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I've followed this project for a while. And while it truly is an impressive feat, I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment. I'm 24 and a physics PhD

I've followed this project for a while. And while it truly is an impressive feat, I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment. I'm 24 and a physics PhD student, and just afforded my first soldering iron. I lack the space, let alone the equipment to attempt anything close to this. What a lucky, talented guy!

hnthrowaway0315 5y ago
I think it's easier to get the money if one has funding from parents or friends, after all most of this stuffs are dirty cheap (under $1K) and he has a whole garage to play around, but it's MUCH more difficult to learn the skills described in the article!
- was_a_dev 5y ago
  As mentioned, getting that equipment would cost an order of magnitude higher in my part of the world. However, there is no doubt the feat pulled off here is impressive and insanely difficult to do. I most likely couldn't replicate it, but I wouldn't be able to find that out.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - csdvrx 5y ago
    > It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron That's like 10 bucks on amazon? Skip 2 meals, or panhandle for 4 hours. Done - soldering iron.
    - Symbiote 5y ago
      I'd assumed they were in India, but they wrote in another comment "My PhD is funded by a research council and my stipend is £12k." I had forgotten the pathetic level of funding science PhDs get in Britain. £12k is possibly on the low end, but a PhD with this funding was on the fourth page of the main site listing them [1]. Minimum wage assuming a 40-hour working week is £19,760 per year, and after taxes works out to £17,100. In other words, they are probably already skipping meals. For comparison, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen is paid £47,500 per annum [2], or £31,000 after tax (probably more, I think there's a tax discount for foreign researchers). [1] https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-nearly-zero-energy-in-educational-building-and-investigate-its-impact-on-airborne-virus https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-ne... [2] https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen-staff/ https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen...
      - was_a_dev 5y ago
        It truly is a career driven via passion rather than monetary gain
        resueman 5y ago
        Well if you choose passion over money, it's not really luck anymore when someone has more money than you. An engineering undergrad can probably earn more in a summer internship than your stipend pays in a year.
        was_a_dev 5y ago
        This guy is a student. It's not like he has "chosen" money unlike myself I used to be a junior software developer (hence username) earning £40k - far above median income. Post tax, rent, bills I could save over the year to purchase the £5k electron microscope I mentioned quite easily. But then I'd need to rent space for it. And purchase the rest of the equipment. My points aren't some "look how bad I have it" gotcha. It's highlighting the perspective that this student is lucky to be supported with the resources to excel in his passion. Even if his use case is quite exceptional Others have highlighted for Americans this probably represents a family in the top 5-10% of earners. A realm which American software developers can fall into For myself, the chance to work in a lab of equipment costing the order of six figures required a career change and significant pay cut. But that's just me To clarify. I am mind blown he has pulled this off. It's an extraordinary feat. All I can be is envious of his skills and privilege
ChuckNorris89 5y ago
>I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment. Living in the US comes with certain advantages like some of the lowest consumer prices in the West including HW equipment being dirt cheap on the second hand market plus houses being big enough for space for such hobbies along with the biggest take home pays yielding some of the highest purchasing power in the West, a formula tough to replicate anywhere else. At least compared to where I live now in Europe, such hobbies would definitely be unaffordable for me monetary and real-estate wise, which is also a monetary issue at the end of the day. I was looking on an interesting blog about buying certain older ThinkPads or older multi-core server chips for $50 used for building a cheap home lab, and when I checked, super exited, on my local second hand market, such machines or chips were fetching north of €250 and that was before the chip shortage broke the market. That's just one anecdote, but you get the point.
- astura 5y ago
  A 22-year old full time student can't even afford "dirt cheap" second hand equipment (nevermind the space to store it!) unless: -They have some sort of windfall -They have a trust fund or stipend that they receive just for existing -Their parents pay for everything, or, alternatively, their parents pay for all of their living expenses so their own money is only "fun money." -They, somehow, have a high paying job. In which case they probably won't be going to school full time also. Or they're "job" is having a lot of followers on social media. This isn't a knock on anyone, I'm just trying to explain why one young adult student can be excited because they were finally able to save up for a soldering iron and another has a garage full of expensive experiment to tinker with. It's pretty much implied this guy's living expenses (or most of them) are covered by his parents who also have tons of extra space and tolerance for him using it.
  - l-lousy 5y ago
    Well he’s (Sam) very likely still living at home, so parents are paying for most things. Plus he has the revenue from YouTube
  - temp8964 5y ago
    I am not sure about his case, but it's not very hard for a talent student to get $1k scholarship every month. That's lot of money to use if he does not need to pay for his living expenses.

