Recently (Around one to two weeks ago) I started learning Haskell, which initially seemed rather difficult (I had to spend the first 1-2 days recapitulating Lambda Calculus), but with each new roadblock (And there were quite a few), I would research the same subject on another source and then re-watch that episode in my course (Using the "Haskell for Imperative Programmers" series. I initially "got stuck" when introduced to foldings and pointfree notation).
I think I now have a somewhat solid understanding of the basics (Though I assume there are a plethora of useful functions I still don't know about. I just learned about any today from StackOverflow from people reviewing some of my code), but Monads got me confused, and the main issue seems to be that most videos talking about them are about their concept in general, and now how you work with them in Haskell.
So far, I only know the following:

1. Monads are wrappers for values.
2. The bind operator >>= unwraps the Monad and applies a function to it's value, and it's required that the function also returns a Monad.
3. The then operator >> takes to Monads and returns the second (Which is why I still have not idea as to how Nothing >> (Just 5) returns Nothing).
4. Maybe and IO are Monads. The former is a wrapper for something that may or may not return a value, the latter deals with IO operations.
5. do notation allows for a more clean syntax.
6. "A Monad is a monoid in the category of endofunctors" just means that it is a wrapper that is able to do binary operations that return the same type of wrapper.

Other than that... I don't think I know anything more practical. I've tried implementing some functions using Monads, but got more errors than average, and I don't know how to go from there. I still don't understand things such as why you don't need to use in when using let in the main function, or why the main function uses do notation, nor why it isn't possible to use it with a single line, nor how to infer the types of functions that use Monads.
I usually prefer studying via videos, but if it isn't possible I would still appreciate didactic reading material.

Lots of AI People want to build big AI Models like GPT 4. Let's talk about some techniques that will let you scale up your Models without breaking the bank.
1) Batch Size: Increasing batch size can reduce training time and cost, but may impact generalization. This trade-off can be mitigated with techniques like "Ghost Batch Normalization", as suggested in the paper "Train longer, generalize better: closing the generalization gap in large batch training of neural networks".
2) Active Learning: It's a pretty simple idea- if you have a pretrained model, there are data points that are easier and other data points that are harder for it. The data points that are harder to work with have more potential information for your model. One great implementation of this is Meta's "Beyond neural scaling laws: beating power law scaling via data pruning".
3) Increasing the Number of Tokens: Research from Deepmind's paper "Training Compute-Optimal Large Language Models" emphasizes the importance of balancing the number of parameters with the number of training tokens in language models to achieve better performance at a lower cost. If you're into LLMs, would highly recommend reading this paper b/c it's generational.
4) Sparse Activation: Algorithms like Sparse Weight Activation Training (SWAT) can significantly reduce computational overhead during training and inference by activating only a portion of the neural network. 5/7 must know idea.
5) Filters and Simpler Models: Instead of relying solely on large models, it is often more efficient to use simpler models or filters to handle the majority of tasks, reserving the large model for complex edge cases. You'd be shocked how much you can accomplish with RegEx, rules, and some math.
By combining these strategies, we can unlock the potential of large AI models while minimizing their environmental impact and computational costs. As Amazon Web Services notes, "In deep learning applications, inference accounts for up to 90% of total operational costs", making these optimizations crucial for widespread adoption.
To learn more about these techniques, read the following- https://artificialintelligencemadesimple.substack.com/p/how-to-build-large-ai-models-like?utm_source=publication-search

Intro

Hello, I'm Goody. I make TFT content on YouTube, Twitch, and occassionally Reddit.

This time I'm here to discuss Zoe Reroll, a comp that has caused a little bit of a stir on the PBE due to her buffs in 14.10

I honestly think Zoe is insanely OP now (I mean just watch this clip I posted a few days ago).

