u/Proof-Bed-6928

Not sure if correct sub. Feel free to delete

The way I see it, a lot of the archaic collectivist social norms such as abrahamic religious traditions or Confucian filial piety that young people rebel against were formed during a time when they actually made sense.

Back then, productivity per individual was very low. Teamwork of some kind was essential to basic survival. People existed in relationships out of necessity that would today be easily labeled "toxic codependent". This is especially obvious in Confucian, rice farming civilisations like China.

Nowadays, productivity per individual has increased due to technological advances to the point where it should be very easy to merely survive (absent the artificial scarcity under capitalism), so people start prioritising higher needs like esteem.

At a local level, it is possible for a few people out of a population to co-operate to increase the esteem of all individuals in the local group. But at the population level, esteem is fundamentally "What percent of people are you better than?", so it's a zero sum game. In this environment, there's very little incentive for collectivism.

Am I onto something here? Is there any research on this?

I want to know what to expect. I’m going to start a PhD in the area of Robotics/Control Theory

EDIT: location likely Germany

我知道中国都是以五年期更新经济政策。 我读完博的时候是七年后，我想回来搞低空，无人机物流，会不会太晚了？

In the EU you need to do something called SORA to entire compliance with regulations to make sure EACH ROUTE is safe to fly BVLOS. In the USA they recently came up with part 108. Both are expensive af and takes ages.

Neither was even on the horizon back when zipline started.

Did they just show up to Rwanda, had a cuppa tea with Kagame and started flying?

I'm very inspired by the story of Zipline but what they did in Rwanda is almost unthinkable in the regulatory environment in developing countries.

To merely fly a drone Beyond VIsual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) there's an entire dedicated certification pipeline for that, and it's very expensive to go through the certification process.

I'm guessing Zipline had some kind of special permission directly from Kagame himself.

I myself want an easy regulatory environment to test a physical prototype.

I’ve always been a very introverted person, and attention from others always made me very uncomfortable. I have avoided public speaking as much as I could get away with so far. I’m still afraid of presentations. In my previous job (hybrid role) I retreated to working from home most of the time just to avoid being observed in the open plan office (it wasn’t forbidden but in hindsight I think there was an unspoken rule of some sort that you need to show up). This has definitely held me back more than it should in my career. I am very behind because of this.

That being said, other than occasionally turning red, I have no physical symptoms like difficulty breathing. It’s not that debilitating. So I can’t tell if this is clinically social anxiety. Or whether it justifies spending money on therapy.

Problem is, I’m so behind now that the situation itself is sufficiently embarrassing that I would still be very embarrassed even if it’s known for sure I don’t have social anxiety.

I’m not sure this is a problem therapy can fix. Cuz I’d still be where I am even if it fixes the possible social anxiety problem.

Which country? Which subject? How long gap?

Not just a gap where you worked in other fields, an actual gap where you did nothing?

Especially interested in German PhDs in Engineering

I’m a UK citizen. I have a four year unemployment gap after graduation. I don’t have a good explanation for it like looking after a relative. Due to this gap it is not possible for me to get my first engineering job to get my career started in the UK. My goal is to get back into engineering, especially R&D.

I have been told that PhDs in Germany is a job, and that if you do a masters degree in Germany in the same department, and if you’re good, your chance of admission into PhD goes up to like 80% because the department knows you now. I’ve also been told that they wouldn’t care about anything that happened before the masters, even a four year gap. This is the critical part.

Unfortunately I doubt it’s practical for me to get into a German masters program with this gap right now. And even if I could, the application window doesn’t open until like November so I won’t be able to go until late next year. I’m already 27 and I can’t wait that long anymore.

I have an offer from a very good UK university for a two year MSc, where the second year is completely dedicated to research thesis. Plus the final third of the first year is also a thesis. So I would have 4/3 of a year’s worth of research experience by the time I apply to the German PhD. Compared to a German masters degree where it’s just the final half of the second year.

If I pick my masters research topic carefully to match that of a specific department or professor in Germany, would I still have a good shot of getting into a German PhD program in engineering? Would the extra 5/6th of a year worth of research experience make up for the lack of familiarity?

Would the four year gap still kill my chances after getting the masters?

Right around when I graduated university, I had an accident and settled for a large sum. I then made a series of dumb mistakes - didn’t do internships, too picky when job searching, was a bit mentally unwell, got lazy due to temporary financial security, and employers didn’t like my growing gap and it snowballed and now I have a four year gap I don’t have a good reason for on my CV. Due to this it is not possible for me to get my engineering career started again by getting the first entry level job.

I really want to be an engineer again. I simply need the validation for my abilities in engineering. I’m eyeing to try to start it by doing a PhD in Germany, because this way I can at least milk what’s left of the value of my academic credentials (which are pretty good, I went to a global top 10 school and graduated with a first) to my advantage. And from what I’ve heard job gaps are normal/acceptable in Germany (probably not four years though)

Problem is, even with this plan, there’s only about 10% chance I’ll even get into the PhD in the end, and I’ll have to do a two year research masters first which cost both money and time. If I don’t get in, I don’t have a backup plan other than starting a business or minimum wage for the rest of my life (which I’m aware is the reality for many people, but I’d still like to avoid it if I could).

