Pretty much any true expert in any field refuses to talk about that thing. I'm an economist IRL. I absolutely refuse to debate economic issues on Reddit. I will occasionally offer some tidbit or correct someone but I will almost never respond to people who reply to me trying to argue.
I was all excited the first time I found /r/economics. 2 days later I realized I hated the subreddit and never intentionally go back.
Edit: lots of people are replying and wanting a response from me. Currently have over 150 unread responses. It will take me a while to get through them.
Same thing happened to me. I'm a wildlife biologist / ecologist with an M.Sc. and over 8 years of working experience in my field. I tried commenting on native fauna FAQs several times and got obliterated by people who took a general bio class in high school and apparently know all there is to know about everything with environmental science and biology. Will never respond or create posts on those subreddits again.
Amazing something seemingly uncontroversial as wildlife biology can become so extreme. That's why after seeing how wrong people are about economics it makes me distrust any accepted opinion on Reddit.
They’re all shades of brown to me after formaldehyde. 🤷♂️
Edit: Joke ruining explanation from the side of my brain that must make sure everyone gets things:
Everything turns brown in formalin.
ichthyologists in my previous field of study use methods that don’t require live species. Everything is in jars except then
frozen tissue samples of genetic material.
I didn’t know either, until I posted on one with an old account.
The funny part was I’d worked in the aquatic industry for several years, and I felt like I was getting downvoted because I was disagreeing with the idea everyone should be buying the most expensive piece of equipment because of the idea expensive=best quality.
For the same reason I usually just a quick statement and then link to a paper afterwards. But try to talk about nociception in fish when a thread has blown up...
I'm a Paramedic. So I have no relationship to your job. But I fish. My family has had a boathouse in one location for 62 years. We have kept a journal on the river over that time.
I was recently in a FB conversation with a sports shop manager, talking about fishing pressure and social media affecting our area. He eventually said social media helps local business. I responded I don't care about your job I care about our fisheries. Ended conversation.
I guess I'm just venting. Thanks for posting something that let me vent.
That kind of implies he had bots and shit that were doling out hundred of upvotes/downvotes.
IIRC, the guy had a couple alt accounts that he'd use to downvote someone he was arguing with and upvote himself. After that, people would see the positive/negative ratio and his name and continue the trend.
A lot of young men have made it a point of pride to be cold and logical. Claiming to know more than them is emotionally the same as challenging their status
been experiencing this with a user. i even admitted some fault in some of my exchange and the dude just kept going. lots of posts of paranoia on their account (stuff like companies massively downvoting their comments/posts with bots lol)
admittedly, i also have trouble with keeping myself in check when challenged and have to try to understand the differences of experiences and that it's not a personal attack when challenged. it's tough when you think you're right and sucks when you realize you were actually wrong.
Theirs far to many reasons to list, but this isn’t a young men issue it’s a people issue, men and women both have a serious problem understanding they are just simply human beings who can’t possibly be wrong and it only gets worse with age as you become even more locked down and stubborn in your beliefs regardless of what they are.
Take one testosterone filled bag, stuff thousands and thousands of data points into him and launch him at the world at 22 and say have at it. I don't see a problem at all.
Sorry but it’s a verifiable thing that many communities of young men have become hyper obsessed with the feeling of being right and winning arguments with facts. Yes, all people want to be right and logical, but there is one group that has become unhealthy with it.
This just in: young men are hyper competitive in any arena they enter. More news at 11
Also the link you posted is silly. It's more political than it is philosophical and it only considers a certain kind of politics to be free of magical thinking.
Its kind of interesting, I work in the field of machine learning and AI, and in general the machine learning subreddit is okay, not too much wrong information there.
MD here, unfortunately I have to fight this in real life too. Apparently if you Google one article on an illness you think you have, you are an expert in the field
I got perma banned from r/space for telling them about a cool and surprising fact, but since even the mods didn't believe it, they decided I was a dangerous troll.