hnthrowaway0315 5y ago

I think it's easier to get the money if one has funding from parents or friends, after all most of this stuffs are dirty cheap (under $1K) and he has a whole garage to play around, but it's MUCH more difficult to learn the skills described in the article!

was_a_dev 5y ago
As mentioned, getting that equipment would cost an order of magnitude higher in my part of the world. However, there is no doubt the feat pulled off here is impressive and insanely difficult to do. I most likely couldn't replicate it, but I wouldn't be able to find that out.
Symbiote 5y ago
It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- csdvrx 5y ago
  > It's rather inconsiderate to refer to $1K as "dirt cheap" when replying to someone who says they can only just afford a soldering iron That's like 10 bucks on amazon? Skip 2 meals, or panhandle for 4 hours. Done - soldering iron.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    I'd assumed they were in India, but they wrote in another comment "My PhD is funded by a research council and my stipend is £12k." I had forgotten the pathetic level of funding science PhDs get in Britain. £12k is possibly on the low end, but a PhD with this funding was on the fourth page of the main site listing them [1]. Minimum wage assuming a 40-hour working week is £19,760 per year, and after taxes works out to £17,100. In other words, they are probably already skipping meals. For comparison, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen is paid £47,500 per annum [2], or £31,000 after tax (probably more, I think there's a tax discount for foreign researchers). [1] https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-nearly-zero-energy-in-educational-building-and-investigate-its-impact-on-airborne-virus https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CMM286/phd-studentship-achieve-ne... [2] https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen-staff/ https://uniavisen.dk/en/salaries-of-university-of-copenhagen...
    - was_a_dev 5y ago
      It truly is a career driven via passion rather than monetary gain
      - resueman 5y ago
        Well if you choose passion over money, it's not really luck anymore when someone has more money than you. An engineering undergrad can probably earn more in a summer internship than your stipend pays in a year.
        was_a_dev 5y ago
        This guy is a student. It's not like he has "chosen" money unlike myself I used to be a junior software developer (hence username) earning £40k - far above median income. Post tax, rent, bills I could save over the year to purchase the £5k electron microscope I mentioned quite easily. But then I'd need to rent space for it. And purchase the rest of the equipment. My points aren't some "look how bad I have it" gotcha. It's highlighting the perspective that this student is lucky to be supported with the resources to excel in his passion. Even if his use case is quite exceptional Others have highlighted for Americans this probably represents a family in the top 5-10% of earners. A realm which American software developers can fall into For myself, the chance to work in a lab of equipment costing the order of six figures required a career change and significant pay cut. But that's just me To clarify. I am mind blown he has pulled this off. It's an extraordinary feat. All I can be is envious of his skills and privilege

ChuckNorris89 5y ago

>I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment. Living in the US comes with certain advantages like some of the lowest consumer prices in the West including HW equipment being dirt cheap on the second hand market plus houses being big enough for space for such hobbies along with the biggest take home pays yielding some of the highest purchasing power in the West, a formula tough to replicate anywhere else. At least compared to where I live now in Europe, such hobbies would definitely be unaffordable for me monetary and real-estate wise, which is also a monetary issue at the end of the day. I was looking on an interesting blog about buying certain older ThinkPads or older multi-core server chips for $50 used for building a cheap home lab, and when I checked, super exited, on my local second hand market, such machines or chips were fetching north of €250 and that was before the chip shortage broke the market. That's just one anecdote, but you get the point.

astura 5y ago
A 22-year old full time student can't even afford "dirt cheap" second hand equipment (nevermind the space to store it!) unless: -They have some sort of windfall -They have a trust fund or stipend that they receive just for existing -Their parents pay for everything, or, alternatively, their parents pay for all of their living expenses so their own money is only "fun money." -They, somehow, have a high paying job. In which case they probably won't be going to school full time also. Or they're "job" is having a lot of followers on social media. This isn't a knock on anyone, I'm just trying to explain why one young adult student can be excited because they were finally able to save up for a soldering iron and another has a garage full of expensive experiment to tinker with. It's pretty much implied this guy's living expenses (or most of them) are covered by his parents who also have tons of extra space and tolerance for him using it.
- l-lousy 5y ago
  Well he’s (Sam) very likely still living at home, so parents are paying for most things. Plus he has the revenue from YouTube
- temp8964 5y ago
  I am not sure about his case, but it's not very hard for a talent student to get $1k scholarship every month. That's lot of money to use if he does not need to pay for his living expenses.