Coming here for the first time is a bit intimidating but also inspiring...

Coming here for the first time is a bit intimidating but also inspiring. Do you believe with proper dedication and discipline one could be a leading scientist or philosopher? In the hour ive been on here ive already witnessed more intelligence in a single thread than the sum of my entire life. Albeit im only 19 years old. Also i dont know how strict mods are here, so i guess this will be my test. And is there a way of seeing if one is actually smart and should consider pursuing a career in STEM or is it a hit or miss thing? Also, what would you recommend for someone my age who is wanting to expand their knowledge and just better themselves as a person? Help me get smart sci.

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Also i definitely meant to use this image, not a hair cut template for my barber lul

>Coming here for the first time is a bit intimidating but also inspiring. Do you believe with proper dedication and discipline one could be a leading scientist or philosopher? In the hour ive been on here ive already witnessed more intelligence in a single thread than the sum of my entire life. Albeit im only 19 years old.
I'm sorry, but if you think Veeky Forums is smart, then there's no hope for you. You must have the intelligence of a clam.

But seriously, there is no real test to see if you're good for STEM, you just have to try taking a few classes or working through a textbook to see if you enjoy a subject and are good at it. I would recommend checking out free course videos on youtube (I know Berkely has some good videos for my field of Biology, and MIT has good math and physics lectures) and also reading books at your local library. Just dive right in and see if the stuff is interesting to you. If you're a good fit for a STEM career, then interest will be natural. If it doesn't feel interesting, then just find something else that's interesting.

Help me ascend to oysterhood then goyim.
Also im 2 years in to my engineering degree. But i just want to be on the front lines of discovery. But i dont know how to go about achieving this.

>But i just want to be on the front lines of discovery. But i dont know how to go about achieving this.

Well, when trying to achieve a goal, it is useful to think of where you want to end up and work backwards. You say you want to be on the front lines of discovery. Discovery of what? If you don't know specifically what field you want to do research in, then pick up a copy of Nature or Science and leaf through it to see what seems cool. If a paper seems interesting, read it carefully. Not just the abstract, but look at the methods and try to imagine what it would be like to work on a project like that. Different specialties of different fields involve widely different protocols, skills, and competencies. Ask yourself if the things the scientists did for the paper are things you could learn to do, and ask yourself whether the discoveries are interesting enough that you could spend years and years working on them. When you find a paper that really makes you go 'Yeah, THIS is what I want to do!' then look up more papers by the authors, to see what else is going on in this sub-specialty. If you can, ask your peers, professors, or TAs what they know about this area of science, and how competitive or big it is (this is important because you find many things interesting, so you can narrow down your choice by thinking about what would realistically be easier to succeed in.) That should be a start.

Which thread are you referring to? sci can actually have interesting and in-depth discussions sometimes

Where do i find these papers you speak of? And i find myself really interested in space, im pursuing aerospace engineering because they make up 64% of the jobs at NASA. Other than that theres not much else thought in it sadly.. but where can i find those research papers or books?

>Do you believe with proper dedication and discipline one could be a leading scientist or philosopher?
Unfortunately no. You can absolutely be a scientist or a philosopher if you're dedicated enough, but to be a leading one, that is a scientist who other scientists regard as someone authoritative then you need to be very special. Leading scientists are the kinds of people who you can tell are exceptional at a very young age and are typically extremely academically accomplished before they even enter college.

I certainly don't want to discourage you from following your dream, you can still be an academic if you're serious about it, but the kind of genius that makes people stand out in science is something you either have or you don't, and if you're just getting started now you're already way behind the curve.

Think it was the starshot one that really shocked me. But it was the collective of all the threads i skimmed through. Coming from pol, the humor is much more in depth and less just sound bites of what others said a thousand times and people explain their views and back them up instead of just name calling. It just seems like a much better learning environment. Sci definitely just became my go to board

Im not talking hawking tier, i just want to be respected amongst my piers. And make contributions to society through my work. Which i believe i am capable of. But where to start is really whats caught me. Ive just been winging everything up to this point but now i realize i need to start doing some critical thinking on these choices that could effect the rest of my life.