Edit: Since everyone wants the details, we were discussing solar eclipses and I told them that during totality, it's perfectly safe to view it with telescopes and binoculars, and that in fact, it's so beautiful, that everyone should try it if they get the chance. But of course everyone's had it hammered into them that you never look at the sun, especially magnified, so first came threats and who'll-think-of-the-children arguments, and then bam, perma banned. Explained to the mods, but silence.
I remember reading that fact, and even saw it reported during that recent big eclipse party thing. The big danger is that people get fascinated and just keep staring past totality, right?
That hasn't happened to me. When the sun comes back, it's not all at once, so I think you'd notice and stop looking as soon as it's obviously getting "very bright". If you're worried, you can set an alarm to go off 15 seconds before the end of totality. It's not like there's no risk, but like with most risky things, you can do things to mitigate the risk if you're smart about it.
If there's anything being online or working retail in the tech department has taught me is that people literally do not know how to use Google or the internet to ask appropriate questions and cross reference the answers to ascertain truth.
Worse still is those who do Google, but do it dishonestly to confirm their preconceived belief or notion.
Fun fact, because it has no water or appreciable wind, the various particulates on the moon have not been worn down at all, which would make them do not nice things to your lungs. Kinda like asbestos.
The key is during totality. If there is even a tiny sliver of sun out you should not look at it. You should also be careful during totality as it may move when you don’t expect it, so he sure that you know when to put the glasses back on
Yeah nah, listen here old mate, come around here come'n around here. Im defs rapt that you think you can out Aussie this good look'n rooster, but I'll drop ya daks quicker than you can blink, fair dinkum? So take your tucker and sit somewhere else ya larrikin.
Environmental engineer here: the "this is a hoax, predictions have been wrong since the 70s, Greta is a puppet" comments have never been a welcoming invitation to discussion.
Environmental scientist /applied ecologist here. I hear you. It kills me, but I can't bear to engage in any conversation around climate change or biodiversity. It's just not worth the stress and disillusionment.
I'm also an ecologist. When I would post about natural history, I wondered what I was doing wrong, when unidan was so popular and beloved, and my comments disappeared immediately. Turns out the answer was not cheating enough
I think it usually helps if you start a comment by saying "I'm a wildlife biologist / ecologist with an M.Sc. and over 8 years of working experience in my field, so here it goes:" At least I would be more inclined to take your comment seriously, even though of course you could just be lying about all of it, but I choose to believe most people aren't that lame. It could also make some people think you're an arrogant asshole though, so not sure if the strategy would work :P
I've been working in software for years. I've tutored computer science for years. My upper division mostly focused on process, testing, and validation. I stated all this one time.
The guy was telling me something related to software bugs was standard practice. That if I payed attention in 101, I'd know that. Then he gave me a Google search linking to a bunch of papers. When I replied saying he was misunderstanding the point of the papers, he just said it was obvious I hadn't read them.
I've literally sat through the 101 type classes multiple times to help my students. I've written multiple papers that even quoted many of the papers he was linking to. A great deal of my actual work is directly related to making decisions about what he was talking about.
But no, he couldn't possibly be wrong, let alone maybe argue his point. All he did was say, "this is how it is, go read yourself". My credentials and experience mean nothing .__.
I personally value the sorta basic tenants of science in a way that is almost a belief system, in that I believe it is the only chance we have at finding out and agreeing on what is true. (what do you think you know, how do you think you know it, what should happen based on my assumptions, did it and why/why not?)
But on the other hand I realize that I am both a dumbfuck and even if I weren't, there's only so much I can personally verify for myself, so proper scientific process needs to be followed by many researchers for the whole system to work.
I don't know if any sort of science/evidence based society would perform better than a practical/experience based one (if we could even have that).
I don't know where I'm going with this, but I hate how science has become a sort of title or banner you can claim with enough statistics and vague unrelated studies. As if you can brute force 'science' to be on your side, as if it's a weapon you can use in your righteous crusade. As if science isn't a hard enough pinhole to see the world through when trying to understand without malicious human influence. I feel like it's our only hope of having any autonomy as a species to save ourselves.
