Go home for a break from my PhD

Better make the leap to PI dawg

Honestly I was in this exact situation the moment I finished precal lol

if you can't explain it to them, then you did not fully understand it

I don't think you've ever tried to explain anything to retards. They zone out, forget what you said a few seconds ago, and generally ignore you. It's basically impossible without reducing the whole of it to some meaningless analogy.

also op said they don't attempt to understand. AKA they don't give a shit and don't want op to talk about it.

maybe stop being a faggot and consider stooping to their level: if you can't explain what you do to someone like they're five you haven't learned anything.

Only brainlets would say that

This.

>wow user, you're lucky that you're so smart

Holy fuck this is the worst. Maybe if you actually studied in school you'd understand basic algebra too. They totally disregard any of your efforts to obtain your knowledge.

>So... what's the use of this in the real world?

>tfw engineer and master's student
>family doesn't understand or care about either my work or my research
>whenever I try to simply it and explain it, someone cracks a joke in the middle of my explanation and changes the subject

I still feel like fundamental algebraic operations were some of the most useful things I ever learned. I’m trying to help my girlfriend with her intermediate algebra class (the one before you can take college algebra) and it’s beyond frustrating

>But why do you still need a calculator when you have a phd in maths user?

mate, if you cant explain your phd to the common pleb you are the problem, not them.

I have a phd in quantum mechanics yet my mum knows what it is I do (for the most part, in layman speak).

You need to dumb it down, tell us what you do and we can explain it in retard language for you to tell your family lol

I don't think that's the point bud. It's more about the fact that a lot of people simply don't care to try and/or understand. Yes, I myself included can also explain my specialty to a five year old and have then understand it. That does not mean they will care.

To be honest I wouldn't really give a shit about what my hypothetical plumber uncle Steve actually does day-to-day. I imagine for people with no interest in academic research your actual research topic is similarly uninteresting, with the added bonus of requiring some effort to understand, especially if it's been 20 years since high school. And, probably, the topic is not at all relatable to their life, so they feel even less inclined to care about what exactly it is that their spergy relative does in the university basement.

Is your research groundbreaking stuff? No? Then why should they care? Do you care about your uncles plumbing job?

Just get some snacks, turn your brain off, and watch Big Bang Theory with your family you fucking autist.

This completely is NOT true. If a five year old retard could understand it, a five year old retard would be going it, and you should feel like a complete dumbass that you had to go to school for 12+8ish year in order to understand it.

Sure, someone could explain, “I create better materials so that planes a lighter and more resilient.” But that’s not really what you do all day, if that’s your job, is it? If you’re studying anything technical, that “five year old” description is nice but actually says nothing about what you do all day, or what you think about and wonder about in your line of work/study.

So shut up about this “five year old” crap until you have faced the absolute torment of tutoring people who should have failed high school, but are trying to get through college remedial math, then come back to me on that. Do you know how many people can’t even do long division? Like let’s just understand that for a minute.

>so... what do you make of that?

Hate to tell you this but most people don't care, period. Including your family.

Oh, you just came here because you want to be told how fucking special you are because you're studying something so god damned erudite that your own family can't understand it. Huh?

They only care that you'll make enough money to keep them off of the streets in their old age. That's it.

Use analogies. Lots of analogies.My parents never took calculus so I can't hope to explain to them turning optimal control calculus of variations problems into non-linear programming problems and all the crap that's involved in this when working with data driven dynamics. Because of this I explain the work I do through the analogy of an ice skater trying to turn around on the ice, she can't turn around all at once because she'd fall over, there's constraints on the ways she can move and she uses this to decide the best way to turn around. Then I relate this to other applications like launching satellites, tracking diseases and controlling robots, referring back to the initial analogy when necessary.

I find things get hard when they are actually paying attention and ask questions then you need to come up with more analogies to disambiguate your work from related fields/approaches.

>like math AND engineering
>no engineering student likes math
>no math student knows any programming languages or is interested at all in engineering related topics

And I'm sure you're insanely interested in and fascinated by your cousin's car repair shop.

Stop being such a fucking elitist.

>when are you graduating?
fuck off

just be happy you can talk to someone other than your advisor

B-but long division is hard senpai :(

This

1248 I guess

Just try to explain something like integrals to someone who is not from STEM under 5 minutes and you'll see that you're full of shit.

Someone once said "An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid."

That man was Albert Einstein.

Area under a curve

>> TFW your family does
>> bothers you about it
>> user why don't you use 'stuff you are working on' for obvious but far off application
at least my dad can help me with some of the bullshit associated with dealing with supercomputers.

actually, it was Ernest Rutherford

I sincerely doubt that Einstein was every a barmaid.

infinite multiplication

or an infinite dot product is how i sometimes think about it

Area under a curve

A normie would have no idea what that meant

that's why i said infinite multiplication at first.

...

I'm a Materials Engineer and I fucking LOVE math. Feels bad since I'm almost five semesters ahead of my friends in math :(
My school also requires Math and Stats majors to take programming classes

I just hate how engineers care little about proofs and derivations like you little shit that's how you actually understand what it is and where it came from.

I always make up some big sounding number so they think I did it really fast

>you're a grad student?
>tell me about what your studying; I want to know1 :)
What do you do?

Plumbing is not uncle Steve's life. Plumbing is his job. If you're going into stem for work that is a fine analogy but if you're actually passionate about your field it sucks when family members don't even attempt to understand.