But there are those that say Zoe is a terrible unit

The most prominent of which is Mortdog who said "Stop playing Zoe. She's not good. Despite the buff even"
(VOD Timestamp of this here)

Challenger Zoe One-Trick: LIGhtYgo

I've been playing a lot of Zoe Reroll on the PBE, but recently in my stream CuLe TV told me about a Challenger on the Japanese server who one-tricks Zoe Reroll called LIGhtYgo. His lolchess page is here if you want to read it
And coincidentally, I've been playing the same comp they play amongst others that I'll share with you today

TLDR:

If you want a TLDR, this timestamped section should cover that

VIDEO FORM

(The video also has Spanish and Vietnamese Subtitles)
Disclaimer: I tested these comps on the PBE and I have not played them in ranked. For transparency, here is my lolchess
And my Exalted only account here

(Highly recommend trying this btw, it's very fun)

But let's get started!

Ghoe Reroll (Ghostly Zoe)

So let's start with what LIGhtYgo plays which is this comp here
(Teambuilder here)
I couldn't find any VODs to link from LIGhtYgo but here's some of my gameplay of this comp on the PBE
From looking at their match history, LIGhtYgo tends to reroll Shen + Zyra or Zoe + Illaoi (1 tank + 1 carry) but sometimes they manage to 3 star everything alongside Aatrox.

Give Zoe Shiv

LIGhtYgo also frequently itemises Zoe with Statikk Shiv, 3 star or otherwise, to stack Zoe's passive as much as possible.

Passive: Kills increase the number of ricochets by 1 for the rest of combat.

Now, I should mention that Zoe's tooltip here is misleading and frankly incorrect. Zoe gains more ricochets if she participates in a kill, also known as takedowns.
And that is why Statikk Shiv is so phenomenal for Zoe. Not only is she reducing the MR of enemy units (helps Ghostly and your Magic Damage Dealers) but the damage from Shiv will give Zoe takedown credit once those enemy units perish.
So, even with just a Shiv and at 2 star, Zoe can be very impactful as her passive continues to easily stack.
Thus Zoe has great synergy with other AP carries like Zyra, Morgana, Teemo, Alune etc as they soften enemy units for each other to clean up.
And so Zoe is an incredible secondary carry as she needs very little to come online
You can infer this from LIGhtYgo's match history as they tend to succeed more when Zoe isn't their primary carry but rather secondary.
Although the buff to Zoe in 14.10 should change that, especially combined with the buffs to Ghostly, Warden, Aatrox, Behemoth and Jax.

Zoe's Weaknesses

From my games, I've felt Zoe has 2 main weaknesses

• Firstly, she can struggle into tanky frontliners as it'll take her more time to stack her passive.
• Secondly, Zoe can lose 1v1s as her ult will no longer ricochet (no targets left to bounce to)

These weaknesses can make Zoe feel very binary: - she either gets 3/4 takedowns and nukes - or she gets stuck, gets no passive stacks, and does nothing

Spooky Solution

But that’s why Ghostly can provide so much value to Zoe.
Those Spectres will help Zoe get through tanks and once they're concentrated, Zoe's single target will nuke which even allows her to win those 1v1s

Problems with Ghoe Reroll

From what I tried on the PBE, I did find this comp to be very powerful at level 9. However it could be a struggle getting there as you also need to reroll Zoe who can be contested by Fortune, Arcanist, and Storyweaver players

Is it a Player Diff?

I also find there to be a really odd tempo where I need to find Zoe 3 but also hit level 9 to find Udyr. I did learn later that you don't really need to 3 star Zoe to get to 9, and it's certainly not impossible to hit Zoe 3 at level 9.
Although, it seems that LIGhtYgo resolves this problem by keeping the option of Zyra Reroll open. (They play boards akin to this one occasionally)
Also, sometimes the Inkshadow item doesn't tend to be that useful, especially if it's Tattoo of Bombardment, as you don't have an AD carry.
Lastly, the position of the Ghostly units is really important so the Spectres concentrate onto Zoe's target(s). This can be really awkward if your primary Ghostly tank has a Stoneplate.
I have lost games because I moved Zoe away from my Ghostly units last second :(
But by far the biggest problem I have found is how much better the comp becomes at 9 than level 8. I personally find rerolling at level 8 to be the easiest to find 3 star Illaoi, Zoe, and Galio 2 whilst also being able to field 8 units which enable many important synergies.
Essentially, I don't like rerolling at either 7 or 8 with this comp. So I decided to comp up with a new comp to address this problem which is Altruist Arcanist.

