other civilly and/or avoid each other.

27. Do you have an s/o? Yeah. Yeah I do. I’m looking at him RIGHT NOW. I’m wearing TWO articles of clothing I stole from him! I’d say we’re at the significant stage of otherness.

28. Do you believe in miracles? Sure. But I believe they’re rare.

Tagging @little-red-alchemist-of-doom, @dragon-of-the-sea, @miraculouspaon, @knitting-necromancy, @musiclvr1112, @cameforthecat, and does anyone else follow me here? If so, and you want to do this, please do! (and tag me so I can see your answers!!)

[drsallygrissom]

Why We Love ars PARADOXICA

Back in 2016, the fandom made a list of 43 reasons why we love ars PARADOXICA in honor of the 73rd anniversary of Dr. Sally Grissom’s first audio diary on October 29, 1943. When I learned that the podcast was going to end after its third season, I decided to pull together another list that was double the length of the first. 

However, the fandom was so passionate that we blew past our goal, and reached triple the length of the original list!

Without further ado, here are the 129 of the reasons why we love ars PARADOXICA:

Helen Partridge, my beautiful, beautiful wife

I just love Kristen’s laugh and it never fails to make me smile.

Mischa’s outros! “Brought to you by the internet:” 

The TimeSwimmers episode. That whole thing was a masterpiece

Sally and Nikhil's friendship

Petra, my sassy troubled daughter

The effort that went into making such a truly unique and ambitious take on time travel-based fiction

Sally, my favorite disaster ace

All of the characters are just so beautifully flawed in their own ways and are so well depicted it’s hard to pick a favorite

Every episode makes me feel SO MANY EMOTIONS

The sound effects are just so well done that I feel like I’m right there with the characters

The subtle yet mind blowing foreshadowing

The way it endlessly inspires me to create fan content

The decryption team, who I don't understand yet love to watch unravel codes

The ability to make us both love and hate a character at the same time as much as we do Esther Roberts.

Jack Wyatt

The sass, and in general wonderful interactions with the fan base on social media.

The schoolyard brawl!

Very obviously not being afraid to have fun with ads/sponsored content.

Actually making me want to listen to the version with ads even though I'm a patron

Buttsticks…

Plasticity

The outro music is simple but so, so good

Lemon drops and Limestone

My curiosity about what Esther wrote in the letter

Golden boi and his devils lettuce

With three episodes left it felt like there was so much story left to be told and such little time to tell it

The generosity to keep us entertained between seasons

The subtle symbolism of Esther's mind being represented with card games

The heart-wrenching ups and downs of Esther and Bridget's relationship

Esther and Sally’s lesbian/aroace solidarity

Bridget, my mom

Sally's #relatable ace anxieties and Nikhil's comforting response

The super cool theme song by Mischa "i do not play piano" Stanton which they apparently HEARD IN A DREAM?!

The found footage pieces between scenes

The amount of detail put into it, and being able to notice new things on each relisten

Easter eggs like QDAM

Seemingly infinite pop culture references

The commitment to posting a transcript for each episode

The GOLDEN BOY smokes the devil’s lettuce?!

The Super LUminal Recursive Processor

All of the machine code names really

Mischa’s wonderful sound design that makes me feel like I’m actually in the location the episode takes place at and made me realize how wonderful podcasts could truly be.

Sally Grissom. The wonderful disaster ace and the first ace rep I ever found.

The sound design of the show, especially the tapes adding to world building, all those clunky sounds.

Sally Grissom, ‘I wonder what would happen if I...’, Mad scientist.

This show has the most complex, humanistic portrayal of aromanticism I’ve ever experienced

I appreciate the aP creators’ dedication to nuanced portrayal of and discussion about violence

All of Curses, of fucking course

Keeping the humanity of people who do bad thing while not trying to justify them

Their commitment to “all killer, no filler”

Reminding me that science is cool, dammit!

Petra is a lovely and nuanced, complex character that I adore with my whole heart and soul.

[BLUE BLUE 09 13 18 15 26 08 04 12 20 24 05 18 14 09 17 04 05 12 01 05 The weather in Tulsa today is: Drought. At the tone, the time will be: 5400 hours]

The creators are so so fantastic and fun! I love that they interact with fans.

Sally is the disaster stoner physicist we all need in our lives. also she’s relatable as hell

The show is not afraid to tackle issues like race, gender, or sexuality and it doesn’t overstep its bounds.

The codes are so fun (even if I don’t understand all of them)!

I love how excited scientists get when they’ve discovered something-it feels like real scientists I know

How Bridget criticizes Sally for making puns under pressure even though she does exactly the same thing

The way characters interact with one another, and grow, and learn, and develop is so fascinating and beautiful.

Plasticity might have been the first podcast episode to make me cry.

I love Sally “I only know anecdotal biology and chemistry” Grissom and how her science knowledge actually makes sense??

As a huge huge physics nerd and aspiring computer scientist, I love love love the way Sally talks about science! It’s like Kristen DiMercurio is narrating my inner monologue!

The thrill of trying to keep up with the diverging timelines

☭S̶͜͞ ̀͜҉̀͢Í͠ ̸̸͟҉X̵͘͢ ̢T̷̶͞ ̢̨͟Y̧̛͘ ̨͟͢ ̴̨͜҉S̷̶͢ ̴͝Í͢͟ ҉̢̛͝X̕͝͝☭

The consideration and dedication shown in not only writing an aro-spec ace character, but addressing issues and worries often faced by people in that community.

The mind-boggling task of trying to piece together everything that’s happening when for all we know every scene could be from a different, rewritten version of the timeline.

Anthony Partridge, the most melodramatic math nerd to ever play Tetris in a bubble outside of time.

The optimism of the show and ultimate faith it shows in both science and humanity, despite all the characters’ failings.

Sally giggling over meeting her future self both times that it happens

Sally’s book (and her attempts at pronouncing NaNoWriMo).

Maggie Elbourne, because as much as I love all my the more morally ambiguous scientists it’s nice to see one who actually stood up to ODAR’s shenanigans almost as soon as she figured out what was up.

Everything about the road trip.

TimeSwimmers was already mentioned but specifically TIME DOLPHIN RYAN LOCHTE

Characters that grow and change and learn

The 77s getting name dropped in Plasticity, way before we knew who they were

Sally calling out the English language for being problematic (“oh, you mean like morally upstanding?”)

“The weather in Tulsa today is: uhh I dunno”.

It has been quite possibly the most human exploration of time travel I’ve ever seen/heard.

Reaching a happy ending I couldn't even imagine

The weather in Tulsa is: sppoookyyy

The ever changing ways the codes were presented in season 3. Giving the feeling that the anchorites were both on the run and broadcasting these messages from different points in time.

Sally’s ace representation is the best I’ve ever seen and it makes me feel so #valid.

The sound design and detail in the writing make me feel like I’m truly immersed in the story, and it feels so authentic. Are you sure you don’t secretly have a timepiece?

The characters are people I CARE about and wanted to cry over during work all the time because they’re all wonderful and I love them.

The integration of the different storylines into Sally’s, especially Petra’s, is amazing.

Petra’s characterization was really well done, and it made me really care about her, even as she was trying to more or less destroy the world.

Out-of-date pop culture references that fit seamlessly into the dialogue despite being from literally a different time period and most of the characters having no idea what it meant. They just added an extra level of hilarious.

You may not actually know a single thing about tachyon fields and gluon walls (are they even real?) but you could definitely convince me that you know exactly what you’re talking about (or at least that Sally Grissom does).

The enDING WAS JUST REALLY WELL DONE AND I LOVE A GOOD CIRCULAR ENDING AND IT MADE ME GENUINELY GO TO THE BATHROOM DURING WORK TO CRY BECAUSE IT WAS JUST BEAUTIFUL.

The fact that the whole show is wrapped up by the revelation that the entire show is actually Nikhil and Mateo curling up with board games and snacks trying to form a story out of these tapes, patching together timelines to make it all cohesive, it just feels very right.

This story fits the medium so well, and so the fact that we don’t learn that Whickman has an EYEPATCH is absolutely wild but also wonderful because as soon as I heard that I knew that that was how it belonged, like of course he has an eyepatch, that’s a very Chet thing to have.

The ending was so perfectly, painfully beautiful. It was the ending we needed but never would have imagined.

Petra’s and Sally’s relationship being so complex and real.

Nikhil and Mateo using the archive to create the framing device for the whole podcast.

The sound the timepiece makes.

The final destruction of the timepiece.

Putting time travel in a Cold War setting makes perfect sense, and they go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

Did anyone mention Helen Partridge as a character? How beautifully she was set up and the fact that she pursued her own her life, and also, how BEAUTIFULLY Susanna Kavee can sing? Because damn.

I just. Really love this show. And everyone involved. So much.

The child characters were really well done-both the actors and the writing felt real.

To me, the show feels a bit like one of those camp friendship bracelets everyone used to make, with all these colors and threads--all of the timelines, woven together, messy but beautiful.

TEETRIS

Grissom’s Gizmo Gals!

Mateo’s non-stop flirting, even in the worst of situations

Sally “It’s Dr Grissom”ed HERSELF.

The way both the story and the characters reflect a complex view on the world with people making horrible decisions and horrible things happening to them, and yet always maintaining a positive outlook, offering the possibility of change and improvement.

The top-notch voice acting from everyone involved, helping to create the wonderful characters we all love.

Sally finger-gunning her way out of a conversation with a pun about a friend almost killing her.

All the minisodes!!

Any time Bridget, Nikhil or Lou acts like they want to adopt Petra

The series ending with two characters who had been at odds coming together

The characterization of the different Petras, because they all seem like different people even though  in fact they are not (and Sylvia deciding she doesn't want to follow the legacy of Petras)

How Kristen can play 2 of the same character and make them sound different (how does she do that???)

Anthony’s will to save everyone, sacrificing himself, when the world didn't do anything good for him…

... and the constant struggle to save his friends (like when he was literally the only one aware of the Anchorites and the way their plan could have ended)

The way the show can go from time travel shenanigans to heartfelt character moments is a real testament to the talent of the writing team.

The Vegas episode, which I listened to after the finale and cried, because they were so happy and naive and everything wasn’t messy and bad and complicated.

The way gun violence is handled by the creators with respect and care

The way PTSD and mental health is handled (through Sally) is beautiful and respectful.

Partridge being named after a bird and living out his life in a cage. YOU GUYS ARE MEAN

Susanna Kavee’s absolutely amazing singing and Tau Zaman’s lyrics are an absolutely combination.

The ceaseless, unwavering commitment to puns

I love how important their friendships are to the characters (well, most of them anyways).

Sally’s conversation with Nikhil in season 3 reflects a lot of common anxieties of aromantic people, and his understanding responses

The entirety of the trial episode, which just really sort of showed the full extent of how terrible the Red Scare was by putting Esther, a Jewish woman, through it, and just shows you how defamed people in that time were.

In so many of the fictional and non-fictional representations of history, marginalized people have diminished, distorted, and stereotypical roles-but not in ars PARADOXICA. Thank you for making so many people feel seen.

All the amazing writers who started it all. 💜

Here are the signatures of some of the fans who contributed: 

Signatures

Lindsay (ioniluna/drsallygrissom)

Khanan Abayev

SJ (your friendly neighborhood slauthor)

Dave (mondas-mania)

Noah (kindadisappointed)

Sana (i-am-delta-s)

Tina (espressonist)

Meaghan (lafgl)

Katherine (Rubywolfsbane)

Artimis (jp-blindperson/ap-blindperson)

Luke (martianboyy)

Ellie (joan-and-jane-and-esther-roberts/shewrites)

Bridge (cornerandchair)

Lem (aceparadoxica)

Esme (starsparadoxica)

Glory (mercutiglo)

Carly (guardianbob)

Emese (mse)

Ben (Q)

Special thanks to the ars PARADOXICA discord for being so helpful! From the time it was just a dozen people with a spork in a shoebox, this community was a shining star that helped me through tough times. Thank you for your silliness, cleverness, and support.

Brought to you by the internet: It’s weird! It’s fun! It loves you very, very much!

[hobbitblogger221b]

Pidge: Breaking the Mold and Inspiring Girls Everywhere

She’s sarcastic, snarky, fun, and absolutely brilliant. It’s Pidge. When it comes to the green paladin, there’s one thing that is constantly overlooked regarding how much of an inspiration our favorite techie is:

Science.

“But wait! Overlooked? Pidge is super smart!”

“Everyone know’s she’s a mad genius. Why is this something we’re all missing?”

“I don’t get it! Isn’t this the one thing EVERYONE knows about Pidge?”

Yes, yes, and yes. 

But let me explain! 

First, for those who don’t know, the original 1984 cartoon Voltron: Defenders of the Universe didn’t have the Pidge we’re familiar with today. In fact, they didn’t even have Katie Holt. Instead, they had a teenage boy named Darrell “Pidge” Stroker as the Green Paladin, and it had been like that ever since. 32 years later, Dreamworks had decided to release a reboot of this classic show titled Voltron: Legendary Defenders. Though nearly everyone in the main cast had some major changes to their character design, the most notable as well as revolutionary was Pidge: by making him a girl!

“They made Pidge a girl! Okay… So what?”

So what?! Making Pidge a girl in the the 2016 Voltron reboot means EVERYTHING! After all, none of this wouldn’t be revolutionary if they still kept her as Darrell Stroker! 

Time for science!

When we think of contributors to science, we often think of people like Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. Rarely ever women! On top of all that, there’s the stereotypical “mad genius” trope with the lab coat and crazy hair (Rick Sanchez and Doc Brown, anyone?). That’s because women aren’t typically associated with scientific fields. Due to stereotypical gender roles, men are typically found in the physical sciences such as chemistry, engineering, and technology because of the stereotype that they are better at math and science than their female counterparts.