If I succeed, I will eventually make that masters money back, I’m more worried about time. I will be 29 when I graduate from the masters when my peers from uni will likely be senior or staff engineers who own entire subsystems. I will barely be starting from zero again.

If by some miracle I get accepted into the PhD program, I’ll be 34 when I graduate, and I’ll still likely have to explain the giant gap from 7 years ago (but it’s better than nothing I guess. A PhD student in Germany is officially a public sector research employee so it’s technically “work”). When I try to get an engineering job at 34, I estimate still about 10% chance to get any engineering job. If I fail that and don’t want to settle for minimum wage, I’ll still probably start a business.

It seems that my options from now on no matter what I do is: PhD track, start business, minimum wage. No normal engineering career.

If there’s only 10% x 10% = 1% chance of fixing my engineering career either way, should I bite the bullet and just start a business now? After all if at 34 I’ll have only a 1% chance of an engineering career (as opposed to 0% if I don’t even try the PhD), and the other 99% is starting a business or minimum wage, I might as well start it now and be seven years experienced in business (or broke af because I’m an idiot who knows nothing about business) at 34 no?

For context, I’m based in the UK. If I end up starting a business, I might go to China or Southeast Asia.

If you have any ideas for better backup plans, I’d love to hear it.

What kind of company do you work for? What’s your ownership scope? How big is your team? What do you do?

Do you get a sense of craftsmanship?

EDIT: I’m not looking for job search advice. I just genuinely want to know about this career, and most importantly whether it depends on working for a big company

Because they don’t have facilities to do the necessary testing themselves.

What order of magnitude is this number? Once per clinic per week? Month? Year?

EDIT: how many are for really urgent time critical situations?

Like maybe samples for testing.

What order of magnitude is this number? once per week? month? year?

Is the plan to just... never go back to working? How do they make money?

If one day Tang Ping becomes economically unrealistic, wouldn't they have a huge resume gap and end up unable to return?

Edit: I see these videos where people can rent a huge posh sea view flat there for like £100. Is this true? How is this possible? How come it’s not overrun by people yet?

Asking as a traumatised British autistic

When I imagine an insanely smart person I always pictured them being bored af because the world is too predictable to them and nothing interesting ever happens.

Whereas a dumb person might find the world too chaotic and threatening so they always try to minimise risk and do the same tried and true thing every time.

To what extent is this true? Also, what are some subjective indicators of one’s intelligence? How do you know whether you are smart? If you are dumb, would you know it? If not (if both smart and dumb people think they are smart), then how would anyone really know whether they’re smart?

I can’t tell if I’m an INFP, but one thing is for sure - I can stay by myself for ridiculously long without ever feeling lonely. Like literally years.

I feel absolutely zero need for human connection at the intimate level. If anything, I tend to be a bit suspicious of other people and always have my guards up.

I know that sounds like an IxTP thing, but I’m pretty sure I have Fi and not Fe. I genuinely hate the idea of being in anyway constrained by what other people think of me. My goals in life are quite unconventional and don’t match all that well with conventional ideas of success. I don’t think I’m IxTJ either, I’m definitely not a J of any kind given my level of executive functioning.

I am still capable of empathising with others, but only when it’s due to something I caused. If I fucked up and others are hurt, I would feel pretty bad being the guy that fucked up. But if something bad has happened to someone and I wasn’t involved, I would stand there quite awkwardly, probably trying to fake a level of emotion so I don’t look like an asshole. It’s not comfortable

I don’t think empathy is a bad thing, in fact I absolutely believe the world needs more of it. But I don’t like it when people act like they are entitled to empathy. I’m the only one who has any jurisdiction on whether or not to give anyone else empathy. To shame me for not empathising with others is to disrespect my sovereignty.

I am wary of others because they all have unspoken expectations and you never know what they’re thinking. If they remember me, they are a loose end, a threat. You don’t know what that memory of you is going to snowball into down the line. And that feeling never goes away.

Are there any INFPs here who feel this way? Or is the need for intimate connection an absolutely necessary component of INFPness? Or does Fi simply mean adhering to one’s own value system with or without connecting with others!

I've been exploring routes into doing a PhD in Germany and apparently they don't like 1 year MSc very much during admissions.

Is this true in the rest of Europe?

Imagine if you're some distant relative to the royal family, and they all died in a plane crash or something and now you're in charge of a country and have an air force and all the other countries want shit from you and so do your subjects and your politicians. You are technically allowed to reject this position but that would be a really bad look for your country internationally and for your family.

I'd personally be too lazy to be a monarch

Every post on Reddit about explaining gaps, they all say “just pretend you were taking care of a sick relative”

Surely this has been overused so much now that you can spot it immediately?