4 Arcanist 3 Altruist Zoe Reroll

So here's a new variant of Zoe Reroll that has an incredibly strong level 8 (you play Rakan at 9) that gives you more time to reroll and find Zoe 3. This makes this comp so much easier to play and in turn, I have had so much more success with this variation particularly.
Teambuilder here
[Here's the full game from that clip with this comp]
This board also has a primary tank option between Amumu or Illaoi so you can play around whichever you manage to 3 star.
Although your secondary carry here is Lux who also holds your utility items like Morello and Shiv.

The Lissandra Nerfs really hurt...

Honestly, this may be extreme bias due to a bad few games, but I find a Lux 2 to be more reliable than post-nerf Lissandra. Lux feels like she needs a lot less to function better as she CC's more units, usually targets and slows down the enemy carry, and softens up enemy units for Zoe.
(VOD of why I don't like Lissandra)
The combination of Lux, Amumu, and Illaoi feels incredibly solid
Now the reason why I don't give Zoe Shiv on this board is due to a few reasons - Altruists prolong combat due to the mana reave, damage reduction, ally healing, and the trait resistances - That allows your frontline to be super beefy especially since the resistances are great for Bruisers/Wardens (loads of EHP) - Lux will have more AS than Zoe (Lux: 0.7x1.5=1.05 vs Zoe: 0.75x1.2=0.9) - And finally, opening up that item slot allows you to give Zoe a third damage item

Why not itemise Soraka?

Your secondary carry items should be going to Lux as she has more AP from Arcanist.
While Soraka can do a lot of damage, you only really care about her mana reave because it's such a powerful utility ability.
Regardless, Soraka will gain AP naturally from her passive as your frontline will continue to heal during combat. As she gains more AP, she heals your frontline more, who then stall for longer.
Lastly, the following 2 combinations are literally perfect for Altruist Arcanist.

Lux, Teemo, Thresh, Volibear, Galio, Morgana Darius, Bard, Soraka, Galio, Lissandra

4 Warden 6 Arcanist

Here's the board for this one
Teambuilder
(Here's some Footage of this Comp in Action)

Meta Report from Khym and YBY1

In the 14.10 Meta Report by Khym and YBY1, Arcanist Zoe is described as an Easy Top 4 Comp (if I'm reading that correctly)
Khym also has a guide on how to play Zoe/Illaoi RR here
And what's great here is that, again, as you reroll you have option between Amumu or Illaoi 3 as your tank (however Illaoi is better due to the Arcanist AP)
Also, with the 4 Warden buff, this frontline feels great and buys plenty of time for Zoe to scale.
And this variation certainly has the highest ceiling out of all the comps if you get a Porcelain Spatula

6 Arcanist, 4 Warden, 4 Porcelain is extremely powerful.

Luckily, you can easily pivot into this board from Altruist Arcanist but pivoting is a tad more difficult to do if you're playing Ghoe.
Similarly, both the Warden and Altruist boards can tech in Hwei at 8 to make hitting the 3 stars easier.
4 Warden Hwei 4 Arcanist 2 Altruist Hweimothy
So if you're low rolling Zoe, Hwei can easily save the day.
Regardless, all 3 comps make up for at least one of Zoe's weaknesses. They either buy her plenty of time to scale or they tremendously enable her damage and, in turn, her passive.
And, at the very least, Zoe is great item holder due to her buffed passive
Speaking of which, let's talk about Zoe's items now.