Women are often found in the life sciences as well as social sciences. Why? Because the gender roles throughout society have groomed women to be caretakers for as long as societies have been around. It wasn’t until the past century that women began to break stereotypes and enter these male dominated fields. Needless to say, women are still primarily entering the life sciences such as biology and the medical field as well as the social sciences. Why? Because women are stereotypically more caring and compassionate than men. Occupations in those fields are popular because they cater to those stereotypes.

Of course, those are all stereotypes, the barriers in fields of study between men and women. We’re gradually seeing more and more men in the life sciences (medical field, biology, etc) but women still tend to stick to professions that allow them to work with other people constantly.

Let’s look at the evidence.

This graph displays the percentages of men and women and various science fields from 2004-2014. What’s looking a little rough here is the lack of female involvement in STEM. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. I’m pretty sure we all know where Pidge lies in all of this. The percentage of women in these fields isn’t all that surprising due to the stereotypes and traditional gender roles:

Mathematics- 42%

Physical Sciences- 39%

Earth, Atmospheric, and Ocean Sciences-38%

Engineering- 19%

Computer Sciences- 18%

18% OF COMPUTER SCIENTISTS ARE WOMEN!!!

These figures are only two years before Voltron: Legendary Defenders premiered in 2016. If a lightbulb hasn’t gone off before, hopefully it has now! This is PIDGE we’re talking about here- a girl who hacked the Galaxy Garrison, builds robots and computers for fun as well as her own research, and can rewire robots made from a technology she has never seen before on the spot! I mean, it isn’t exactly common that you see a 15 year old girl just building computers and rewiring robots…. Not to mention that when our favorite techie was stranded on a trash planet, she created her own satellite from scratch to contact everyone powered only by her lion! And on top of that, Pidge isn’t afraid to kick butt and use her bayard on the front lines. Talk about girl power! 

“So…. Aside from being in the 18%, why is Pidge such an inspiration?”

As we know, Pidge’s family delves deep into the science world! After all, her brother Matt as well as their father Commander Samuel Holt would most likely fall in the Earth and Space sciences. Pretty cool if you ask me. People love them, and no one thinks twice. Why? because they’re male.

Pidge, on the other hand, is a young female finding her way into the world and just as deep into science as the rest of her family. However, this leads to constant teasing and bullying from her peers in school. Every time she gives valuable input to add to the class, a male student immediately shoots her down and calls her a nerd in the most derogatory way- resulting in the entire class laughing at her and a hurt Katie Holt.

Though it may not be from ridicule, there is reason after reason why young girls don’t pursue the physical sciences! 

“I’m not good at math/science.”

“I used to like math/science, but [insert person here] ruined it for me.”

“It’s too hard.”

“My friends will think I’m a nerd.”

“I don’t want my friends to know how smart I really am.”

And so on. The excuses go on and on! Regardless of the ridicule at school every single day, Pidge still persisted and pursued her passion. In fact, watching her brother, her role model, get into the Galaxy Garrison only makes Pidge that much more determined to prove everyone wrong!

“What are you doing?”

“Studying! So I can get into the Garrison like you and dad!”

“If you’re too worried about what can go wrong, you’ll miss your chance to do something great.”- Commander Samuel Holt

THIS is the reason why Pidge is such an inspiration and role model to young girls and teenagers everywhere- to pursue your passions, even if what you love isn’t exactly the norm. She proves that it’s cool for girls to smash the stereotypes, dive into the physical sciences despite the challenges along the way, and how cool it really is! 

To all of you girls out there, especially those in middle and high school, please don’t give up. If you used to adore science but someone ruined it for you, explore. Remember why you used to love it and use that for a platform of discovery. If you enjoy math and science but aren’t good at it, get help. Ask your teachers, friends, anyone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you’re struggling. If this is something you enjoy, practice will only help you get better. Don’t scratch your passion simply because you’re not good at it. To all of you thinking it’s not cool or that it’s embarrassing to show how smart you are, look at Pidge! She was so passionate about the physical sciences that she refused to let her peers keep her down. 

Stay curious, stay true to yourself, stay bold. Let’s turn the tables and get more women into the physical sciences. 

If you are willing to share your story, whether it be how you persisted, why you gave up, or anything in between, use the hashtag to encourage others to hang in there and pursue their passions.

#dosomethinggreat

Seminars can be found here and will be posted weekly on Wednesdays EST.

[aiweirdness]

Slashdot headlines written by neural network

The news site Slashdot (“news for nerds, stuff that matters”) is celebrating its 20 year anniversary this October. What could be geekier than celebrating with the help of an open-source neural network?

Neural networks are a type of machine learning program that learn by example, rather than by a human programmer feeding them rules. Whatever the headlines contain, whatever common words and rhythms, a neural network will do its best to imitate. I’ve trained an open-source neural network called char-rnn to imitate all kinds of human things, like paint colors, guinea pig names, and craft beer names.

Slashdot sent me a list of all the headlines they’ve ever run, over 162,000 in all, and asked me to train a neural network to try to generate more.

I used a neural network called char-rnn, an open-source neural network by Andrej Karpathy, and trained it separately on the first and second decades of Slashdot headlines. Let’s see what it learned!

Decade 1: 1998 – 2007

Alternuting Your Computer The Internet Spectrum Violated Microsoft To Develop Programming Law Star Trek Creates Free Memory Launching the Linux Group Socially Microsoft Releases New Months More Pong Users for Kernel Project Nintendo Goes Canadian Edition to Customers New State of Second Life Sexual Security To Allow Australia Programming Supercomputer Library In Star Wars What are The Final Fantasy Review of the Wireless Monster? Portable Mail With Spidey Law New 5400 GPL Formed into An Internet Dvorak on Mario Games? Half-Life 2X Speed Released Ban Manhunt 2 Better than Linux? Vista Releases Denial of the Mumble New Company Revises Super-Things For Problems The Dead of Managing Moneys? Judge Releases Sony Practices in Death Doom's On Worldwire Networks Sun Releases Enterprise in Smackware I Wants To Control of the Net Nintendo Can Start in the Wild Button? Secondors Talk Open Source For Super-Bork? AOL On Beam Doubt

Some familiar personalities of the tech industry make an appearance:

Microsoft Releases Bill Gates Service Start Steve Jobs To Be Good Shatner Awards Up Towards A Game Car Challenge

Cell phones appear to be have been weird in the early days:

Stem Cell Phone Standards in Space Why Are Blow Systems Taking Your Phone? New Unreal Tournament Phone Reviews Doubts Forget To Support Flat Spam Phone

And you find companies doing rather unexpected things: 

Microsoft Announces Mac OS X Released Intel Releasing Linux In A Networks Sun Upgrades Apple Devices Corel Launches $100 Laptop Microsoft Announces Firefox Portal Mozilla's Audio Caroffice Apple Finally Launches Microsoft

I produced the above headlines by allowing the neural network a high creativity setting, so it could range over many different headline topics that it’s seen over and over. But it’s also fun to turn the creativity down near zero, so the neural network can try to generate the most quintessential headlines:

All The Company Programming Software Software? Some Computer Computer Solution of the New Company Computer More Anti-Spam For Software Computer Mac OS X Interview with Linux Computer Mac OS X Accused of the Business Sony Plans To Start Patent System For All Time Security Hole For Security Hole Security Hole in the Star Trek Computer Computer Computer Computer Software?

Decade 2: 2007 – 2017

The neural network had a tougher time with decade 2 – it seems the headlines became longer and more complex, as Slashdot experimented with new formats and new topics.  The neural network struggled to create grammatical headlines as a result. But it still did its best to reflect the new topics of the last decade. Compared to the late 1990s and early 2000s, some companies and topics disappeared, while the coverage of Apple in particular exploded. Star Trek and Star Wars, however, remain perennial Slashdot favorites. Here are some neural network-generated headlines for 2007-2017:

Twitter Discovered In the Pirate Bay Google Bacon Medal To Contract Computational Lab Scientists Discover Free Wi-Fi Store In the US Steve Jobs Sues Death of the Future Apple Seeks To Be Become Windows 10 Has Been Control the Desktops Stanford Computer Scientists Develop Super Man Sales For Computer Science Star Wars Hacked In Life On the iPhone Computer Finds Court Broke Math For Secret Company How Do You Design To Stay Them Bomb Ask Slashdot: How Clinton Uses Display For Android Chips On Netflix Court From the Jobs People 'Fork" At a Flaw Refused The Pirate Bay Tracking Storage Security For Windows 10 German Porn Update To Compete At CNSR Healthy Court Says Supreme Court Can Be Lingeries Apple Says the Moon Project To Pay $1.7 Billion For Free Software Steve Jobs Allowed To Deal With Solar Power Apple Sues Apple To Get Flash Mathematics Microsoft Slashdot: How To Build a Bad Privacy For Windows 10 Twitter That We Use Facebook To Receive The Life Linux Kernel 3.1.0 Launches In Late, Facebook To Sue Star Trek The One-Department For Alleged For Connectivity: 3-D Printed Baby Black Hole Proposed

My favorite part, though? The Slashdot headlines that appeared to come from an alternate, much more advanced, somewhat terrifying timeline:

Google Returns To the Space Station Mac OS X Project Announces Space Station Sony Announces Mars Rover Release Google Patents Intelligent Space Telescope Officials Release Android Apps For New Space Telescope Star Trek Control of the Wild Start Up Scientists Army Interviewed Company Computer Releases Cloning Crime Building A Nano-Tech Back Full Life On The Linux Chernobyl Announces Company And Educators SGI Launches Space Station FreeBSD Base Scientific Hits the Moon Red Hat Releases Linux Games And Moon Apple's Moon Review About New Moons of a Company Looking For Mars Landers to Linux Mars Rover Set for Alien China Congress To Buy Mars Mister Building a Top 100 Company For Mars Apple Considering Debut in People Processors Apple vs. Biology Details An Android Bans Secret Project For Console Devices Your Own Portals U.S. Considering Death of the Solar System Black Holes from Digital Dell Black Hole Sension of the Linux Microsoft's Lab Changes "Space" IBM Moves to The Matrix Super Planet Wars Solved

The quintessential headline, though? When I trained the neural network with all 20 years of Slashdot headlines, then turned down the creativity level to near zero, I reveal the following essential Slashdot headlines, distilled from 20 years of technology news:

Sun Sues Open Source Project Content Sun Sues Anti-Spam Computers Sun Sues Security Flaw Contest Sun Sues New Star Trek To Stop The Math Sun Sues Anti-Spam Standards And The Star Wars To Stop Computers Star Wars Companies Are Streaming the Star Wars Star Wars To Support Linux Development Apple Settles The Future of Star Wars Apple Releases Secure State of the World Apple Sues Apple To Start The Solar Power Project Sony Sues Apple Server For Seconds Off From SpaceX Project Ask Slashdot: Do We Want To Be the Computers? The Desist of the Planet

[360digitmg-dataanalyticscourse]

The Way To Become A Data Scientist?

On average, nevertheless, data scientists make very comfortable salaries. In 2020 within the US, the common data scientist wage is more than US$one hundred twenty,000 per 12 months. Experienced data scientists with administration abilities can move into Director of Data Science and comparable director- and executive-stage roles. From there, extra experienced data scientists can look for Senior Data Scientist roles. Depending on the scale of the company, data scientists may be responsible for this whole data life cycle, or they might concentrate on a particular portion of the life cycle as part of a larger data science staff. Data science is vast, attention-grabbing, and rewarding subject to review and be a part of.

pandas supplies an excessive-performance data construction (called a "DataFrame '') that is appropriate for tabular data with columns of various varieties, just like an Excel spreadsheet or SQL desk. It includes instruments for reading and writing data, dealing with missing data, filtering data, cleansing messy data, merging datasets, visualizing data, and a lot extra. In brief, studying pandas will considerably enhance your efficiency when working with data. Instead, you must give attention to learning one language and its ecosystem of best data science training in hyderabad. If you've chosen Python , you might wish to contemplate installing the Anaconda distribution as a result of it simplifies the process of package setup and management on Windows, OSX, and Linux. At least, till the world finds one thing higher than data and data for doing each and every thing that depends on them, which is, after all, a really impractical chance.

Moreover, we can watch movies whenever we want, since we're provided with lifetime access to self-studying movies. Data scientists create data-pushed enterprise options and analytics by driving optimization and improvement of product growth. They use predictive modeling to extend and optimize customer experiences, income era, advert concentrating on, and extra. Data scientists additionally coordinate with totally different practical teams to implement models and monitor outcomes. Learn introductory programming and data analysis in MATLAB, with functions to biology and medication. Data Science Central and 360DigiTMG – Data Science Central and 360DigiTMG are good assets for staying at the forefront of industry tendencies in data science.

Salary website PayScale examined the median wage and determined that a data scientist within the 50th percentile can expect to earn $ninety,807 a year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics , which refers back to the broader occupation as "computer and data scientists," lists the median annual wage as $114,520. Virtually all industries harness the ability of data in a technique or one other. Skilled data scientists are prized by health care corporations, ecommerce companies, monetary companies, social networks and science-primarily based organizations like drug corporations. Start your journey right now within the GetEducated online degree database. Similar careers additionally embrace software program development, computer community architects, database directors, data analysts, and data safety analysts. Any profession that makes use of pc expertise, info analysis, or forecasting could possibly be a possible home for anybody trained or experienced in big data.

I might clear the 360DigiTMG Data Scientist certification exam within the first attempt. In this project, you need to work with a number of operators concerned in R programming together with relational operators, arithmetic operators, and logical operators for various organizational wants. In this project, you'll use the banking dataset for data analysis, data cleansing, data preprocessing, and data visualization.

It additionally helps data scientists to handle advanced unstructured data units. As a data scientist, you could encounter a state of affairs where the quantity of data you have exceeds the memory of your system or you need to send data to totally different servers, this is where Hadoop comes in. You can use Hadoop to rapidly convey data to various factors on a system. You can use Hadoop for data exploration, data filtration, data sampling and summarization. Because of its versatility, you can use Python for almost all the steps involved in data science processes. It can take various formats of data and you may easily import SQL tables into your code. It lets you create datasets and you'll literally discover any sort of dataset you want on Google.