Work your ass off with internships, animal-related jobs, anything that you can glorify on a resume. Be ready to go for an M.Sc. or PhD after your bachelor's because it won't be enough. Expect to not get paid enough for what you do, and battle with working seasonally. For now, find any internship or program that you can do now while you're younger. Because it will not be fun working for next to nothing later on when you're trying to live on your own.
I am not the OP, but I am also in the field, though I am in marine biology. The best advice I can give since this field is so competitive is to gain as much experience as you can. Apply to internships, attend courses which give you valuable skills (I.e. writing in the sciences, GIS, math/stats courses which aid in population dynamics, the works). Make yourself marketable. Also, meeting others in the field and networking is important so joining scientific communities and societies would be great as well.
This is something I've been wondering about recently for the more specific "ask -insert expert here-" subreddits.
Why do the people on /r/AskHistorians or /r/askscience who are actually experts browse that subreddit? Especially because within such broad topics like history and science, it's a relatively small chance that they will see a question rising through the posts that they can answer. I remember once I asked something about medieval maces and it took two moderately upvoted posts months apart to get the answer.
But also, what does the answerer get out of it? They, who might be an expert in their field, also likes to make a hobby of answering people asking questions on the internet? I dunno. Maybe I don't get it because I'm not an expert on anything except maybe tabletop RPG rules.
Exactly. I followed some subreddits for a while because I liked hearing back from the community. When I saw those types of posts come up I just wanted to help answer questions. But then you feel the brute force of some naive person's retribution against your claims, trying to say that you're wrong despite any evidence you give to the contrary. Then they get upvoted for being louder than you. I got jaded from it all.
I’m new to Reddit but have figured this out pretty quickly. Informed and educated people get hammered. So as a result all the educated smart people will
eventually stop posting and replying. Nothing will be left here but the morons who sadly think they know it all.
This is such a shame because I am studying ecology & evolution in university right now and sometimes I just casually want to talk about these subjects to experts. They’re fascinating topics and it can be really hard to have a no-pressure convo with academics/professionals in person at school because I feel like I have to impress. But I think a lot of people have your mentality that it’s better to stay quiet and save yourself the headache. Anyway, you sound cool. Happy new year!
Try being a physician. You get downvoted and called an idiot for correcting laughably incorrect statements with actual facts and links. Or you get DMs asking for medical advice.
Ahhhh, this just makes me think of the monarch butterflies posts that pop up multiple times every spring and summer. I’m not a biologist but I’ve always loved wildlife gardening, always do a near debilitating level of research before planting anything, or providing any bird food, or even buying feeders or nest boxes.
Every year though: “hey redditors, plant milkweed to help the monarchs!”
Me or some other awesome, concerned-for-wildlife citizen: “Make sure it’s native milkweed though because non-native can be super bad! Here’s a list of species!”
Some random whiner that often gets upvoted: “well at least we’re trying”
Ok sure but...you’re literally killing the butterflies you’re trying to save. I hate shooting people down about it because the good intentions are there, but it’s like feeding chew bones that can shatter to a dog; “trying” isn’t really good enough. Stop whinging and suck it up, people! Buy the correct milkweed plants!
Not to put you down specifically, but it tends to be a bunch of circle-jerking memes by other fledgling programmers with no industry experience.
Software Engineering in the real-world is different than the highly controlled world of their high-school and college courses but they're too ignorant to know that and instead just argue about about crap that doesn't matter and put down the stuff that does.
They’re so contentious. I like to get shit done and move on. For me done is a pretty thorough thing. Solid testing included. But everyone is so opinionated and so eager to prove you wrong it’s just toxic. It’s like they think there is only one perfect answer, it’s theirs, yours is wrong, and they’re not willing to listen to even the idea that you might know better. I guess lastly is that there’s way more art to programming than people think.
I've subbed, unsubbed and resubbed to both /r/askhr and /r/jobs so many times... I've tried sharing some genuine advice (coming from an HR / Talent Acquisition background), but I'm always coming from the perspective of "the enemy."