Zoe's Items

Of course, as I've mentioned, you can give Zoe Shiv so she can get takedown credit and stack her passive quickly
But generally, MR reduction is necessary (even if it's not on her) so Zoe can kill units and stack her passive. Shiv is far more preferable to build but Ionic still does the job.
But I'm a simple guy, I want to see BIG damage numbers and huge ricochets, thus I forgo Shiv on Zoe for pure damage items.
But before we get into those items, let's talk about which casting item Zoe will want

Casting item: Shojin vs Adaptive Math

First cast:

Zoe is 0/60 and Shojin/Adaptive give 15 mana

Shojin:

0.75^-1x3 = 4 seconds

Adaptive:

0.75^-1x4 = 5.3 seconds

Second Cast onwards

Shojin:

0.75^-1x4 = 5.3 seconds

Adaptive:

10 mana after 0.7 seconds 40 mana every 3 autos every 4 seconds Then 1 more auto for 10 more mana
Thus Adaptive: 0.75^-1x4 = 5.3 seconds
So Shojin will get Zoe's first cast off sooner however after that Zoe's cast frequency between Adaptive and Shojin is the same.
Considering Adaptive gives more AP, is not dependant on auto attacking, will continue to generate mana even if Zoe gets stunned (or has to walk up) and it grants MR (useful against magic damage), I believe Adaptive is the superior mana generating item on Zoe if she has no bonus attack speed
If Zoe has just a Shiv, then her cast frequency is much faster [(0.75x1.2)^-1x4 = 4.4 seconds] with Shojin.

TLDR:

• Give Zoe Adaptive if you're going solely damage items on her (Rabadon/Archangel's + Jewelled Gauntlet)
• Give Zoe Shojin if she has any bonus attack speed (Nashor's/Shiv/Pumping Up)

AP item: Rabadon or Archangel's

Of course, Zoe is a Mage and so she wants as much AP as possible which is either Rabadon or Archangel’s
I prefer Rabadon because it's more upfront AP alongside a great damage amplifier. However Archangel's can be more realistic to build and eventually it will outscale Rabadon's AP.

Increase Casting/Damage Multiplier

Lastly, you can give Zoe an item to increase her casting frequency like Shiv or Nashor's Tooth. Both of these items maximise Zoe's Kill Participation.
Or you can give her more damage amp for more, well, damage. Those are items like Jewelled Gauntlet or even items like Guardbreaker or Giant Slayer.
Although if you go the pure damage route, you need Zoe 3 and a ton of AP, so Zoe can stack her passive by one shotting whatever she touches.

SUPER TDLR:

Generally great build : Shiv/Nashor's + Shojin + Rabadon/Jewelled
My favourite: Adaptive + Rabadon + Jewelled

Bonus: Luden's Tempest

Luden's Tempest feels amazing on Zoe. With her ricochets, she gets so much takedown credit so quickly with it and it's so much damage.
[Here's my gameplay of Luden's Zoe in action]
And what's nice is that Zoe formerly built Luden's in TFT's spinoff game League of Legends. So it's a great callback
Although I've never played Zoe before...can I pretend to have a sense of nostalgia?

Kayle Upgrade

It's Blue.
20 AP is 20 AP. You're already building Shred so Green is Redundant, and the Attack Speed from Red is only 12%.

Pivot Potential

Zoe's items are very flexible so if you don't hit Zoe 3, you can pivot them to other AP carries like Syndra, Azir, Lissandra and Lillia.
So you don't absolutely need to reroll Zoe, you can just as easily use Zoe to Fast 9 instead, especially around Storyweaver, and pivot into a Legendary board.

Fin.

That is all the information I currently have on Zoe Reroll
Hopefully this was helpful but I'd like to ask for your thoughts
What do you guys think about Zoe?

Do you think it's as OP as I believe or is Mortdog right?

Also, I usually do Patch Previews for each patch (for example here's my 14.10 patch preview), but I'm curious whether you guys would be interested if i made that into a Reddit post as well.
I imagine it'd be similar to how they do it on the LoL subreddit but I'd include my thoughts as well.
For example, I think Low Interest Rates is turbo giga insane in 14.10 because you can hit max interest rate at 2-6 (by the latest) at which point you're earning 6 gold a turn.
Lastly, I'm currently working on a Rek'sai reroll comp that is incredibly funny so look forward to that!
But yeah, I'll leave it on that note I think

Let me know if you have any questions!