It is a really delicate area as there is a massive catch- without correct utilization of assets and poor administration, data science is sure to give outcomes which are spectacular failures. Data scientists are well-revered nerds who are integral to the workings of an organization. Data visualization is necessary for presenting the inference to laymen for them to easily understand the end result. As a data scientist one should have the ability to talk successfully about your findings, recommendations, and the plan of motion.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics just recently released a report that reveals how the job market is tightening. If you’re looking for a steady business that isn’t going wherever anytime soon, data science is an excellent selection. machine learning course, college students are launched to various techniques and concepts, such as mathematical and heuristic aspects, supervised and unsupervised learning, algorithm improvement and arms-on modeling.

Although these two areas mix related abilities and share widespread targets , they are unique in one clear facet. Data science, which is a newer subject, is closely based on the usage of computer systems and expertise. It accesses data from massive databases, uses code to govern data, and visualizes numbers in a digital format. Let’s take a look at a fairly typical example of a data scientist in motion.

Experts already feel it as one of the highest-paying careers of the twenty-first century. Governments, in addition to private organisations, are on the lookout for competent Data Scientists and there exists a scarcity of the same. India is the second most prominent hub of such positions after the United States. So, data science is a highly employable and appealing sector as per the present industry tendencies. Technically you don’t have to know this to be a data scientist, however becoming a better software developer makes you a better data scientist, and it's so useful to know the way to construct your individual internet apps. Eric GrimsonThis is a very glorious course by professor Eric Grimson from MIT.

Data science is a subject of research. The place data is analyzed using some specific parameters and a call is taken primarily based on the pattern and outcomes which are generated by the evaluation. It is an interdisciplinary science that's about using scientific methods, algorithms and processes to check the out there data and gain data from it.

You’ll want many skills, a wide range of data, and a passion for data to turn out to be an effective data scientist that companies need to rent, and it’ll take longer than the hyped up YouTube movies claim. Essentially, it comes right down to doing what you’re studying, i.e. if you take a course and learn a talent, apply it to a real project instantly. Working via real-world projects that you are genuinely thinking about helps solidify your understanding and supplies you with proof that you know what you’re doing. This is one of the most extremely rated programs dedicated to the precise arithmetic used in ML. Take this course when you’re uncomfortable with the linear algebra and calculus required for machine studying, and you’ll save some time over other, extra generic math programs. Lastly, should you’re extra thinking about studying data science with R, then positively take a look at Dataquest’s new Data Analyst in R path. The Dataquest subscription gives you access to all paths on their platform, so you possibly can learn R or Python (or each!).

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[itsjesperfahey]

modern soc au

inej: 

loves to dance !!! esp ballet but she can dance to whatever tbfh, she’s that good 

likes to wear caps, esp backwards. really loves bomber jackets too. 

has a couple, small tattoos dedicated to her saints 

is that one kid who loves to do parkour (both ironically and unironically) for instance is really good at it but sometimes just yells PARKOUR and steps over a rock

usually found eating lunch with her pals on the roof of the school 

is amazing at hide and seek like holy fuck ????? hid for 2 hours once and wasn’t found, came back the next day and was like “y'all losers SUCK" 

loves to study other people’s cultures, as well as history and is great as p.e (never has gotten a bad grade in the flexibility tests) 

likes to read poem books 

has a black cat as a pet named "saint" 

pronounced meme as "mehmeh” the first time she read it 

only has snapchat and instagram. is that kid who ALWAYS posts the sunset every day, esp from weird/high places and the comments are always “HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET UP THERE" 

cried the most during fox and the hound 

always braiding nina’s hair. Knows how to do all the super advanced onces as well

"I don’t know, CAN YOU?" 

 the best one at pushing people on the swings 

AMAZING AT JUST DANCE WITH JESPER 

"sorry I ran out of fucks to give try again later maybe?" 

gives the nicest presents. always knows what a person wants for christmas/their birthday 

the one who’s really into photography and is always taking aesthetic™ pics of Nina for her social media accounts 

Prefers tea over coffee

wylan:

bullied for not being able to read (at least up until high school), so is super shy 

loves drawing. the artistic™ one who takes anatomy to be able to draw people better 

MASTER FLUTE MUSICIAN. On the school band. Jams hard af when he plays it 

is in gem math and AP chem with kuwei. 

loves sweet. addicted to blue jolly ranchers. his tongue is always blue 

constantly pushing up his thick rimmed glasses (even if they ain’t on, which causes him to poke his eye)

looooves all the superhero shows on the CW 

V neck sweaters. always

always has his trusty satchel

only has tumblr. has like 10k followers because of his artwork. 

”‘illuminati’ ? is that a band?“ 

cat person even though he’s allergic to cat fur. absolutely adores inej’s cat. settles for owning a horned lizard named "shrek" 

secretly a huge fan of memes 

really gay for tom holland and ed sheeran (calls him "ginger Jesus”) 

gamer with jesper. they always play overwatch together, wylans better tho. a genji and Ana main 

cried the most during big hero six 

wylan, with blank eyes: “I like my coffee how I like my men” // jesper: *spits out his drink* 

matthias: 

sports fan obv. On the schools hockey team bc his fav is hockey. is extremely competitive when he plays it. Is constantly checking but never gets penalties (aka slamming the other players against the walls)

played basketball against jesper and surprisingly lost. jesper won’t let it go 

dog person. owns a pet pomsky (Pomeranian-husky) with nina who’s name is “bub" 

“long hair don’t care”draws inspiration from Harry styles 

really philosophical. takes all the philosophy/ethics classes available 

kind of sounds like Thor (thick and deep accent) 

a good™

"you’re all horrible trash”

“do we really have to be doing this now? I have to finish my homework" 

loves baking. bakes everything for the love of his life 

grey sweatshirts and adidas shoes 

wears contacts Because he hates how glasses look on him. only wears them when he’s home 

oblivious to all the women in love with him

"CAN YOU EVEN LIFT BRO? BECAUSE I SURE AS FRICK CAN” (doesn’t curse) 

real 👍🏻🤘🏻👌🏻life🤰🏻👼🏻🌱student📚✂️✏️athelete🏃🏼🥇🏆🥅🏒

has Facebook and Twitter only

cried the most during bambi and dumbo 

little spoon™ 

has a couple tattoos with very deep meanings

jesper: 

dancer with inej. dances like those ppl who look like robots ??? the ones who look like they freeze parts of their body while the others move. AMAZING at it 

loves jazz but also dubstep/edm and rap/r&b. Beyoncé is MOM/QUEEN. 

sometimes djs parties 

again, huge gamer with wylan. he’s a lucio and junkrat main for overwatch. loves like every video game ever 

loves all the marvel movies, in love with black panther (was team cap) 

dresses like a hipster but also sometimes a fuck boy (tank tops and shorts with a backwards cap style) 

favorite subject is business and debate. great negotiator 

cried the most during the lion king 

A+ cosplayer (especially his lucio cosplay) 

big supporter of human rights (LGBTA+, feminist, black lives matter, poc representation). Will LITERALLY get into fights over anyone who thinks otherwise. Fist fights, always supported by Kaz and Matthias. Got suspended for 3 days for breaking a kids nose who thought LGBTA+ people should **** ** ****) 

that one kid who has 50 fidget spinners and can do cool tricks with them. also manages to sell all of them 

skateboard pro™ 

always sends the blinking face meme, even if it’s out of context 

all the social medias. 

one tattoo only of a gun with a 'bang’ flag coming out of it 

nina: 

 PROFESSIONAL👏🏻 MAKE 👏🏻 UP 👏🏻 ARTISTS 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 HAS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FOLLOWERS ON HER INSTAGRAM AND THE SAME FOR HER YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

Speaking of YouTube, she always does cute videos. Baking/cooking tutorial videos featuring Matthias, 'i do my boyfriends makeup’, 'my boyfriend does my makeup’, 'my boyfriend buys my makeup’, does make up tutorials obviously, challenges with her best friend inej like the 'whisper challenge’. everyone loves her and says her and Matthias are their otp 

loves fashion design, takes that class. 

loves horror movies/creepy things but also Disney 

great at roller skating 

always wins the best dressed awards ad school 

also huge fan of ed sheeran. loves little mix more than 5h. 

cried the most during 'up' 

Can speak like 4 languages (English, french, Latin and spanish) 

loves traveling and learning about new cultures too 

dancer!inej’s biggest fan and hockey!matthias’ biggest fan 

always breaks snapchat streaks 

likes to (friendly) debate with jesper, especially over stupid things 

amazing with kids. babysits all the time. calls “bub” (the dog) her and matthias’ baby 

big spoon™ 

notes are so fucking pretty. buys the most expensive stationary and notebooks 

also huge supporter of human rights. runs the feminist club. (Jesper is the Vice President) stresses loving yourself and your body, and makes sure to design comfortable yet GORGEOUS clothes for “"plus sized people”“ 

wins 'dynamic duo’ award with inej 

always eating lollipops 

has a few very small tatos of cute things like roses and crowns. has one quote written in cursive on her rib

kaz: 

prefers black coffee as well 

loves crime shows, whether they’re real or fake. for instance loves both 'Dateline’ and 'Criminal Minds’ also loves 'House’

 favorite class is psychology, learning how a person thinks and acts and feels

has the dregs tattoo on his arm * edge lord 9000™ * such a drama queen and diva like damn 

*deep sigh* "I think I’d rather go take a nap” *gets up and leaves* 

also loves computer science. knows how to hack shit like a pro 

always rough housing with jesper. broke a table once 

does walk with a cane. likes to slap matthias’ ass with it 

“bow down you fucking peasants" 

only types in lower case with 0 emojis and no punctuation marks. CONSTANTLY leaves people on read 

only has Twitter and snapchat. His posts on snapchat never have captions, yet somehow has a 200 day streak with Jesper and a 250 day streak with inej 

loves watching horror movies with nina 

 *in a fight* "oh I’ll sHOW YOU SOME DIRTY HANDS” *swings* 

gets second place for best dressed award 

always sending memes with no context in their group chat, as well as vines 

indie and alternative rock fan 

“does it look like I care because I’m sorry if it does I didn’t mean to give you that impression" 

head over heels for inej Ghafa like wow 

likes to read a lot of mystery books and non fiction books 

cried the most during finding dory 

can solve a Rubik’s cube under a minute and won’t let you forget it 

The one asshole who picks either Kirby or metaknight in super smash brothers brawl

 hates seeing the notification bubble so he always has all chats muted and notifications turned off for apps 

kiss ass to all the teachers to get them A’s

Kuwei: 

SCIENCE NERD. ALWAYS singing the bill nye theme song. Loves ASAPScience on YouTube. Master at chemistry and biology 

"hey did u know bill nye is, like, my dad" 

nina treats him like a baby 

loves everything to do with Star Wars while wylan loves star trek more. Fighting ensues. 

has a pet Siamese cat name sparky 

Used to have a huge crush on jesper and everyone knew it except jesper. 

knows the intro to the bee movie ("according to all known laws of aviation-”)

 jesper in the group chat: “gonna go shower be right back” // kuwei: “without me ;)?” // wylan: “KUWEI SWEAR TO FUCK” // kaz: “watch your fucking language wylan" 

obsessed with Pokémon go even if it died out (chose team instinct) 

"fight me on this" 

has Twitter, snapchat and instagram 

Always drinking ginger ale 

master at bop it 

the one kid who always forgets to pay you back for stuff 

is also into the CW super hero shows, so him and wylan are constantly talking about it 

loves cartoons and anime 

speaks fluent fuckboy 

God awful at comebacks 

"let’s take a selfie guys !!!” // “kuwei no-” // *snapshot sound* 

talks !!! Like !! This !!!! for,,, some reason ???????? 

huge nerd for other things too like lord of the rings and Harry Potter and game of thrones 

cried the most during inside out

 "do you think planes are scared of heights?“ // "for fucks same kuwei it’s 4am”

[kookingtae]

falling into you (pt. 4)

pt. 1 | pt. 2 | pt. 3 | pt. 5 | pt. 6 | pt. 7

→scenario: Jungkook’s innocence is like a breath of fresh air in your wild life, and though you know you’re toxic for him, you just can’t seem to stay away.

→genre: college au, slow burn, mutual pining, shy/nerd jk + bad girl oc (mature themes)

→word count: 11,663

You made sure that was not the last time Jungkook ever saw you.

Oh no, after he all but kicked you out of his dorm when you leaned forward for what was your attempt at a kiss, even tried to fumble out an invitation to a date—a date that was your sole purpose for trying to find him that night in the first place—you made sure that he wasn’t getting away that easily.

Which was why the next time that you saw him outside his chemistry class, (you had actually started going to your biology class now that you knew it was at the same time and in the same building as his), you tried to walk with him.

No awkward standing and staring, no questions of parties or dates, no uncomfortable physical contact. Just simply walking and talking about your day, the weather, his class—anything for him to feel remotely comfortable in your presence. Though that was no simple task given that the very first time he saw you since the night you left his dorm room, standing there with one foot against the white walls waiting for him to exit, he fled right past you.

“Jungkook, wait!” You called out, not caring about the glances you received from those passing by in the hall. Your eyes were only focused on the back of Jungkook’s head as you watched him take off down the steps and out of your sight.

So, you tried again.

Class only partook on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning that you had to wait one day before you saw him again—that is, unless you surprised him outside his night class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays again, which you had decided against for now. But you made sure that when you did see him, or rather, he saw you, you were in the same position: foot propped up on the wall you were leaning against outside his classroom, arms crossed over your chest, waiting for him.

Jungkook held your gaze for longer than he had the first time; last time he hardly even gave you a second glance before he was practically hurdling himself over the railing of the stairwell. But this time his steps slowed, the familiar stutter of his footwork making an appearance before he quickly seemed to come to a conclusion in his mind and sped off again.