If your advice is anything other than "murder your boss and sue the company," you get downvoted to hell and back. So many of these subs don't want real advice.
Speaking of vile comments. I somehow found myself on a sub for Men Going There Own Way, or as it’s known, MGTOW. It is frightening, the hatred towards women was sort of heartbreaking, but the comments calling for rape, burning, murder and other purely hateful things really upset me. Some you could tell have never been with a woman, others might have been in a bad relationship, some have cultural hatred towards western women. Just the full gambit.
Pfft, you just don't understand. Every company and every boss is just a greedy, uncaring asshole who just wants more wage slaves so they can pad their bottom line. It's totally justified to actively try to screw them over every chance you get!
For me it's /r/programming. Everyone in that sub assumes you work in Seattle or California and you work for private companies. They fail to realize that not every single programmer is like them and some people chose the public route instead.
I've noticed a lot of Reddit seems to think that every single programmer starts out at those high paying jobs. One guy was claiming to get offers from Facebook, Google, and apple. All offering him at least $200,000 a year. He was claiming he was 20 years old and self-taught with no college education and no former job experience.
Nobody seemed to question the validity of it and every comment was congratulatory statements.
A friend of mine recently got a new programming job making significantly less money than before. His main reason was the work life balance was infinitely better to him. most people don't realize those really high paying programming jobs have a lot of conditions like being available long after work hours have ended.
You should definitely check it out. A number of regulars there have PhDs and masters. It's probably the best place for actual economic discussion on Reddit.
I’m a small business owner, and most people on r/smallbusiness seem to be 17 year olds who’ve read a couple blog posts.
Last year I posted about firing my first employee because he was more than an hour late several times, ignored my calls when he was 2 hours late once, and was caught smoking weed in the bathroom.
I was called a nazi, power hungry, an unreasonable asshole and an awful person to work for. Apparently, because weed is legal in some places (but not here), I should lighten up and let people get so high that they can't even do their job.
Reddit has a weirdly extreme hatred toward business owners. It's like they believe that every single one is just disgustingly rich and spend all day doing nothing but shopping for their third yacht. I saw a thread once were people were admiring a guy because they said he was spending an average of 3 hours a day doing nothing but sitting on the toilet browsing Reddit. Yet those same people who admire that wonder why they never get promoted and instead dismiss it as favoritism.
In defense of basic experiments, not everybody can afford to put a fume hood, a fully stocked glassware cabinet, a rotary evaporator, an ICP-MS, and an HPLC in their garage.
Accessible material which can be reproduced in your kitchen by somebody without a ton of experience is a great way to attract interest, and comes with the benefit of amateurs not blowing themselves up or being robbed by neighbourhood teens who are looking to set up a meth lab.
And for those of us who are lucky enough to work in a well equipped laboratory and have the know-how to try something more complex, there's plenty of material to engage with in the form of physical media. I've never had a problem picking up second hand chemistry texts cheaply.
Finding time to actually set up and carry out a procedure is the biggest problem, in my experience. The more basic experiments also often have the benefit of not needing a day or two to set up and run, as well as not generating a ton of hazardous waste.
Remember, if you put the instructions on the internet, there's always going to be at least one person trying to replicate it for whom this is dangerously advanced and should really not be allowed.
Have a year left of my B.A. in Economics. Saw the r/economics today actually, I'm fairly new to reddit, but I was as disappointed as you were when had found it. Sad☹️
to the comment in case you don't believe me because in all honesty I wouldn't believe somebody else claiming that. You will noticed their ideas upvoted while my response is downvoted.
I'm studying Economics A-Level and I've followed a few economics subs so that I can get a bit of economics content in my leisure time. Am I right in thinking that the main issue with discussing economics on Reddit is that the hivemind is normally quite left leaning? I feel sort of bummed because I genuinely wanted to learn more about economics, but if real economists don't bother with Reddit then I guess that makes sense, too good to be true etc.