I shall answer them as soon as i wake up lol

Thank you for reading <3

Link if it's hard to read in this post: https://jordankligman.substack.com/p/ontario-intentionally-denying-health
Who Is Denying Health Care?
I’d like to tell you this is an outlier, but across the board patients are getting denied access to health care. How do I know? It’s happening to me.
Family Doctors Are Denying Health Care
What do family doctors do? They don’t do physicals anymore. Their jobs is essentially order referrals and requisitions. They don’t even do that well. Roughly half of my referrals don’t go through. I had a previous family doctor use my entire appointment to lecture me on getting the COVID vaccine. I had already had my first dose and was scheduled to get my second shot at the time. Keep in mind I had that doctor’s appointment because I have serious physical pain. The doctor wasn’t interested in treating me. He was interested in pushing a specific ideology. I’ve had the Pfizer COVID vaccine in total five times. I was overdue for my tetanus vaccine. I had to ask during three different appointments before I was granted that vaccine. This is absurd.
What’s more absurd is I have had multiple family doctors reject me as a patient. Health Care Connect, a government funded service, claimed these doctors were accepting new patients but they weren’t. I found one doctor on my own that was accepting new patients. The receptionist made me bring a printout out of my prescriptions as if I was a drug addict. After waiting a month for my appointment to meet this doctor he refused to take me as a patient. Claimed he couldn’t help me. He didn’t even ask for the prescription printouts. He couldn’t give me an answer as to why he couldn’t help me. So I asked him to put in it in writing he was declining me as a patient. He declined to do so and said he wasn’t obligated to do so.
Walk-in Doctors Are Denying Health Care
I requested imaging to try to find the source of my pain from a walk-in doctor. They claim they sent the requisition. A year later and the hospital the requisition was supposedly sent to had no record of it. So I went back to the walk-in clinic to try to get them to resend the referral. Instead of seeing a doctor this time they gave me a physicians assistant. The PA refused to resend my imaging referral. Told me to go to the emergency room to get my imaging. I thought the entire point of a walk-in clinic was to keep people out of the ER? I’ve since been to the ER. No they won’t just giving you imaging if you ask even if you are prepared to wait 5+ hours. I demanded a copy of the requisition for the imaging from the walk-in clinic they claim they initially sent. I scanned it in and emailed to the hospital.
Hospitals Are Denying Health Care
Even with the requisition dated a year earlier they would not honour the requisition. It gets worse. Multiple hospitals have denied me health care. An ER doctor looked at my medical records and essentially denied me health care. He basically inferred since other doctors couldn’t find the source of my pain he wasn’t going to waste his time thinking about it. He ordered bloodwork to confirm I wasn’t actively dying and then kicked me out. I signed up for a virtual emergency call with another hospital as recommended to me by telehealth. That hospital nurse during the call denied me care because she said they don’t do second opinions. So I said fine get me an appointment with any doctor of your choosing. She then claimed where I lived wasn’t in the catchment zone for that hospital. I’ve been to this hospital many times. I have an outstanding referral that has gone unanswered from this hospital. Changing the reason mid conversation as to why I am being denied health care seems like a lot of nonsense. A finally my favourite hospital. That’s sarcasm because this third hospital scanned the wrong part of my body and then lied about it. Not only did they bully my family doctor into taking the blame for this error, but they had all my personal information wrong. This hospital thought I was in a wheelchair. They also had the wrong phone number for me. It was a area code for a city not even in the Greater Toronto Area. All I wanted from this hospital was an apology and for them to fix their mistake. The PR person from this hospital told me they were taking steps to ensure this would never happen again. I asked what steps were taking place. I was not given an coherent answer. They gave me another scan, but I have no idea if that was even done correctly. I tried to confirm with the technician what part of my body they were scanning. Her response was that she is doing the requisition called for. So no steps to ensure correct scans were being done. The extra radiation from another CT scan probably isn’t ideal but what I am more concerned about is the dye. My scan didn’t call for dye, but at some point the hospital changed the scan and decided it was a good idea to inject me with dye for a scan I didn’t need my I remind you.
The Government Is Denying Health Care
I have tried to get in touch with the Minister of Health for Ontario, Sylvia Jones. All I get back is a copy paste form letter that doesn’t relate to my situation. I have spoken to my local MPP. She was defending the doctors that denied me care. Then claimed the government is hiring more family doctors. Not sure how that related to my situation, but okay… Then she asked me if I was open to private health care. My response was I was open on a contingency basis, but I don’t think she understood me. If a private doctor could can diagnosis me I’ll pay whatever their fee is. If they phone it in and cannot figure anything out I don’t agree with private health care. The problem is private health is rampant in Ontario. So much so it’s a two-tier system. From my understanding private health care was not currently legal in Ontario, but there are loopholes. These private doctors sell yearly subscriptions ranging from $3000 to $10,000/year. I’ve heard speculation that some of these private clinics may even charge as much as $20,000 but I have been unable to verify that claim. It’s kind of hard when these clinics don’t post their rates online and operate in the shadows.
https://jordankligman.substack.com/p/ontario-intentionally-denying-health