You didn’t give up easily.

The third day Jungkook saw you in the same exact position outside of his chemistry class, you assumed that he had had enough, because he was finally walking over and leading you out of the crowd of students to a more secluded area off to the side of the hall.

“What do you want from me?” He asked, almost frantic-like, a mix of frustration and fear in his voice that you knew you shouldn’t have been surprised to hear. But somehow, you were.

You swallowed your guilt and forced yourself to wear a confident facade. “Have you been avoiding me, Jungkook?” You asked, a smirk growing on your lips as you smugly crossed your arms over your chest.

Jungkook gulped, a look akin to that of pain flashing in his eyes before it was quickly replaced with more frustration. “Have you been following me?” He shot back.

Now it was your turn to gulp; when you did, only a heavy lump inside your dry throat was what you were greeted with, and you couldn’t help but wonder if Jungkook’s bodily functions had the same natural reactions as yours when you were around each other.

But then you thought about how he was cornering you, so angry and annoyed at your presence that all you could manage to do in that moment was cower away in shame and embarrassment—two words that have definitely never been used to describe you before.

“I just wanted to walk with you, Jungkook,” you held your hands up in front of you defensively. “That’s all, I swear.”

Jungkook looked as if he was opening his mouth to say something, but then it closed, and then he opened it just to shut it again. The movement paired with his big, round eyes reminded you of a guppy fish out of water, gasping for the sweet liquid to fill his gills and save him from an eternal death within the toxic oxygen that surrounded him.

You hoped the mental image wasn’t a metaphor for your current situation.

“Come on, it’s not that big of a deal,” you playfully rolled your eyes and reached down to grab his hand before stopping short after seeing how he flinched away.

Were you really that much of a monster?

And just as you were getting ready to call it off, to shake your head and apologize for wasting his time before turning away, letting the mortification swallow you whole and the rejection eat you alive, he started walking.

His pace was casual, slow. Any innocent bystander would’ve mistaken the act for a stroll in the park. And he was heading towards the stairs, his head low and to the side as if he was checking his peripheral vision to see if you were following him.

You had never caught up to someone so quickly in your entire life.

From there, you and Jungkook started walking together often. To and from your science classes, to and from his math class, to and from his art class—pretty much to and from his entire schedule. You, on the other hand, would dip out right after he disappeared beyond the threshold of a closed door to skip class with your friends again. Maybe drive to get some food with the windows rolled down in the old, rundown car Namjoon drove with what you swore in that moment was the most serious case of the munchies you’d ever had in your life—maybe drink in someone’s dingy studio apartment right outside of campus only to return to the old oak tree and drunkenly laugh at all the people passing by the park even though nothing was ever that funny.

Your friends began to realize that you had it bad when you started foregoing their usual shenanigans and instead stayed sober on the days you would walk with Jungkook.

“Why don’t you just invite him over?” Hoseok grumbled one day when all of you were sprawled out under the tree (them, high as a kite, and you, clean while waiting for Jungkook to get out of computational mathematics).

At that, you scrunched your eyebrows in confusion. “Over here? To the tree?” You leaned up on your forearms to get a better look at him.

“Might as well,” Taehyung chimed in, covering his eyes with his arm and curling up his lip at the beaming sunlight. “You’ve been spending enough time with him anyways.”

You gave him an incredulous look. “Walking with him in passing is not spending too much time with him.”

“I didn’t say too much, I said enough,” he pointed out before pushing himself up as well. His face was now sufficiently covered by the shading of the leaves to where he could look at you without squinting. “He already went to that party, right? A little downtime with us couldn’t hurt.”

“Um, he left that party, in case you don’t remember,” you corrected him grimly.

“No, I don’t remember, because only you could remember shit like that,” Tae chuckled lightheartedly. “We were all wasted out of our minds—as were you, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yeah, and that was the problem,” You frowned, sitting up and resting your elbows on your knees. “I made out with someone else right in front of him.”

“So? You two aren’t dating,” Lynn interjected on the other side of Tae. She then propped herself up on her forearms, mirroring your earlier position. “Since when have you ever cared about who you made out with?”

“I–” you stopped yourself short, the palms of your hands prickling with heat before you swallowed. “I don’t.”

“Then shut the fuck up about it and invite him over here if you want,” she said before closing her eyes and laying back down again. Though her words were harsh, you knew they held no animosity; Lynn’s blunt honesty was something you always valued and appreciated in your friendship.

You didn’t reply, choosing to remain silent and contemplate over your decision. Of course you weren’t against trying—the whole foundation of your relationship with him was built on your persistence—but you couldn’t be sure that Jungkook would accept. Though if you had learned anything about the quiet boy, it was to expect the unexpected at the most unexpected of times.

•••

Once 12:15 struck and his math class had finished (you were ashamed to admit you had his schedule memorized better than your own), you waltzed your way over to the building doors and waited for the boy who competed with the sun in the sky to emerge. And when he did, every time you saw him was like seeing him for the very first time, the wind knocked from your lungs and in awe, shock, and complete and utter confusion as to how someone could possibly be as beautiful, truly beautiful, as he.

“Hey,” an involuntary smile sprung to your lips as you greeted him, and you noted with an internal giggle that he still avoided your eyes the same way he had the first day you met him.

“H–hey,” he bowed, as if the casual greeting sounded so foreign and absurd leaving his mouth that he had to throw in a formal gesture just to make up for it.

You chose to ignore this and started walking rather than pressing it like you normally would’ve, statements of after all this time you still won’t look at me and you know you don’t have to be so formal with me on the tip of your tongue. But you held yourself back for his sake and your own.

“How was class?” You asked, hoping to lighten up the conversation enough to lead into the invitation.

He answered simply, “it was good,” and then there was silence.

You clasped your hands behind your back while you walked and bit your lip, heat emanating from his presence beside you and adding more pressure than your nerves could handle, each one individually shriveling up for dead the more the seconds passed.

“What are you going to do now?” You tried to keep your tone casual and inconspicuous.

You watched as Jungkook shrugged, the simple act driving your heart to madness. “Probably eat lunch back in my dorm and study for my next class,” he managed.

“But your next class isn’t until tonight,” you pointed out. “Do you have a test or something?”

“No.”

At that you were silent, completely taken aback by how different your lifestyles were. You didn’t think you’d ever studied a day in your life… this boy studied for fun. You eyed him then, fixated on the way his perfectly small lips were perched together and his nose would scrunch up every so often with a sniffle. He was looking down at the ground, his hands wrapped around both straps of his red book bag; you had never seen anything so flawless.

You knew if you didn’t act now you’d be caught staring sooner or later, and getting lost in your thoughts of wonder and amazement by him was very, very easy to do.

“Well my friends and I are hanging out by a tree in the commons; you can study there if you want?”

His abrupt stop had you skidding to a halt, scrunching your eyebrows in confusion and turning around to face him. He was wearing an expression of alarm, apprehension, and you could already feel the fear that he would decline prickling at the base of your palms.

“It will only be for a little while,” you rushed to alleviate any concerns he had, “and you can get up and leave at any moment.”

“I work better alone,” Jungkook said, startling you at his abrupt tone.

You were at a loss of words at this. “Yeah I know, but…” you paused, in thought of something to say and feeling as if you were grasping at straws. “We could help you study! What’s your class again, art? Tae takes that class; he could be your study buddy.”

In all actuality, you didn’t have a clue if Taehyung was in that class; he might’ve actually completed it years ago, come to think of it. But that wasn’t the point. Taehyung was the one who had talked Jungkook into going to the party, so he was your only hope. Maybe the two boys had taken a liking to each other when they arrived at the frat house together.

“I told you, I work better alone. I don’t want a study buddy.”

Jungkook’s voice shattered all hopeful thoughts that danced in your mind, causing them to crash to the ground with the same weight as his blunt, harsh words. But as you looked more closely at his face, all you could see were heavy gulps racking at his throat and nervous ticks taking over his fingers as he toyed with the material of the book bag, or his shirt—anything he could get his hands on, really. And was that the faint glistening of a nervous sweat that had started to form in the depths of his hairline?

You ignored the wave of intense, scorching heat that flooded your core and boiled your insides at the discovery of the latter, instead choosing to piece together whatever few words you could remember at the moment to form an argument.

“You don’t want one, but even you can’t deny it, Jungkook: professors say studying with peers helps improve your grade.”

Jungkook opened his mouth as if he was going to disagree, but all it took was a slight pause for you to know that he knew you were right. You smiled, proud of yourself for being able to stump his logical brain. And you had just come up with that on the spot; you had no idea if that’s what professors said, but apparently they do because it was enough to make Jungkook fall silent—though that wasn’t really a difficult task to accomplish.

“Come on, Jungkook,” you rounded on him before he could come up with another excuse, causing him to skid to a halt and stare at you with wide eyes at your sudden proximity. “One time,” you continued, “and if you don’t like it, you can leave.” You looked over your shoulder where you could just make out your friends lying underneath the tree. “I promise they’re not as bad as they seemed at the party.”

He seemed to contemplate it then, looking back and forth between you and the tree with an expression of such deep analysis that one would’ve thought you’d just asked him to make a life or death decision. You didn’t understand what was so hard about it, unless he just really, really despised you. But before you could worry yourself with that thought any further, he was opening his mouth to reply, his voice timid and apprehensive.

“Fine.”

•••

“Hey guys, um… you remember Jungkook.”

When he finally accepted your offer, you thought your heart would burst right then, leaping into the sky and exploding into a thousands stars that cascaded around you, shedding light onto your skin and making it sparkle with almost as much beauty as the boy standing next to you. It was all you could do to keep from grabbing his hand and sprinting to the oak tree, excitement pulsing through your veins to finally formally introduce to your friends the one who has turned your world upside down.

“Jungkook! What’s up man?” Taehyung leapt up and took his hand, keeping their last awkward greeting in mind before shaking it with ease. Your eyes gleamed as you watched them, your best friend with the most extraordinary person you’d ever met, and only then was your trance interrupted by the clearing of a throat.

You turned to see the others looking at you expectantly, as if waiting to be introduced. “Oh! Um,” you turned to get Jungkook’s attention, careful not to touch him since you knew physical contact made him squeamish. “Jungkook, this is Hoseok, Kate, Suzy, Jimin, Lynn, Namjoon, and Yoongi.” You lingered on your last friend, his eyes piercing through your skull as if to say so this is the boy.

You swallowed before turning back to Jungkook, his eyes wide and taking in the sight before him as if overwhelmed with the amount of people. But sure enough, just when you expected him to spin around and take off back down the concrete sidewalk as he’s done countless times before, he surprised you yet again by slowly raising his hand in a wave.

“H–hi,” he gulped, and you couldn’t help the smile that flourished on your lips.

Lynn tipped her chin up in a form of greeting. “Hey,” she spoke lazily before laying back down atop the grass.

Others weren’t so impersonal. “Hey, I’m Kate,” your friend hopped up with an overly-friendly grin and made her way over to the two of you. “We met at the party—briefly.” She let a giggle escape her lips as she stuck out her hand, and your watched in growing shock and horror as Jungkook hesitantly took it, offering her what looked like a forced smile before shaking.

He made it seem so effortless, like shaking hands was something he did all the time, yet you distinctly remembered him fleeing in terror as soon as you attempted to try the action with him the second day you met. The realization had your mind whirling in a thousand different directions—so it was just you he couldn’t stand—before you were suddenly retracting with jealousy and second-guessing everything, every little interaction you’d ever had with him down to this very second. He didn’t want to meet your friends, had all but begged and pleaded for you not to make him, and now here he was forced against his will with you, a person he absolutely hated. How could you have been so cruel?

It was then that you noticed Kate was still standing there, practically devouring him with her eyes and drooling from the mouth while planning her next meal, and if it wasn’t for Yoongi clearing his throat and making her step aside, you weren’t sure you would’ve been able to hold yourself back.

“Yoongi,” he hummed in a lazy voice, taking Jungkook’s hand in a formal shake that was so unlike him you knew it could only mean one thing.

You silently thanked him with your eyes, and he simply nodded his head once in return, the subtle act going unnoticed by everyone but your knowledge of him purposefully interrupting Kate for you.

Jungkook shuffled back a few feet and shoved his free hand that wasn’t gripping the strap of his book bag for dear life into his pocket, eyes big and taking in the sight in front of him.

“Um, you can sit here,” you cleared your throat before gesturing to a free space against the tree trunk, nerves that you were completely unaccustomed to audible in your voice and causing your friends to shoot you looks ranging anywhere from surprise to down right confusion.

Jungkook simply nodded, a look of discomfort so evident on his face that you almost stopped him right there just to free him from his misery before he walked past you and sat down against the tree.

The sight of him under the oak tree, your oak tree, was so unfamiliar and unreal that you wanted to pinch yourself to see if you were dreaming.

“So, Jungkook…” Jimin started, his legs spread out in front of him as he leaned back on his hands. “What’s your major?”

“Oh—um, computer science,” Jungkook answered, his words stumbling and voice wavering as you sat down next to him, the side of your body mere inches from his.

You could practically hear the beads of sweat gathering at his hairline.

“Really?” Jimin raised his eyebrow. “What do you plan to do in that?”

Jungkook wiped his hands on his pants, the heat emanating from his close proximity almost having you just as intoxicated as your friends right now. “More than likely software engineering,” he answered, seeming as if he wanted to say more but instead clamping his mouth shut and nervously fiddling with the straps on his book bag that he still had on.

It remained that way for a while: your friends making idle small talk to which Jungkook gave shortly-worded answers, his unwillingness to be open about the subjects causing the conversations to fall flat, until eventually they started talking amongst themselves again as they would if he wasn’t even there. You felt bad about dragging him into something that he was obviously uncomfortable with, but after a while he didn’t seem to mind; he even grabbed his textbook and started reading while the rest of you laughed and exchanged your usual banter back and forth.