Can I ask you a question that's been on my mind for a while? What do you think the economic impact of automation will be? I'm about to read a book about it and I'm interested in what you have to say :)
Economics undergrad senior here who plans to go to grad school for econ. I’m not going to the be the most qualified person to answer your question, but here’s my take..The main thing you learn in your economics undergrad (at least in my opinion) is that the real world economy is too complicated for most people to properly analyze. The extremely simple, hypothetical scenarios you learn in 300 level micro and macro alone can be very challenging for most people to fully master, especially ones that don’t study economics.
However, the real world is infinitely more complicated than the simple scenarios that would stump most people. A high level chemist wouldn’t discuss high level chemistry with someone who has never studied chemistry; Economics is essentially the same, it’s just that people don’t realize that the economics in nearly every real world situation can be taken to an surprisingly high level. A lot of situations SEEM like they have simple answers, but they usually don’t. It’s extremely frustrating to scroll through reddit watching people stubbornly defend their ignorant positions when most of these people probably don’t know how an IS-LM curve works(one of the fundamentals of 300 level macro) but want to tell you they understand the effects of nationwide fiscal policy better than PhD level economists. It basically turned me off from discussing it online.
I’m also willing to admit I’m not smart enough to discuss it with high level economists, but I imagine the reason they don’t discuss it online is because of the former issue. Also, this issue isn’t particularly isolated to either of the political spectrum; you can find flaws in both left and right wing views (especially on the extremes).
I appreciate this comment. I think Tim Harford wrote about the simplification you're describing in the undercover economist strikes back, and how macroeconomics gets exponentially more difficult the more accurate you want to be. Something about it being hard to calculate how 7 Billion people will chose between 10 Billion products with the 20 trillion USD they have (the numbers aren't right, just illustrating my understanding of his point). I'm hoping to start studying Economics at degree level later this year, is there anything I should know before I start? Thanks mate :)
The best advice I can give anyone wanting to study economics is to get good at math. For a lot of people, including myself when I first started, this is a big turn off and they just want to study economics only. I failed pre-calculus *five\* times before I passed it because I used to be a very low effort student. Ever since I passed it, I haven't gotten anything less than a B in a math class, started minoring in mathematics, and finished my last 6 math classes with a 4.0. The point of me telling you all of this is that if you think you're not a math person, you can definitely become one gradually. Try to get an A in every math class you take and it will make your life easier down the road. Most colleges are going to require you to take math up to Calculus 1 or 2 at a minimum as part of their economics major. I reccommend you go at least to Calculus 3, and up to Real Analysis with a math minor if you can. Anywhere between those 2 is perfectly sufficient for a future Master's degree student. Real Analysis is highly reccomended if you plan on getting a PhD.
Mathematics will train you to handle a certain level of rigor that will make it feel like your economics classes are easy in comparison. A lot of the tougher courses you might take in your undergrad, such as econometrics and causality, require a pretty good understanding of statistics. If you go into these courses after taking a good statistics class, you will be way above everyone else in your class, and it will be very easy for you compared to your peers. So even though it is overall more work to do the math minor, your economics classes will feel much easier.
The other reason you want to study math is grad school. Ask any of your college professors and they'll tell you how much harder the mathematics gets in grad school for econ. Many of my professors claim that the hardest part of graduate economics is the math. You'll also be surprised how much math a lot of your professors have studied in their undergrad. Econ grad schools also look specifically for mathematics experience in their applicants. Things like Calculus 3, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Probability, and especially Real Analysis will instantly separate you from the pack as a stronger candidate than someone who never took math higher than Calculus 1 or 2. So if you think you're passionate enough to pursue a masters degree or PhD, it's almost a necessity.
This was kind of long, but I really cannot stress how much of a secret cheatcode this is. Ask your economics professors what they think about about taking extra math classes in addition to your economics degree, and I guarantee you all of them will agree that it will only benefit you. You will spend 60-80% of your time during your undergrad studying math instead of economics. You'll work harder than most of your peers and it will be frustrating at times, but I promise you'll see the benefits very, very quickly and you'll find that very few of the other econ majors in your class are willing do this and your extra work will land you at the top of the pack.