I'm in a rush but I want to get this information out quickly for everyone else's eyes. I've been here since January 2021 and read a ton of DD. Remember quad witching?
I was wondering why DFV came back now. He's clearly methodical. On X he is inferring that a loophole was found. Who knows what that is yet. I just want to point out that monthly options expire this Friday and June 21st is quad witching day. With options expiring Friday remember that days to close is T+3 and on quad witching day even in the final hour of trading known as witching hour anyone who needs to cover is still protected in T+3.
Remember- no dates. That point has been proven countless times. All that I am saying is we have 2 volatile dates coming up and I want as many people as possible to know the reasons why so that they are prepared.

Hi guys!
I was incredibly nervous about taking my HESI but I surprisingly did really well! Here are my absolutes to studying:

1. USE NURSEHUB!! It’s totally worth it, helped give realistic questions. I was using a Mometrix book and it wasn’t helpful at all. I only paid $15 for NurseHub and watched all of the videos. If I had more time I would watch them all over again. Vocab was word for word essentially. There is also a YouTube video by AllofJenny that also had pretty much all of her words on the test.
2. Anatomy use this quiz let and KNOW IT! https://quizlet.com/680471316/hesi-a2-anatomy-physiology-v1v2-flash-cards/ Pretty much 3/4 of my questions came from this quizlet so I highly recommend it. NurseHub was also useful.
3. Know your fractions and conversions! My math portion was 100% fractions, proportions, and conversions.
4. Critical thinking was literally just common nursing questions like who would you take care of first etc. I don’t know if I did well on this to be honest and is kind of confusing but if you’ve practiced critical thinking at all you should be fine. There’s also some quizlets out there for it but I didn’t have time to review them.
5. Reading comprehension was relatively easy. Asked a lot of questions about conclusions and things that can be implied or inferred.

Overall I did pretty well and someone almost psyched me out by saying they’ve taken it before and it was hard but trust me when I say that this exam was maybe like a 4/10 in difficulty. Study your vocabulary, make sure you know how to solve a proportion, and know your anatomy of what does what. You’ve got this :)