And though he wasn’t actively engaging with anyone—much less you—it still warmed your heart to know that he was here, he was actually here under the old oak tree your group of friends had claimed since your freshman year, and if nothing else, it was still progress.

And that’s all that mattered to you.

•••

As much as Jungkook tried, he couldn’t escape Y/N.

She was everywhere, like a predator stalking her prey, hiding in the shadows of the day and the moonlight of the night just waiting to catch him alone before she made her move and pounced.

She had caught him. But the thing was, Jungkook wasn’t sure if he wanted to be let free.

He sometimes found himself actually enjoying his escapades with her, whether it was simply walking through campus to his classes or his current activity of joining her group of friends under the oak tree they claimed as their own. However, that wasn’t to say that he liked her friends; they were obnoxious, boisterous and dim-witted, seeming only to focus on illegal activities and other people rather than things that actually mattered. When Jungkook would be nervous out of his mind, practically shaking in his bones for the upcoming test he had in another class, they would banter about useless information that did absolutely nothing for his nerves—if anything, the nerves were heightened.

But every time he thought about leaving, every time he knew he’d made a mistake by being there in the first place and wanted nothing more than to get up and leave, something—someone—was always holding him back.

Y/N.

Every time he would feel the gears in his brain turning and feel the muscles in his feet start to tingle with the desire to walk away, it was Y/N who caused him to stop.

Every. Single. Time.

It was like she had this power over him, this force of nature which gave her the ability to have control over his every move, action, even thought. One would’ve thought she was a portrait sitting there underneath the tree, as ethereal as a painting depicting a masterpiece with nothing but a few strokes of a paintbrush. It blew his mind, how effortess she made it seem, how this girl could possess every beauty known to mankind and still be sitting here so casually with him. As he watched her speak to her friends, it wasn’t her words Jungkook heard, but the artistry of her hands, the way they danced in the air as she talked and enchanted him more than he ever knew hands could. And just when he was sure he would drown in her, get swallowed up in the sound of her laugh and the sight of her sparkling smile until he was one with the ocean depths and crashing abyss, reality would shock him like static electricity.

They would flock to her, her male friends would, and Jungkook would’ve mistaken them for a pack of hungry wolves had he not previously been introduced. He didn’t know why it still surprised him—if a person was attracted to the female gender, then they would be attracted to Y/N, he was sure of it—but the amount of attention, stares, smiles she received from even her friends was like a dagger plummeting deeper and deeper into Jungkook’s stomach. Did she really not notice how they were practically salivating over every word she said?

Though he prided himself on being a silent observer, he still thought that this observation was too obvious for any bystander to not come to the same conclusion. And it was upon that fact that Jungkook knew Y/N must want it, need it, crave it, feeding on their attention like a parasitic leech sucking at the blood of its host. The thought disgusted him from the inside out; he had always hated those types of people. But if that were the case, then why was he drawn to her like a moth to a flame? Didn’t that make him no better than her flock of followers? That must be why Y/N tried so hard to gain his acquaintance. She liked the chase, and Jungkook possessed potential, so why not wrap him around her finger, too?

And suddenly his world was spinning, so dizzy from the thought, and he was getting up faster than his mind could process the action and fleeing from her and her friends and their spot underneath the old oak tree. The stupidity and embarrassment that he felt was burning a hole into his chest, flaring like a fiery inferno until his insides were burned to a crisp and he couldn’t feel anything, see anything, hear anything. All that he knew were the motions of his footsteps as his feet took him further from her, over the grassy plains and onto the sidewalk and into the–

“Jungkook!”

He never even stood a chance.

“Jungkook.” Y/N was slowing down now, the same way she had the last time she encountered him on the sidewalk next to the tree, when she had asked him to go to that frat party. “What are you doing?”

Upon opening his mouth, Jungkook realized that all the bitterness and hate he manifested towards her didn’t mean shit when he finally started talking. “Nothing,” he managed, silently cursing himself when he heard the unmistakable tone of sadness in his voice.

He knew Y/N heard it too; she was looking at him differently now, something close to regret and sympathy in her eyes that drove Jungkook to insanity before she was finally opening her mouth again.

“Would you like to go out Friday night?”

Jungkook was shell-shocked. “G–go where?”

“On a date,” Y/N’s expression didn’t change as she took a step forward, “with me.”

His mind was swirling with thoughts faster than he could process them. She hadn’t been so bold as to ask him out on a date since the third time he’d met her, though he didn’t know why he was surprised; being blunt and straightforward seemed to be a specialty of hers, enough to knock him off his feet. Though knocking him off his feet wasn’t a hard task to complete when it came to her, he supposed. Everything she did had that effect on him. Hell, the first time they met she had knocked them both off their feet.

Regardless, the audacity she had to ask Jungkook that question again when he knew her plan, knew her motives, knew what she was trying to do made his blood boil with anger from the inside out. He was just leaving to try to get away from her toxic web that she spun him in, and now she wants him to come back? Jungkook wasn’t as naive as she presumed.

“Why don’t you go ask all the other guys you take out,” Jungkook hissed, the snarky remark fueled from nowhere but the depths of his sheer rage.

He was ready to leave then, turn around on the base of his heel and storm off, leaving her to soak in his insult and revel in what she’d done, when she suddenly spoke.

“I’ve never asked a guy on a date before.”

Jungkook stopped in his tracks, his eyebrows scrunching together and his face turning to hers while he tried to compute the possibility of her words.

Never asked a guy on a date before? That was impossible; he knew just by looking at her that Y/N must have, no, had to have gone on thousands upon thousands of dates. Though as he continued to gaze into her eyes, he found that they held the truth, nothing but raw emotion and pure intentions swimming in them. And that’s what stumped Jungkook the most.

“Why—why are you asking me then?” He gulped, trying to steady his shaky voice as the nerves within him teemed with the uncertainty of whether or not he even wanted to know the answer to his question.

It was Y/N’s turn to react now; he watched as color slowly rose to her cheeks, a floral pink dusting over her skin and setting within her newly-timid form.

Jungkook was sure his wide eyes were locked on her in the most obvious of ways as he observed this, but he didn’t care. For the only way he would notice these things was if he examined her closely like he always did, because Y/N only allowed her exterior to exude confidence. She covered up her blushing cheeks and timid nerves with a shrug of her shoulders, something of an art she had mastered to not let people see beneath the surface of what she wanted them to see.

“You’re different.”

The revelation he’d discovered about her was put to a halt as she said these words, and he felt himself falling back, back, back into the deep pool of emotions that she always had him drowning in, gasping for air and struggling for rescue without throwing him so much as a life preserver. Those were the same words she’d said to him in his dorm room, the ones she’d mumbled without a care over his stack of notebooks that had him all but flinging her out the door shortly thereafter. And though this sparked a flicker of anger within him—how dare she use these words to manipulate him like this!—the emotion was engulfed by that of pure fear.

He could feel himself breaking down, his walls tumbling and his resolve shaking, the layer of solid ice he had built around himself now melting away under the heat of her shining rays. He didn’t want to accept, god no he didn’t want to accept. But the more he told himself those words, the more he could feel that they were a lie he was trying to convince himself, and that’s what frightened him the most. He knew he was going to get hurt, knew that if he accepted her invitation it would be past the point of no return. But as he gulped and opened his mouth to refuse, all that came out was a single:

“Yes.”

•••

Friday couldn’t get here fast enough.

After you had all but leaped in elation when he accepted, you barely had time to get out another word, much less the details of the date before he was racing down the sidewalk with the speed of a relay runner in an attempt to get away from you. But for the first time since you’d met him, you didn’t mind. You let him leave, because he actually accepted a date from you, and you weren’t ever going to let it go.

Being alone after his acceptance was probably a good thing, because even though you couldn’t get your encounter with him or the promise of a date out of your mind, you were able to remain rational and level-headed about it rather than make a fool of yourself as you knew you would’ve had you been in his presence. Never before had you been rendered speechless, but in that moment, you couldn’t form any coherent words or thoughts—just pure, unadulterated shock.

The details of the date, however, were proving to be a harder feat to overcome.

Jungkook was avoiding you, to put it lightly—meaning you couldn’t even find him en-route to his classes that you normally accompanied him to. And you really didn’t want to resort to what you were about to do, but he left you no choice, since the days were dwindling down and pretty soon it was Friday with still no sign of him.

You brought your fist up to the door and rapped your knuckles lightly, suddenly swarmed with a wave of nerves that you certainly weren’t accustomed to. Would he ignore your presence? Open the door simply to slam it back in your face? Or worse—what if he had changed his mind about the date? What if he didn’t even remember that you’d asked him out in the first place? Oh god, what were you doing? What were you–

Your worries were yanked to a halt when suddenly the door was cracked, and behind it was a sight that took your breath away in a single glance.

Jungkook was standing there, eyes timid and full of terror as he looked at you with an expression as if you were there to take away his first born child. A wide, genuine beam instantly sprung to your lips as you took in his appearance—a black sweater and dark jeans—that was a little too nice to assume he was just previously lounging in his room playing xbox. No, he had been anticipating your arrival, you were sure of it, and so you pressed your hand to the wooden door and pushed it open the rest of the way before waltzing inside without so much as an invitation.

“Hey,” you spoke casually, taking in the sight of his dorm room which hadn’t changed much since you last saw it—still just as spotless—before spinning around to face him. “Did you forget about our date?”

Jungkook, on the other hand, looked as if he’d just seen a ghost; his skin was stark-white, his hands were trembling as you noticed by his sides, and his lips were parted slightly in a silent gasp as he stood frozen in the doorway where you’d left him.

“N–no,” he finally spoke, swallowing thickly before darting his tongue out to lick the lips of his parched mouth—a sight that had you surely dying right then and there.

“Good,” you managed once you’d recovered your weak knees. “What do you like to do?”

“W–what?”

“What do you like to do?” You simply repeated, perching yourself on the edge of his desk as you stared at him curiously. “Where do you like to go in your free time? And don’t say no where, because I know that’s bullshit.”

Jungkook just gawked at you then, seeming at a loss for words as he opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. “U–uh,” he started, the room filling with his blundering silence, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” You stood up then, taking a few steps towards him until you were only mere feet away. “Surely there has to be something; if I wasn’t here right now and you wanted to go out and do something, what would you do?”

Silence echoed throughout the small room as he contemplated your words, and after a while you were about to speak again before he finally opened his mouth. “I don’t know,” he repeated, though this time he paired the words with a shrug. “Maybe bowling or something?”

“Oh.” You couldn’t hide the surprise in your voice as you blinked at him. “So you have friends who live nearby?”

“No,” Jungkook immediately shook his head. “I’d go alone.”

“Wait, what?!” You couldn’t help the way the words screeched from your mouth as if it was the most barbaric thing you’d ever heard, nothing but pure disbelief driving your actions forward. “How do you bowl alone?”

“I just… bowl… alone.” He eyed you skeptically.

“No one should have to bowl alone; it’s a team sport! Come on, I know exactly where we’re going for our date.” You quickly reached forward in your haste and grabbed his hand to drag him forward, only for your movements to be halted by what felt like a jolt of electricity surging through your arm at the sudden touch.

Jungkook was quickly pulling his arm back, and you turned around to find him examining his hand before looking up at you with a frightened expression. That was one of the only few times you’ve touched him, you suddenly realized, and it was by gulping down your unsteady nerves that you were able to slowly reach out and touch his hand again.

Jungkook visibly stiffened in front of you, seeming as if he was using all of the willpower in his body to not yank his hand away and fling himself out the window in this very moment. You would’ve audibly exhaled if you could; the feeling of his skin against yours was the most refreshing, rejuvenating experience you’ve ever had in your entire life. He felt warm and buttery smooth beneath your fingertips, and you nearly resisted the urge to drool as you stared down and looked at the sight of his hand in yours. Your fingers weren’t intertwined and your palms weren’t clasped together—it was more like you were holding up the limb as if it was a delicacy, able to shatter beneath even the faintest of forces—but it felt magical, absolutely magical nonetheless.

After a few still seconds Jungkook slipped his hand from yours, and you felt your cheeks heat up with a heavy blush once you realized how long you’d been standing there staring at his hand. You raised your head up to see him nibbling on his lower lip and staring at the floor, an expression so uneasy and torn on his face that it was enough to keep the driving force within you from grabbing his hand again, the sensation feeling like ecstasy that you already knew you weren’t going to be able to get enough of. But you stopped yourself, sensing the discomfort and internal battle he was having within himself and decided that you didn’t want to be the cause of any more turmoil.

So you simply turned around, heading towards the door and twisting the knob before looking back at him. “Are you ready?” You asked, your voice surprisingly steady and clear through the clamoring heart beat in your ears.

He simply gulped and nodded, his eyes still fixated on the floor as he all but forced himself to move from the spot his feet were planted in, and the action was so reluctant that if you didn’t know any better you would’ve thought the bottom of his shoes were glued to the ground.

He proceeded to follow you down the stairs and into the dorm parking lot, the crisp air nipping at your nose as you tugged your jacket tighter across your body and made your way over to the car you’d driven (actually Tae’s car, but the two of you shared it since you never really went anywhere without your friends anyways). Jungkook was walking at a safe distance behind you, but no matter how many times you turned around to make sure he hadn’t made a dive for the bushes when you weren’t looking, he was always there.

You didn’t bother asking if he had a vehicle since you knew freshman and sophomores weren’t even allowed to have one on campus unless they were commuters, so the ride to the bowling alley was filled with silence covered up by the tunes on the radio and the faint scent of cigarettes and weed emanating from the car’s interior. Normally you wouldn’t have even noticed the smell since you’d grown so used to it over the years, but being around Jungkook made you self conscious about things you weren’t previously aware of, and so you’d cleaned out every empty beer bottle and scrubbed every morsel of ash from within the cracks and crevices, the only remaining proof that this car was ever used for illegal activities being the faint scent of smoke lingering in the air.