If the plumber was incredibly passionate about plumbing I would fucking learn about plumbing. But most people aren't Hank Hill and are not that passionate about what they do.

the older people do not understand what “computer science” actually is, which is fine. the shitty ones will ask and then stop listening immediately to any real answer so it’s easier to just say something like “math, algorithms, programming and so forth” and leave it at that, as they don’t really care. I’m also in a concentration for GIS and RS stuff to where a response like “oh like google maps” is extremely common and maybe a fraction of it, but at least in the right direction.

this is a fun one, actually. especially if you’re employed in your field already. gotta guage intent though, if they’re trying to be condescending dickheads you can turn it around on them and be just as petty - that they don’t know how or why something is valuable is a poor reflection on them

What is a curve?

Show them articles you’ve published if they’re cool and receptive. I usually just brain dump whatever stuff I was working on most recently or that which I found most interesting, people will listen if you’re good at communicating and enthusiastic. Just have an “abridged” version if they get that 1000 yard stare.

“Like your waistline, been neglecting the gym? :^) “

I just don't understand why you would go into engineering if you don't like math or struggle with physics. It seems completely contradictory in every way. The math and physics give reason behind how whatever discipline of engineering you're interested in works; the theory is the most interesting part!

Einstein said it

>assuming people care about your meme existence

Very few people give a fuck about what you do, OP. They only ask in order to make conversation. Parents just care that you're doing well. Also, kill yourself for making me explain something that should be obvious.

It’s pretty sad that people don’t care about you, user

dafuq is that? How do they even teach middle-school classes in college? I hope she's hot, user

First off, the "explain like I'm five" thing isn't literal, it just means assume the person can understand abstract concepts yet also assume the person has no insight into what the fuck it is you do.

Second off, you should be able to give a vague description of what it is you do or what the subject is about. For instance, the average person might have no fucking clue what quantum computers are but it's easy to explain it. The explanation is lengthy but there's very few abstract concepts needed to understand what they are and what they can do. However, yes, it will take a bit more than a single conversation to explain *why* they work or how they would be physically made

People come from all sorts of backgrounds and places and both the core curriculum and the recognition of credits between institutions can vary a lot within and between municipalities, and especially for overseas students. Usually there are courses in place of later high school credits or bridge courses for other faculties. Still it’s good that it’s offered, some schools are limited in this respect

I don't even care about myself; it's something I'm trying to change. But with regards to others, I've experienced far too much in this world to believe humans aren't inherently selfish. Very few people are actually concerned with your well-being. You're better off learning that while you're young.

Unless they can relate exactly to whatever it is you're talking about or if it's something interesting or surprising, no normal friend gives a shit.

It doesn't matter if you listen to every conversation and help them whenever they need it, friends just won't reciprocate unless they have a clear reason to.

It's gotten to the point where I hardly give a full response whenever my friends talk to me anymore, since they just tune me out mid sentence anyway. If it can't be said in less than 5 words, they're already bored.

get better friends

You can't be serious.

1. Why should they understand the novel research that your dissertation should contain?
2. Why should they try to gain anything past a very superficial understanding of what you're doing?
Do you care to listen to the chef talk about the techniques and seasonings he used in preparing your meal, or would you rather just know what you're eating and enjoy the taste?

lel you clearly don't have meaningful friendships.
people can care what you're doing, but they won't have the level of interest as you all the time, and they certainly won't have as significant an understanding, so other than a mostly superficial or layman type discussion, what more can you expect from someone who isn't actively pursuing or involved in similar work?

I've found that most people have this problem because their idea of talking about what they do is diving into a technical treatise of their field using tons of jargon, which is very offputting.

They’re currently learning how to simplify rational functions by factoring, as well as how to manipulate variables with exponents.

Exactly. She didn’t have supportive parents like I did. In fact, it was only after we started dating that she expressed any interest in post-high school education.

I listen to their shit when they talk about it, but then again I'm interested in a wide variety of subjects while my friends tend to only have like 5 things they find interesting and everything else is boring.

Either way how exactly am I supposed to get better friends or make meaningful relationships? It's hard enough for me to even get a shitty friend as it is.

They will most likely understand if you make them watch rick and morty

What I hope for:
>Hey user so what's your job again?
>Cool, so what type of stuff do you work on?
>Wow, so how does it work?

What happens:
>Hey user so what's your job again?
>Cool

Can't expect much from brainlets who worked trivial jobs their whole lives

My whole family talks nonstop about their jobs though. My dad talks for hours about his job. My uncle does too. My brother does

They don't care about mind though, whenever I go in-depth they just change the subject

docs.google.com/document/d/1yK555ksJkU9S6Do4XFTecmdOCxU-Lr4FwP8tMon82D4/edit
post science shit

Then why do I like listening to my family talking about their jobs? I especially like hearing about technical jobs done by people smarter than me

I guess they're just selfish bad people

You sound like my co-worker. Very smart guy but uses textbook terminology when explaining things to people who aren't in the same line of work. It almost negates all of his work because he can't explain it to people that need to understand it.

Is there a reason why people can't communicate topics on a simple level? It's almost borderline retarded behavior considering these people fully understand the subject.

Sorry I wasn't shitting you OP

>PhD in quantum mechanics
Nice larp lol

>I listen to their shit when they talk about it
but how much detail do they go into, and is there a bunch of jargon that you are not familiar with?
you can't expect someone to maintain a conversation about something they aren't familiar with if you dont make it interesting for them

So you wanna tell us now user we'll understand

You know, I think you might be better of studying something that the medical field takes more seriously than this alternate stuff.

>lol user you should try getting a girlfriend instead of calculating your fractions :)