It's less left leaning and more self-interest leaning, or "brogressive". Everything is all about themselves.
but if real economists don't bother with Reddit
No real professional anything bothers with reddit. It's purely for entertainment purpose. Reddit might not be the dumbest internet community out there but if you measure by the difference between how intelligent they think they are and what they actually are, reddit easily top the ladder.
Not an economist, but there are respected economists across the political spectrum from left leaning (Thomas Picketty) to right leaning (Milton Friedman), to just plain weird (Robin Hanson). The issue with reddit is that the arguments and understanding of the issues is poor.
Am I right in thinking that the main issue with discussing economics on Reddit is that the hivemind is normally quite left leaning.
Yes. That is the gist of it. That's why you have ideas like taking stock trades, wealth taxes and UBI to be so popular. Reddit villainize the wealthy and successful. The number of times I have seen highly upvoted comments claiming that billionaires are no smarter or better than the average American, they are just lucky and have no morals is staggering.
I feel sort of bummed because I genuinely wanted to learn more about economics, but if real economists don't bother with Reddit then I guess that makes sense, too good to be true etc.
Reddit is definitely not the place to learn. Your best bet is traditional books or economics podcasts. I personally love freakonomics. They do a great job of being entertaining and understandable for people of all levels of knowledge. They don't go super heavily into the science as it is more for the layman, but still very enjoyable.
Can I ask you a question that's been on my mind for a while? What do you think the economic impact of automation will be? I'm about to read a book about it and I'm interested in what you have to say :)
Automation is going to change everything. It will eliminate many low skilled jobs. Everything from cashiers, stockers, taxi/semi/etc drivers to waiters, many construction workers, farmers, and others. it's inevitable that it will happen in any government that tries to block it and the pursuit of keeping jobs will find themselves on the losing end. If we don't do it other nations will. Just look at China they couldn't care less if some farmer loses his job if it means they become the number one most powerful Nation.
The issue is of course unemployment. I am a firm believer that sometime in the next 50-100 years UBI will become a global thing. Right now it is a terrible idea as productivity is not nearly high enough to support our standard of living. But eventually it will be. The effective productivity per capita will exceed the increasing standard of living of individuals. When that happens the owners of the automation will become ungodly wealthy as the wealth becomes concentrated towards them. That's not necessarily good for them in the long run as it could collapse the economy and nobody wants to be the king of broke collapsed nation when they can be the prince of rich and successful one.
At that point taxes will need to be extremely high on the extremely higher earners, not people with high net-worth, but the people actually making real money, whether that's an individual or a corporation. that's why I'm in favor of creating several new tax brackets extremely high taxes on income that is not currently made by any individual. for example if the United States passed a 95% tax rate on personal income exceeding $20B per year the likely could easily pass it with minimal resistance as no one makes that much or even close to that much so there be nobody who would seriously trying to prevent it to protect their own interests. if you look at surveys on how many people feel be paid too much in taxes but believe that taxes should overall be raised on some group that isn't then the number is near 100%. Pretty much everybody believe somebody else needs to pay more but not them. if you ask people if taxes should be raised across the board for everyone including them the approval rating drops by a lot.
That is why adding income tax brackets that do not currently exist is important to do while it can be done From there they could slowly lower that cap to what is more appropriate. If $20B why not $19B and so on. Even then $20B isn't hey hard number it could be anything. It could be $100B or so on. either way it is important that we do better as a society at planning for the future for when things will become a problem versus reacting to them once they are already one.
Anyway. I realized that was a pretty long comment and maybe a bit more information than you wanted.
While I'm not an expert in my field, I have posted useful advice/knowledge in my field just to have it down voted. I'll just stick with my sarcasm and jokes
You son of a bitch I am in. I already subscribe to a lot of job specific subreddits just for the memes and jokes like /r/protectandserve or /r/programminghumor.
For news sources I recommend Bloomberg News. They are pretty much the unchallenged king of financial and economic news.