The only reason you even knew the location of the bowling alley was because Namjoon had worked there back in freshman year when you all first became friends. Otherwise, you didn’t have a single clue. You couldn’t even remember the last time you’d bowled—was it for a middle school birthday, maybe?—but that didn’t stop you from driving there like your life depended on it, the presence of Jungkook in the passenger’s seat making your mind reel with thoughts you shouldn’t be thinking while operating a motorized vehicle.

“Are you cold?” You blurted, every inch of your limbs tingling with nerves as you lurched forward to fidget with the dials on the dashboard. “I can turn the heat on if you want.”

“No, I’m fine.” He simply shook his head and returned his gaze back out the window, driving you even more insane with questions of what could possibly be going through this silent, pensive boy’s head.

•••

Holy shit. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.

Jungkook’s mind wouldn’t shut up—not when she walked into his dorm room, not during the agonizingly long car ride, and not now as they walked into the local bowling alley.

Almost instantly there were sounds of falling pins filling the room, children’s laughter and rolling balls against the slick wooden floors shortly following behind, but he was far too lost in his head to hear any of it. He was surprised he could even see where he was going, what with his vision tunneling so much. But at the center of his focal point, right where she always was, was Y/N.

Except this time, Jungkook was following her. He was letting her lead him blindly into the dark sunken abyss that he knew he couldn’t get out of, knew he would drown in if she let him; but he didn’t have any plans of running away. All of the exits were quickly noted by him as soon as he walked into the building, but instead of making a quick escape like he knew he should’ve, his traitorous feet led him deeper into the building and up to the counter right behind her.

He knew he should’ve grabbed dinner on campus tonight.

Had he chosen to eat at the local cafeteria closest to his dorm instead of staying in, he wouldn’t have been inside his room when she came by. Had he chosen to not search through his clothes for three days picking out something acceptable to wear tonight, he could’ve played it off like he was sick instead of looking ready to go when she showed up. And had he chosen to ignore those five knocks against the wooden door that separated the two of them, those five knocks that he knew couldn’t be from anyone else but her, he wouldn’t be here right now.

But it was too late.

He didn’t go out to eat tonight, and was inside his dorm room when she came by. He did spend three days trying on every outfit that he owned in an attempt to figure out which looked the most presentable, and had put it on exactly one hour before she showed up at his door. And he didn’t ignore those five knocks that he knew came from her knuckles; in fact, he practically leapt up at them, reaching for the handle at the speed of light and opening it with too much anticipation for someone who didn’t want to be on this date.

No, it was far too late. Because he was here, and he found himself not wanting to be anywhere else.

“Seven,” he heard Y/N say to the man working behind the register before she turned to Jungkook, her gaze into his eyes making him fall from his thoughts and crash head first into no thoughts at all, everything around him turning into a dazed, dreamlike state filled with nothing but the intensity of her smoldering stare.

“Your shoe size?”

It was the man behind the counter that ultimately brought him back to reality, his thick mustache and half-balding head dull in comparison to the otherworldly beauty that was she.

Jungkook felt his face heat up in embarrassment. “U–uh, nine,” he stuttered after a second of getting his bearings straight.

The man disappeared behind an employees only door. “This is great,” Y/N gushed as she looked around the room, and Jungkook couldn’t help but look at her instead. “I haven’t gone bowling in ages. Have you been here before?”

It was her gaze on him again that made him shift his to the floor, not wanting her to know that he was taking advantage of the opportunity that her wandering eyes gave him to admire her profile. “To this one?” He questioned in a wavering tone before shrugging his shoulders. “Maybe once or twice.”

He didn’t admit that he came up here almost every week during the summer practicing the sport, and if she caught onto his small stretch of the truth, she didn’t show any signs of it.

In fact, she didn’t show any signs that she’d heard his words at all. Instead her eyes were on him, watching him with an expression that made his heart lurch in his throat and his stomach almost certainly spill the contents of his last meal all over the tiled floor before the man was suddenly returning from behind the door, this time carrying two pairs of shoes with him.

“Women’s seven and a men’s nine.” He plopped the shoes on the countertop before turning away, not even sparing them so much as a good luck! before he was gone entirely.

“Well,” Y/N’s voice had him shrinking back into his shell—not that he ever came out of it to begin with—and trembling in fear of what was to come. This was it. They were actually getting ready to bowl together, to share one of his favorite pastimes–

“Are you ready?”

She was looking at him with an expectant, curious expression, and Jungkook quickly gulped before grabbing his shoes and following her to their set station.

Everything was just as he remembered over the summer: the scratchy speakers filling the room with old tunes that were barely heard over the thundering explosion of bowling balls crashing into pins, the sticky floor that clung to the bottom of their shoes as if it was covered in a poor cleaning job of spilled coke or candy throughout the day, the tables aligned at each and every lane meant for parties of four or more. Though there was only one difference, and it made all the difference in the world.

Jungkook wasn’t alone. He wasn’t shutting out the world and zoning into his game, breathing air in and out of his lungs in slow, deep breaths to try and focus before he made a strike. He wasn’t escaping the problems of his everyday life—problems like pleasing his family and getting into a good college—only to return home after one quick game, knowing that he’d stayed out far too long. He wasn’t doing anything close to those things; he was here with Y/N.

Jeon Jungkook was on an actual date with Y/N. And that one difference was enough to make him want to give up his favorite pastime and cower away in fear for the rest of his life.

His palms were already slick with sweat when he selected his favorite ball from the rack behind their station. It was the same one he used every time he came here, the one with the knick by the right finger hole, though he would never admit that. Y/N grabbed the lightest ball she could find, and Jungkook wanted to point out that a heavier ball with a larger mass would provide a higher force and knock the pins down with greater velocity, but he kept his mouth shut. Of course she wouldn’t care about trivial matters such as the logical physics behind bowling that he’d spent so much time learning over the years.

While she busied herself with setting her ball on the dispenser, Jungkook promptly walked over to the screen to log their names in. It was only when his index finger went up to press a button did he realize just how much his nerves had him shaking. He could barely even remember his name at this point, much less be expected to input it into a computerized system.

And as if she could sense his thoughts, somehow squeezing her way into his mind as she’d done since the first moment they’d met, down to the very second they collided into one another and toppled over onto the cold concrete of the sidewalk, Y/N was peering around his shoulder at the screen.

If she noticed that his hands were shaking or the way he jolted back as if she’d caught him doing something he wasn’t supposed to, desperate to put some distance between them, she didn’t show it.

“Oh, is this where you put in the names?” Her face was bright, smiling, and Jungkook didn’t understand why she looked so excited until she said, “let’s put in fun nicknames.”

Jungkook blinked at her with big, doe eyes. “Nicknames?”

“Yeah!” Y/N replied as if it was the most common, logical thing ever, and it may be; Jungkook had no clue, because he had never played with anyone else before. “You think of mine and I’ll think of yours,” she continued.

“U–um…” he rubbed the back of his neck as if he was thinking in an attempt to buy himself more time. She wanted him to think of a nickname for her? He could barely remember the name his own mother gave him!

He finally stirred from his fear-induced thoughts when he heard her clear her throat; she was staring at him, blinking expectantly with an expression in her eyes that practically knocked the wind from his lungs in one swift motion and sent him tumbling over right then and there.

He gripped with white knuckles onto the machine for support. “Y/N’s fine, I guess…” he mumbled and looked down at the ground, not wanting to admit that he actually found her name—much like herself—beautiful.

She gazed up at him for a few more moments before she was softly clearing her throat again and nodding her head. “I like Kookie for you,” she offered as she typed her name on the screen. “What do you think?”

He practically choked on his spit. “W–what?”

“Kookie,” she responded as if he genuinely hadn’t heard her. It was only when she lifted her head to look at him with an innocent smile that her eyes widened in concern. “What? Do you not like that name?” She was quickly backspacing on the keypad before he could manage to answer.

“N–no, no!” He hurried to stop her with a wave of his hands. “I just… n–no one has ever called me that.”

His words made the grin on her lips spread wider. “Good. It will be my nickname for you, then.”

Jungkook felt like he was going to faint.

It went this way for a while: Jungkook would close himself off, same as always, Y/N would say or do something extremely forward (or at least, more forward than he was used to, which wasn’t much at all), and he would be left speechless where he stood, questioning life itself and what he was doing here with a girl who was surely the sun, the moon and all the stars in the sky combined radiantly peering down at him. He knew he had no place here, knew that he should be making a run for the nearest exit as soon as her eyes left him for the split second that she would roll her bowling ball down the lane, each smooth curvature of the polyester getting closer and closer to knocking down the acutely aligned pins that were equivalent to the strings of his heart, so tense and unable to do anything but wait for the impact that he knew would hit him like a ton of bricks and leave him helpless on the ground, soon to be forgotten and swept beneath the mat like yesterday’s news after she’d had her way with him.

God, why did every single menial task have to remind him of a metaphor for their situation? Even his precious sport was tainted by thoughts of her.

“Have you been bowling recently?” Y/N’s seemingly harmless question had Jungkook snapping back to reality, his eyes wide in fear that she had discovered his small stretch of the embarrassing truth.

“W–what?”

“Your score is so much higher than mine,” she laughed and gestured over her shoulder with her thumb to the screen on the ceiling behind her as she made her way over to him, the bright white 82 sticking out like a sore thumb against her measly 23.

“I uh, used to play a lot when I was younger,” he answered with a nervous hand on the back on his neck. And then he was saying something to her he never expected to, blurting out the words faster than his brain could register what was happening. “I could help you, if you want.”

Her eyes instantly lit up, and the sight had his heart thumping wildly in his chest, threatening to soar into the sky despite his stomach dropping in dread at the realization of what he’d just done.

“Yeah, that would be great!”

His mouth suddenly grew dryer than the sahara desert, and he tried to swallow but he couldn’t manage through the large lump lodged in the center of his throat. “U–um, okay.”

He moved closer to her despite every warning bell and alarm going off like sirens in his head, thrashing louder and louder with each step that he took until he was standing next to her in front of the lane where she waited patiently for his instructions before her second chance to knock down the pins.

“You just have to, um,” he gulped in hopes that his voice sounded more confident than the fear that was engulfing him whole, “hold your ball steady the entire time while you’re swinging and aim for the pins you want to hit.”

“Easier said than done,” she simply tutted, and then she was glancing over at him with a mix of amusement and mischief in her eyes. “Would you demonstrate for me?”

His hidden competitive nature was protesting instantly within him, knowing that if he gave her any ounce of assistance that could jeopardize the final score of the game. But the other part of him, the part that was speechless and captivated and filled with intense nerves from head to toe by her mere presence alone was rather dominating (overpowering every single other emotion he possessed, in fact), and paved the way for his response.

“D–demonstrate?” He repeated, as if he even had to contemplate his answer at all, and then he was reaching out for the light ball that was nestled between her palms. “May I?”

She quickly obliged, handing over the object within her fingers that he was careful to avoid for fear of fleeing entirely from the physical contact, physical contact that has proven to set his entire body aflame with sparks of electricity that surged throughout his veins, filling him with thoughts that he shouldn't—no, couldn’t be having about her. These were thoughts that he kept locked away in the back of his mind until the very early hours of the morning when he was surrounded in the darkness of his dorm, left to nothing but the empty bed of his roommate on the other side and himself.

He didn’t know which was worse: the tortures that she made him endure throughout the day, or the tortures that his body, heart, soul made him endure throughout the night.

“You just hold it like this,” he quickly demonstrated by holding the ball up to his chest, his arm curled tightly against him and locking in place. “Focus in on the area you want to hit. Then bring your arm back behind you and shoot.” He kept his posture stiff and straight while he mimicked the form of a professional bowler, one leg crossing behind the other as the ball swiftly launched from his hand and slid across the floor with precision and grace, a loud thunder echoing throughout the building as the screen lit up above them with the signs of a spare.

“Wow,” Y/N gaped, though he knew she must be practicing sarcasm. “You make it look so easy.”

Despite his skepticism, he couldn’t help but light up in a rosy red blush that spread across his cheeks at her words. “Th–thank you,” he managed to stammer out at her compliment. “You want to try?”

Her eyes flashed down to the ball he was handing back to her, and before he even had time to register what was happening, her fingers were reaching out and coming in contact with his in a manner so brazen that he almost dropped the heavy weight right on their feet below.

He instantly retracted his hand as if hers were suddenly made of lava and hot to the touch, singeing the skin and burning deep within the very bone, branding him with her fingerprints that would forever be engraved in his memory like a scalding iron pressed against the flesh.

Thankfully she was there to catch it before it was sent hurtling towards to floor. “Yeah,” she answered with an otherwise collected tone, not showing any signs of noticing his odd behavior. “So you just hold it like this…”

“Wait!” Jungkook interrupted while she was getting into position. “It’s my turn now.”

Y/N stared at him for another few still beats before a smirk of amusement flashed upon her features. “What’s the matter? Scared I’m gonna screw up your perfect score?” Her tone was teasing as she waved the ball on her fingers in a taunting manner.

He raised his eyebrows, completely floored by the sudden change in behavior. He’d let his competitive nature get the best of him in the moment, but never did he expect a response so challenging, so enticing. The effect it had on him was stronger than he’d like to admit to her—or even himself for that matter.

He didn’t know how to respond; he’d never been in a situation quite like this one before. The pensive, squeamish side of him wanted to throw his hands up in surrender and let her have the shot, hell, let her play his entire game if she wanted to. But then another side, an instinctive, thrill-seeking, far more intriguing side of him wanted to taunt her right back.

“You could try, but something tells me that’s not going to happen.”

He didn’t know what’d come over him; the small grin tilting at the corner of his lips felt foreign, the tone of his voice felt too bold, and the way his fingers gestured to her obviously-incorrect stance had him internally shriveling in mortification that he would even think of interacting with her this way.

But his behavior seemed to spark something in Y/N.

