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I didn’t know how electrolysis really worked, and probably still don’t but I know a little more, and these cheap ion filtering membranes are absolutely wild, an

I didn’t know how electrolysis really worked, and probably still don’t but I know a little more, and these cheap ion filtering membranes are absolutely wild, and turning the graphite fire blanket into a super high surface area electrode is super interesting. I remember when he re-made the “lost” aerogel-like substance a while back and wonder if we can make graphite aerogel-likes using similar processes somehow for super high surface area electrodes. Sometimes I think I’m more interested in practical materials science than software engineering, but at 39 years old I am probably past the point of going to university to actually study. Of course, unless we all get UBI quickly because of Claude 8.5 taking everyone’s jobs.

fc417fc802 4mo ago
> at 39 years old I am probably past the point of going to university to actually study. That largely depends on your financial situation. If you have a strong technical background and you've already secured your retirement you could certainly do a masters or phd. But if you aren't financially secure then yeah, accepting (somewhat worse than) minimum wage for the next 5 years followed by a high degree of uncertainty sounds like a really bad idea. That said materials science is something of a bastard child of inorganic chemistry, applied physics, and engineering. The theory side of it can be absolutely brutal. Before embarking on an adventure I'd suggest looking over the coursework for physical chemistry to see if you can handle the quantum mechanics stuff.
- selimthegrim 4mo ago
  Current 39 year old finishing their PhD in solid state theory who left a software engineering job to do so, feel free to ask any questions.
  - MisterTea 4mo ago
    What got you interested in the field? What kind of job are you after?
    - selimthegrim 4mo ago
      The problems I was interested in led me to the techniques in the field. I guess the idea was data science, but might need to pivot into LLM or AI engineer.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]

fc417fc802 4mo ago

> at 39 years old I am probably past the point of going to university to actually study. That largely depends on your financial situation. If you have a strong technical background and you've already secured your retirement you could certainly do a masters or phd. But if you aren't financially secure then yeah, accepting (somewhat worse than) minimum wage for the next 5 years followed by a high degree of uncertainty sounds like a really bad idea. That said materials science is something of a bastard child of inorganic chemistry, applied physics, and engineering. The theory side of it can be absolutely brutal. Before embarking on an adventure I'd suggest looking over the coursework for physical chemistry to see if you can handle the quantum mechanics stuff.

selimthegrim 4mo ago
Current 39 year old finishing their PhD in solid state theory who left a software engineering job to do so, feel free to ask any questions.
- MisterTea 4mo ago
  What got you interested in the field? What kind of job are you after?
  - selimthegrim 4mo ago
    The problems I was interested in led me to the techniques in the field. I guess the idea was data science, but might need to pivot into LLM or AI engineer.
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]