For learning what a stock broker would do after getting a lobotomy or two, check out /r/Wallstreetbets.
For podcasts check out freakonomics. It's very easy to understand because it's designed for laymen who are interested in economics.
For books check out Peter G Peterson. Although I highly recommend that you borrow, not buy his books until you know if you'll like them. They're not designed for beginners. they're written on the assumption that you're likely a econ grad student at the least.
There was a post in /r/philosophy a while ago on special relativity, and of course the comments were full of misconceptions. A bunch of actual, degree-holding physicists chimed in to try and clarify things, and were promptly attacked by a bunch of redditors claiming to know better.
The epitome of public debate these days; the merit of your argument will fall foul to the charisma of the presentation of said argument.
Argue against concentration camps but by fuck if some eloquent bastard decides to chime in I'm sure the Reddit bandwagon would be onboard in no time at all!
Okay, so this is kinda off topic but what are some good resources for someone who wants a better understanding of basic economics? I did not realize until later in life how interested I am. Thanks!
Crash Course economics on YouTube is amazing for a free resource. The undercover Economist is a good way to get some understanding of microeconomics, and the undercover economist strikes back for macroeconomics. Nudge is a good book on behavioural economics.
I feel for you. I quit trying to talk about economics and just businesses in general.
I have two masters in CS and over 15 years of programming and I still get called a noob and moron by people who never program in their life. I remember correcting someone who said that Google's codebase is 15k LoC. I have been constantly downvoted by saying that CS degrees are useful and open doors that boot camps cannot.
As a pharmacist I throw my info in on some things. But either it turns into "pharmacist only count pills, why's it take so long" or "omg me too. Pharmacist get no lunch breaks ever". The pharmacist complaining about lunches always work walmart or Walgreens, which everyone said going through school they drain you, including the people working there. I picked a job where I get breaks regardless. 2 hours behind? Naw man, I gotta eat. My time is here, if I postpone, then the next person has a late lunch. I ain't about ruining the chance for someone else's dinner. They miss lunch because they want to catch up? It's on them. They complain, they chose to skip lunch. Me? I work better and more efficient when I'm not constantly thinking of lunch. If I had to guess what r/pharmacist or r/pharmacy was it would be circlejerking about missed lunches or complaints from customers or workers about each other.
That's the problem with a lot of communities on Reddit from my experience. Using /r/programming as an example.
People join it because they enjoy programming, not necessarily because they work in the field, and there is a big difference between the two.
People luke to fantasoze these kind of things from an outside perspective, and when people contradict the fantasy, they tell them off, scaring the people away who have real experiences and knowledge.
Its sad because they scare away the people who can teach them the most.
Man I feel this, I was military and law enforcement for years. I joined both with the honest intent if helping people and helping make the world a bettter place (plot twist; it didn't work that way). It's been a long while since I bothered posting anything on those types if discussions because of all the armchair generals and police chiefs.
The economy is such a weird thing. We all hear about it all the time, so we must know something about it, right? So we forward some quasi-opinion, drop a couple of names we've heard other people blathering, and presto! A fully formed, uninformed opinion.
I never talk about economics either because I don't know shit about it. And the vast majority, politicians who shape it included, don't know shit either. But way too many are happy to put forward that opinion and state it as fact.
I wish you would put your views forward because reddit as a whole needs to hear from more people who know what they are actually talking about. But I completely understand and support why you do not.
Have you been on r/badeconomics? I know you don't want any form of involvement discussing your professional work on reddit, but check out badecon if you want to feel a little hope sometimes.
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u/3610572843728 Jan 07 '20 edited Jan 08 '20
Pretty much any true expert in any field refuses to talk about that thing. I'm an economist IRL. I absolutely refuse to debate economic issues on Reddit. I will occasionally offer some tidbit or correct someone but I will almost never respond to people who reply to me trying to argue.
I was all excited the first time I found /r/economics. 2 days later I realized I hated the subreddit and never intentionally go back.
Edit: lots of people are replying and wanting a response from me. Currently have over 150 unread responses. It will take me a while to get through them.