“So teach me,” she suddenly blurted out, the pure desperation and hope on her features practically knocking the wind out of him, and he could tell what she was insinuating before she even spoke it aloud. “Come here and teach me.”

The assertion in her voice had him swallowing thickly, all hopes of protesting going with the last bit of saliva down his throat and leaving his mouth dry and unable to get a single word out past his parched lips. He knew what she wanted, could feel the tips of his fingers and toes tingling with nervous jitters and sparks of anticipation wrapping their way around each tendon in his body.

She wanted him to touch her.

“I–I don’t know if that’s such a good idea…” he trailed off in the same shy, timid voice as always, nervously scratching the back of his neck. “You seem to have it figured out on your own.”

It was a lie, of course; he hadn’t seen a bowling stance so horrendous in all of his 18 years of living. But he bit back his tongue, bit it back until his teeth started to puncture the surface and red, metallic blood began to spill between the crevices, because there was no way he could ever tell Y/N that. He knew what she would want.

And there was no way he could give into what he’s been working so hard against this entire time.

“So like this…?” She was reeling her arm back in a way that was obviously wrong, almost painful for him to watch as a lover of the sport, and he just couldn’t, couldn’t stand there and let her destroy what he held so precious to him.

“No no no, like this.” He was quickly pressing his palm to the ball in her grasp before he could even stop himself and leading it back, back until her arm was in the correct position behind her back and her body was twisted correctly, all thanks to the firm hand that he had pressed against the small of her waist.

Time seemed to stop around them. The only sound he could hear was the steady rise and fall of his labored breaths, so gentle yet closing in and threatening to suffocate him entirely, cutting off his air supply until he was nothing but a mere corpse in this bowling alley, an outer shell of his former self. He couldn’t move even if he wanted to; he was trapped, rendered motionless in her web that she had tangled him in, stuck mere inches from her body with one hand on the ball and the other on her waist.

And his entire body felt aflame.

“U–uh, j–just like that,” Jungkook practically choked as he quickly removed his hand, in complete and utter disbelief that he had the audacity to touch her so intimately when he was barely even able to return a handshake. What in the world had come over him? Who did he think he was?

Y/N was silent in front of him; he couldn’t see her expression, but he knew she must be mortified, because her body was stiff and still and she wasn’t moving save for the slow rise and fall of her shoulders that let him know she was still alive and breathing.

This was it: the fuck up beyond all fuck ups. His eyes instantly darted towards each exit around him, trying to figure out which would be closest to make his quick escape. Could he make it towards that back door? No, then he would have to clamber and climb past each and every station that separated the exit and him, and there was no way he would make it past all of those people. The front door was his best option. Maybe if he just–

“I did it!” A piping, melodic voice shattered the thoughts from his mind and caused him to tumble down, down back to earth until he realized that it was Y/N who was cheering in front of him. “I got a strike!”

She was jumping and spinning around to beam at him, the bright expression lighting up her face and rendering him speechless, blinded by the effervescent glow that radiated off of her so effortlessly that he was hypnotized, too entranced to notice that she was making a leap towards him and throwing her arms around his shoulders in a joyous hug.

Jungkook was practically knocked off his feet, breathless and floored by the actions that she sprung upon him, though it wasn’t the force of her weight that had taken his balance.

No, it was the fact that Y/N’s arms were around his neck, and her body was against his chest, and the side of her head was brushing against his cheek in a way that had every inch of his skin turning the color of a cherry red tomato.

He wanted to push her away. He wanted to shove her as far as he could, away from the thrashing heart in his chest that was growing wilder with each passing second that he stayed lodged in her arms without escape. He knew she could feel it, he was sure of it, and the thought only made him break out into an intensely cold, nervous sweat.

But he didn’t. Instead he found his arms winding their way around her waist and patting the middle of her back in a soft, congratulatory way.

And damn his entire body, heart and soul that were all traitorous at this point, because no matter how deafeningly loud his mind screamed at him to stop, he just couldn’t.

He couldn’t stop when she pulled away with laughter, her entire face lit up in the most beautiful expression known to mankind as she jokingly told him that they would be switching names so that she was now beating him. He couldn’t stop as she joked and teased him for the rest of the night, the air between them growing lighthearted and less tense than he had ever felt it in his entire life, and for once he wasn’t overthinking every minuscule detail that popped into his head with plans to ruin the freeing moment. He couldn’t stop, even as she claimed she beat him with his score from the beginning of the game that aided her efforts, even as she drove back with the radio blasting and her sweet, melodic voice flitting through the open windows as she sang along, and even as she walked him up to the front entrance of the dorms.

“I had a really great time, Jungkook,” she was saying, but it was as if he was in a dream, her beautiful voice somehow finding its way through the haze of his mind. “I hope we can do it again sometime.”

He didn’t respond, too lost in his clouded daze to even begin to form his lips into words, and it was only when he saw that she was slowly leaning into him that everything shattered.

Panic: that’s the one emotion that was crawling beneath his skin like the aftereffects of a poison, slowly eating him alive until he was rendered sightless with nothing but pure black tunneling his vision. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t speak; he couldn’t do anything but stick his hand out and halt her movements.

“For the proper handshake I never gave you,” he managed with a chuckle, though he was sure the sound came out far less harmonious than intended.

Y/N simply looked down at the gesture before smiling, her perfectly shaped lips that were the focal point of his sight pulling back to reveal her brilliant teeth, and before he had a chance to realize what was happening, she was accepting his handshake and pulling him into her.

Everything seemed to play in slow motion, yet happen all too quickly at the same time—her grasp on his hand, the stumbling of his feet, the closing of her eyes. Jungkook didn’t even have time to question the rapid beating of his heart that threatened to spill from his throat at any moment, because soon her lips were on his, and everything else vanished.

•••

Heaven.

That was what kissing Jungkook felt like. There were angels sounding off in your head like a euphonious choir, harmonies blending together with what was the most dulcet sound you’d ever heard to match the taste on your lips, so sweet and euphoric that you almost had to pinch yourself to shake your mind down from the stars that were dancing above.

It only lasted a moment; what started so quickly had ended just the same, your body physically aching for more though you willed yourself to stay still for fear of ruining the serene moment between the two of you.

Jungkook pulled away with wide eyes, his movements akin to a stunned little kid, breath rising and falling in his chest and a gulp climbing down his throat before he was turning around and shuffling inside his dorm without so much as a bye! falling from his lips.

Not even the loud slamming of the door could shake you from your effervescent high, the sensations that were swirling through your body and mind leaving you far more intoxicated than any substance ever could. You knew this was past the point of no return; there would be no turning back now, no denying after this. You were falling for Jungkook, the same way you had fallen into him the very first day you met. You were a goner from the start.

This was the first time you had ever gone out with a boy and not slept with him. That fact alone was enough to chill you to the very bone, unable to shake the feeling of discomfort and fear that threatened to engulf you whole the more you thought about it. But at the moment, you couldn’t find it in yourself to care.

After all, you were looking forward to a lot of firsts with Jungkook.

[yung-gini-blog]

Word Is Bitcoin

The Private Key:

Businesses and leaders ask “Why Bitcoin?”

The answer is “why not!”

Truth is: bitcoin is a conundrum. A mystery. A black box. Bitcoin devastates our natural tendency towards metaphor and simile. Bitcoin is not this or that, it is all of it and nothing at all, simultaneously. Bitcoin is like a text; it's akin to a work of fine art in its wisdom and collectibility. And crucially, what Bitcoin is is not determined by any singular human authority.

Bitcoin exists, and that is all that can be said definitively. Bitcoin cannot be stopped. This I say confidently. Its will to be exceeds that of any human machine.

This book is dedicated to all the enterprises, executives, investors, and sovereigns on the path of success...To those who are fed up, who have watched it happen again and again and know now is the time to jump in and go with the flow...To those who are not “early adopters” but who understand the importance of timing, if you wish to stop reacting to the accelerating waves of disruption and begin to embrace the technologies that are reshaping capital markets, redefining the best practices for efficient operations of complex systems, reimagining planet Earth as a space of shared prosperity, and accelerating the evolution of consciousness...To those who are curious and hopeful, why I write this book is well understood.

  I.

1) Stop Reacting:

Inspect the state of the global economy.

Characterize the paths of success in the world that is

Industry

Stocks and bonds (equity and debt)

Options and Futures (equity derivatives)

Swaps and CDOs (debt derivatives)

Location, Location, Location (real estate 4 dummies)

Finance

Pensions → Corporates → Endowments (AUM, dumb to smart managers)

Value Investing → Prop trading → Market Making (money makers, slow to fast)

Family Offices → Sovereigns → Banks (power players, small to big)

VC → PE → Hedge Fund (fee structures)

Internet

“Software eats the world” (technofuturism is obvious for nerds)

Automation and DevOps (data is an asset and algorithms are leverage)

Intellectual property (is software)

Copyleft and Open Source (ethical capitalism aka skilled labor retention)

2) Begin to Embrace:

Startup Culture

Small teams (Bezos' “2 pizza rule”)

Generalists over specialists

Equity ownership

The Startup Grind (hussle harder)

Growth

Everything grows at its own natural rate. To go beyond the natural, consider doping the hormones of your enterprise with the equivalent of steroids for corporate finance.

Hacking (RTFM, kid)

The codes are Open Source. Read the documentation and test it like your security depends on it.

Growth Hacking (click funnels, content marketing, ads, persuasion)

Mind Hacking (meditation, psychadelics, affirmations)

Social Hacking (politics, persuasion, persistence)

Consistency

Principles (values, virtues, patterns, and Truth as you know it)

Open-mindedness (eager acceptance of imperfection and continuous detachment from self-conceptions)

Alternatives [Illustrate the futility of avoiding money or searching for an alternative to Bitcoin. Perhaps Criticism deserves its own section in Stop Reacting.]

Lifestyle business (requires social media Growth Hacking skills)

Art and collectibles (nostalgia, or “authentic culture is the ultimate asset in a world of abundance”)

Asceticism (ie orthodox religion)

Intellectualism (ie Marxism)

II.

1) Capital Markets:

Disintermediation

Automation and competition over transaction execution lowers fees towards zero (over time)

Tokenization

Assets are standardized for exchange online

24/7 365 global market access

Liquidity

Markets in everything (gambling is a sport)

Dark net markets in everything (Panic or Paradise?)

Money In Politics

Tax havens/finance hubs and jurisdiction shopping

Trade War (Is Bitcoin uncorrelated?)

Audit-ability and the emerging “Anticorruption movement” (not a thing but can we make it a thing?)

2) Operational Efficiency:

Automation

Deep Learning (same silicon as mining, overlapping developer labor pool)

DevOps (continuous integration)

DevSecOps (automated threat monitoring)

Robots

3D Printing

Process Engineering

Co-located teams are Agile (the cult of Daily Standup)

Distributed teams are Remote, Flexible, and Aligned

Remote (work from home or bring your work home?) [contrast with megacorp campuses with perks like “free” doggie day-care]

Flex-time (cultivating freedom mentality in creative knowledge workers)

Incentive Alignment (greasing the gears) [contrast with Principal-Agent Problem]

Data is an Asset Class

Software systems ingest and log data

Logged data from enterprise systems is fed to AI

Blockchains are public data sets, enriching and nourishing today's baby AIs

3) Planet Earth:

Climate Crises

Mining carbon emissions are a problem and technological civilizations solve problems

Increased demand for energy stimulates market for solar and other renewable energy tech!

Solving climate crisis requires global cooperation

Global cooperation implies increased globalization

Wildlife Conservation

Nature is the ultimate inspiration of art, and art is priceless

Cultivating nature is a component of life well-lived

Disregard for nature is contemptible to the Bitcoin Rich

4) Evolution:

Nature and Conscious Nurturing

Education technology is the only better industry than enterprise fintech. Invest in innovative methods to inform current and future generations.

Synthetic biology is the only science more important than computers (physics is the intersection of computer science and math in today's academy).

Reinvention

Success comes with repetition. Good ideas deserve persistence. Bitcoin is not original, but it is different.

Embrace change by appropriating software techniques like iteration and recursion to accelerate your lifecycles. (A lifecycle is an instance of the {do, receive, think, state} mental loop. [Elaboration on this will come later])

The Collective Unconscious

Common dreams are hard to come by. Don't bet against them; join in or standby.

Money is intellectual energy, it's presence felt but hardly seen; it's message heard but sound not made.

The mentality that Bitcoin imparts on the world is one of self-reliance, entrepreneurship, reinforcement of the Truth that ideas matter, and appreciation of the wonderful unknown.

Something Old, Something New

Sharia 101: Intro to Islamic Finance

The Problem of Riba (similar to usury)

Bitcoin is Halal

Orthodox Jews love it too

AI algorithms can transact autonomously, without human or corporate identity

Bitcoin: an engine of globalization and cross-cultural pollination

Soul Contracts

“In the beginning was the word” [John 1:1]

“Be impeccable with your word” [Don Miguel Ruiz]

“Word is bond” [5% Nation of Gods and Earths]

Do you believe in destiny, fate, karma, or justice? If you knew with certainty that all of your actions and moods and mental states were under constant surveillance by a superintelligent entity, how would you live? Do you have any sacred rituals or objects? What makes them special in your eyes? The answers to these questions are where fortune resides.

Appendix A:

Cybernetics [Weiner, Maltz]

Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Natural Language Processing

Databases, relational algebra, Structured Query Language

Distributed systems, security, fault tolerance

Distributed Denial of Service, Byzantine Fault Tolerance, Proof of Work

Proof of Stake and the future (sharding, data chains, interoperability, dapps, etc.)...

What is Blockchain technology? Immutable Record-keeping, Smart Contracts, and Notes on Historiography (a collection of political economy book reviews in light of Blockchain) [this part is a kind of hedge for the educated “Blockchain not Bitcoin” reader]:

Fukuyama's The End of History, about the triumph of liberal democracy, vs.

Davidson's The Sovereign Individual, about thriving during the collapse of the Welfare State;

Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, about spending your way out of a recession vs.

Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, about easy money and debt traps;

Smith's The Wealth of Nations, about capitalism, vs.

Marx' Das Kapital, about capitalism

Taleb's Fooled By Randomness, about unfairness, vs.

Piketty's Capital In The 21st Century, about unfairness.

  This is a base structure from which to iterate into a full-length book. The structure serves the function of establishing context inside which an argument is made persuasively. The proposition is that “Bitcoin is the Index Fund of the Internet”. By Internet, I mean a global computer network. Today, if you want to invest in Enterprise SaaS (perhaps the industry with the most investable companies), you are limited by your dealflow. Dealflow is usually regionally segregated, in that you must be closely connected to a company's founding team to be an early-stage investor.

As the new wave of post-global communications networks, (permissionless) Blockchain technologies deliver access to liquid markets to anyone who can operate a phone. In the long term, markets create prosperity. But in the short term, markets often have shocking effects.

The problem of markets is that there are too many choices. A perfect capitalist economy has everything up for sale always. So how could anyone know with certainty that they have bought the right goods? How often do you allocate resources only to discover that your energies are better focused elsewhere? The entire purpose of advertising, marketing, sales, and politics is to convince people to make decisions that wouldn't otherwise occur to them. We live in a world awash in persuasion, and it's increasingly difficult to stand outside of the social field.

In order to make this book real, a great deal of research is to be done, including 8 book reports (plus reviews of Krawisz' Hyperbitcoinization and Carter's Visions of Bitcoin). Furthermore, the entire Western economy must be diagrammed so that the central banking Ponzi is revealed. I believe it is best to adopt an approach of subtlety, perhaps leaving the investigation of some details about the fraud in the non-profit sector as an exercise for the curious reader (think multinational NGOs like IMF and World Bank). Some things, like verbal evisceration of banksters, sound better coming from Elizabeth Warren or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It is not necessary to be maximally critical of the powers that be; Bitcoin is itself a diplomatic technology. One of Bitcoin's intangible qualities is that it serves as a vehicle for education. Bitcoin is the incentive for a movement of self-education in technology and markets, and it is wonderful that such a thing exists while so many young people are six figures deep in debt to a university system that doesn't prepare them for the working world, a world dominated by financial technologies.

I hope that the arc of the book flows from solid matter (industry) to bits of data (finance) to soul vibration (sovereignty). In the process, the reader takes a journey of self-discovery. If one's outlook coming into the book is to learn how to transform your business with Bitcoin and get rich, one's outlook going out should be how to accept the blessings of fortune and live a dignified life.

  Original Text by Yung Gini. The reader is free to use this text or the ideas therein in any way shape or form, and to engage Gini in open-ended negotiations in pursuance of a book-making contract, accepting that Gini expects no greater than 21% share of book revenues, and thus intends to impart no greater than 21% of book-writing efforts, as his passion is Construction with bits, not Explanations in ink.

As one who believes that books are being outmoded in favor of voice-based digital media (which can be optionally transcribed into book format for old-school readers), I look forward to recording and streaming conversations that cover any of the aforementioned points in depth enough to tickle my mind and edify the audience.

[hollywoodjuliorivas]

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Tech’s Damaging Myth of the Loner Genius Nerd Claire Cain Miller @clairecm AUG. 12, 2017 Continue reading the main storyShare This Page Share Tweet Email More Save 155 Photo Credit Abbey Lossing The Google engineer who was fired last week over his memo wrote that most women were biologically unsuited to working in tech because they were more focused on “feelings and aesthetics than ideas” and had “a stronger interest in people rather than things.” Many scientists have said he got the biology wrong. But the job requirements of today’s programmers show he was also wrong about working in tech. In fact, interpersonal skills like collaboration, communication, empathy and emotional intelligence are essential to the job. The myth that programming is done by loner men who think only rationally and communicate only with their computers harms the tech industry in ways that cut straight to the bottom line. The loner stereotype can deter talented people from the industry — not just women, but anyone who thinks that sounds like an unattractive job description. It can also result in dysfunctional teams and poorly performing products. Empathy, after all, is crucial to understanding consumers’ desires, and its absence leads to product mistakes. Take digital assistants, like Google Home or Amazon Echo. Their programmers need to be able to imagine a huge variety of home situations, whether households with roommates or abusive spouses or children — as made clear when a child ordered a $160 dollhouse and four pounds of sugar cookies on the Echo. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story “Basically every step is very collaborative,” said Tracy Chou, who was an engineer at Pinterest and Quora and is now working on start-ups. “Building a big software system, you could have dozens or hundreds or thousands of engineers working on the same code base, and everything still has to work together.” She added, “But not everyone is the same, and that’s where empathy and broader diversity really help.” The memo distinguished between empathizing with other people’s feelings and analyzing and constructing systems, and said coding is about the latter. But it requires both, as do most of the jobs that are growing in number and in wages, according to economic research. Jobs that require a combination of math and social skills — like computer science, financial management and nursing — have fared best in the modern economy, found David Deming, a professor at Harvard. It’s true that programming can be a solitary activity in college computer science classes or entry-level positions. But soon after, it’s impossible to avoid teamwork — with the business or legal departments, but also with other engineers. There’s a joke in computer science that one of the hardest tasks is naming things in code. It’s funny because it’s a nontechnical task. But it involves something that can be even harder than technical work: communicating with other people and intuiting what they might need and understand. Computer programming was originally considered a woman’s job. They were programmers of the Eniac during World War II and at NASA, as shown in the film “Hidden Figures.” That began to change when programming professionalized in the 1960s. The stereotype of an eccentric genius who would rather work with machines than people was born, according to Nathan Ensmenger, a historian at Indiana University who studies the cultural history of the software industry. Yet that was never an accurate description of the job. It was social from the beginning, in university computer labs and, later, Silicon Valley garages, he said. The social circle just didn’t include women. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story “For a lot of these young men, a certain computer culture becomes an expression of masculinity,” he said. “These are people who aren’t doing physical labor, aren’t playing professional sports. But they can express their masculinity by intense competition, playing pranks on one another, demonstrating their technical prowess, in ways that don’t translate well to mixed-gender environments.” The mythology of the antisocial programmer is self-perpetuating, said Yonatan Zunger, a senior engineering leader at Google until this month, when he joined Humu, a start-up. Early on, children who are less comfortable with social interaction — particularly boys, who are more likely to be socialized that way — are channeled toward science and engineering, he said. Teachers generally focus on the technical aspects and not the interpersonal ones. The result is a field filled with people who dislike social interactions and have been rewarded for it. Silicon Valley culture encourages it. Google calls engineers who aren’t managers “individual contributors.” Technical skills are valued above soft skills or business skills. “Anyone who deals with a human being is considered less intelligent,” said Ellen Ullman, a software programmer and author of a new book, “Life in Code.” “You would think it would be the other way around, but the more your work is just talking to the machine, the more valuable it is.” Photo Google Glass, worn in 2013 by Sergey Brin of Google, was a technical feat but landed flat with consumers. Credit Robert Galbraith/Reuters One example is the distinction between front-end engineers, who build the parts of a product that users interact with, and back-end engineers, who work on behind-the-scenes systems, like data storage or scaling. There is a bias that front-end engineering, which generally pays less and has more women, is less technically difficult. People who have done both say the skills are different, but equally challenging and valuable. Problems arise when engineers get to a point in their careers when they’re required to demonstrate social skills, Mr. Zunger said, like understanding diverse points of view, building consensus and reading people’s subtle cues. “Suddenly they’re told that these skills that are their weak point might be really important,” he said. “Their own value is in question.” In the tech industry, the lack of interpersonal skills has become a weakness and a liability. Edmond Lau runs an engineering coaching business with many clients like Google and Facebook called The Effective Engineer. His work can sound like touchy-feely therapy sessions. Newsletter Sign UpContinue reading the main story The Upshot Get the best of The Upshot’s news, analysis and graphics about politics, policy and everyday life. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. SEE SAMPLE MANAGE EMAIL PREFERENCES PRIVACY POLICY OPT OUT OR CONTACT US ANYTIME For example, he said, a senior engineer spots a bug and fixes the code, trying to be helpful. But the person who wrote it thinks the person overstepped onto his territory, or was sending a passive-aggressive message. At Quip, a workplace productivity company where Mr. Lau is an engineering leader, he leads circles in which engineers talk about how to work together or ask for help. “You might have ideas in your head, but unless you communicate them, no one’s going to understand,” he said. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Technical skills without empathy have resulted in products that have bombed in the market, because a vital step to building a product is the ability to imagine how someone else might think and feel. “The failure rate in software development is enormous, but it almost never means the code doesn’t work,” Mr. Ensmenger said. “It doesn’t solve the problem that actually exists, or it imagines a user completely different from actual users.” With Google Glass, for example, it was a technical feat to make a tiny computer you could wear as a pair of glasses. But the product wasn’t one that typical people needed, or wanted. When Apple introduced its Health app, it tracked sleep, exercise, food, medications and heart rate, but not menstrual cycle. Yet period trackers are one of the most used health tools for women. (The app now includes it.) Google Plus, the company’s social network, initially required that users make public their name, photo and gender. There was a technical argument for including gender — to construct sentences like “She shared a photo with you” — but it also exposed women to online harassment. “The team that made this decision was entirely male,” said Mr. Zunger, who was the chief architect of social networking at Google at the time. “It was a really clear case of getting things wrong, for the simple reason that the people in the room weren’t diverse enough to notice an obvious problem.” Less visible, but highly influential, are the judgments that go into building algorithms that determine the news you read, the loans you get or the people you date. Facebook has been criticized for showing people only news stories that align with their political views, for example. Research has found that ads for arrest records are more likely to show up on searches for black fraternities. Empathy also affects which products are built in the first place — why, for example, Silicon Valley has spent more time building apps for expensive food delivery than for decreasing hunger. Some people in the industry say computer science students would benefit from more liberal arts courses. “We need future adults to be able to discern what it makes sense for machines to make decisions about, and is the code base fair and equal, and do they have a basis to even judge that,” said Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute, a technology forecasting firm. “There’s no cool technology toy that teaches that there are different religions around the world and it’s O.K. to be tolerant.” ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story When engineers build products with empathy, it can seem like magic: Technology seems to predict what people want before they know they want it. That was part of Steve Jobs’s genius. Just look at the number of people connected to their phones, or a child using an iPhone for the first time. One way to develop empathy at companies is by hiring diverse teams, because people bring different perspectives and life experiences. But the more widespread the stereotypes like those in the Google memo, the harder it becomes. When people hear negative stereotypes about the skills of a group to which they belong, they are less likely to pursue those skills, according to a variety of research. In a study by Shelley Correll, a sociologist at Stanford, when participants were told that men had a higher ability to complete a task, women said they were less competent at the task and less likely to enter a field that required it. When they were told that men and women were equally good at it, those differences disappeared. “That nerd identity is really damaging to women,” Mr. Ensmenger said, “but it’s also damaging to minorities and to a lot of men who don’t want to subsume their identity in that.” That’s why the consequences of the Google memo could reach far beyond the particular case, influencing which young people choose to go into technology, and which products they make that affect every aspect of our lives.

[ijustneedanewnameeww]

Day 0 - Prelude to the Closet.

PSA: I really don’t expect to get much out of this. Just a diary, that I hope to fill every day with fun/exciting/sad/*any other emotional adjective here* details, learning some decent text formatting (if this is difficult to read, I am sorry) and just expressing myself. That’s how the idea actually arose. So far, 2017 has gone off with a bang personally. Is it a good bang? I don’t even know yet. This past week has been full of surprises especially. So I decided to dedicate a post simply to recap this week, and maybe tell you some more about myself. I will just refer to myself as J, or for the sake of this blog - a Closet, as I am almost certain that my name is unusual to Native English speakers (trust me, I’ve heard people struggle with it), currently 17, Gemini. Former musician at a semi(?)-professional level, played the double bass and to this day still enjoy playing the piano. I also am a part of the school choir and ensemble (oh how this might become important later on). A nerd. Love Maths, Biology and Computer Science. Gay (closeted (kind of?)). A big fan of TV shows. To name a few - RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Real O’Neals, Please Like Me, Skam and How to Get Away With Murder. A lot of things, that have gay characters in them. See, where I live, acceptance is not an easy thing, so to compensate, all that’s left is watching any kinds of representations on TV. So, hello, I am... a Closet. Now a lot (or maybe none) of the things happening tomorrow, which I intend to write about, my hypothetical reader, can/might/will be related to events of the past week. Welcome to Day 0 (just a fancy way of calling a recap inside my head.

Now, the highlight of the week, surprisingly, was a positive one. Now while Lithuania might have a Soviet mentality, which makes them hate all things gay, the youth is much more liberal, I’d have to say. And this week was a perfect example of that. The youth of the school (well, part of them, it can never be all of them, now can it?) stood up against a guest at the school who was spreading hate. A man, who called everyone who used the internet sick, a man, who said that people in Pride parades ask for equal rights instead ask for legalization of pedophilia and necrophilia. And a part of the students joined forces and headed straight to the organizer of those lectures and the headmistress of our school. All that’s left is waiting for updates.

Remember how I said something about the ensemble? Well, here is where it comes into play. Some of my friends suggest that a guy from there might have a crush on me (I personally, don’t, ‘cause I find it hard to believe that anyone might), the catch, however, I have a crush on him too. And, I know damn well, that he is gay. (sneak peek into me - I am kind of an information hoe, I can dig deep to find things I need). Yet my relationship with him now is very... strange? While we only talk during choir and when he is taking me home, he is a good guy - even coming to pick me up from school, when he’s not even there. And yet, the situation above made the perfect opportunity to talk to him. Sure, I may have been too subliminal, but his responses on that topic left me even more confused, they were very neutral, while his best friend was incredibly fired up during all that. Confusion all round.

Join me on the Journey of the Closet, whose doors might never be opened, or just bust down faster than expected.