(written as a "here is what me making a demand of you means and what it implies based on publicly available information" to a new player I made a demand of)
In Solium Infernum, there is an achievement for making demands of lower-ranking opponents. This is a game where kicking the little guy is the best play, and the sole consolation is that hiding among the crowd when people start tossing out killshots can leave a way out. People will take a lot from whoever's in last place.
To win Solium Infernum, you need prestige (you want prestige even if you don't win this way, so consider this 'Plan A'), or to kill everyone, or to take Pandemonium, big city in the center of the map. Attacking Pandy has consequences, including excluding you from prestige victory. expanded upon later.
I just made a Demand of Tribute of you. This cost me Prestige, and I am wagering on you accepting the demand. Deny the demand, keep the wagered prestige. If you accept my demand (give me any 3 pieces of tribute from your vault; at best, 3 pieces of tribute each worth 1) I will also gain my prestige wager back, plus a bonus. This is good for me, and a blow to you. Why would you ever accept, and why would I ever wager on you accepting?
This is because if you deny a Demand, the person who Made the demand (me) gets to declare a grievance; a Vendetta or a Praetor duel. Vendettas are bigger prestige wagers than demands, which means losing costs you a lot more. Important to note that both Vendettas and Duels have adjustable wagers, meaning you can go big or go home, or take a more incremental approach against someone you're less confident against.
Vendettas are usually a test of whether you can take Places of Power, Cantons (Tiles), or Legions from an enemy player within a set amount of time. The former two require proximity to send a Legion, the latter can be done with rituals that deal Legion damage (Destruction). Praetor duels are done with Praetors, officers that buff armies/do Duels. Duels do not require proximity, and are held in "the Arena". Each player sends a Praetor (or forefeits, a massive amount of prestige)
Winning a Praetor duel kills the other fiend's praetor, plus prestige. Shorter turn timers on Vendettas buff the prestige return, so short AND risky vendettas are worth a lot more than even a max Praetor duel wager (im pretty sure).
Vendettas can also have looong turn timers, putting you in a cold war state that is less favorable to either side's win.
Praetors have moves that rock paper scissor eachother. you each blindly select from public moves, add power of the move plus the Praetor's power in the top right corner, ties kill both. Winner takes all, unless u use the move that lets the Praetor escape if they lose (prestige still lost, pretty bleh trick)
You do not want to lose Praetor duels (especially to forfeiture) or Vendettas (big vendettas can swing games) Avoiding all this can be done by accepting the Demand.
It is a blow to accept it, but it is also less risky in the short term. To make an already long story shorter, I am omitting long term consequences, but please read about Blood Feuds in the encyclopedia.
I don't want to lose vendettas or duels either, so you may infer that making a Demand implies one thinks they can win at a Praetor duel or Vendetta. Insults (another story) imply one thinks they can win both a duel or vendetta (not at the same time). I get to pick if it's a Duel or Vendetta on a Demand, so you should assume I'd pick whatever you'd like to happen the least.
Demands are preludes to war, or simple extortion. This is how wars start, and this is the sole means of getting into hostilities. There's no running ur unit into someones capital turn 6. Things take time, and you have a turn to decide if you want to accept a demand, or deny it, and all either choice entails.
By Turns: (if demand or insult accepted, wagers are returned with bonuses normally)
Demand Made > Demand Delivered > Demand Denied > Duel > Demanding player chooses Praetor > Defending player chooses Praetor > choose moves > winner
Demand Made > Demand Delivered > Demand Denied > Vendetta Claimed and Begins
So from the denial, consequences begin to arrive the turn after. You would have two hypothetical turns after denial to buy a Praetor for a duel on the third you'd select. It's one turn to try and guess what your opponents Vendetta terms are.

Finally took my ftce social sciences 6-12 test today and got a 198 out of passing score of 200. That’s like one question away from passing I believe. I thought the test was susposed to be 80 questions but in reality it was 90. When I signed up it said there might be experimental questions, so I guess 10 of them didn’t count maybe? Anyways I’m going to try to take it right after the 31 day period is up. I thought most of the test was really easy but some questions just didn’t make any sense. Instead of asking “what’s this…?” It asked “what’s the best answer that could explain this?” And the answer choices were just absurd. In preparation I read the whole rea test prep book and took the practice tests until I could get almost all of them right. I studied non stop for two weeks and off and on for about 3 months. It’s odd to me because the real ftce test wasn’t hard, the questions that got me were the odd inference questions. Does anyone have any advice on how to study after you don’t pass the first time?
TLDR: I didn’t pass my ftce test by 2 freaking points. Most of the test was super easy but the questions that got me were the odd inference ones. How should I study before taking it again. (I read the whole rea test prep book)

Hello, after abandoning math school in the last year and doing a BsC and a MsC in Computer Science and I work as a SWE since long time. I did some time ago some courses in ML, but decided to brush up my knowledge and get up to date. To be able to understand ML and read some papers I have realized that I have to learn some Linear Algebra, Calculus and Probabilities and Statistics. These are subjects I studied during my undergraduate school, but it seems not well enough, since I don't remember much apart from Calculus which, for some reason, I really enjoyed.
So, I started learning these Math subjects, I've found some good books and even some great video series. It seems I enjoy Linear Algebra more than I did in school, since the books I bought and videos I watch are more on applied side and use examples from geometry and physics to help to better understand. Also, trying to find myself some real world examples/applications of math using python, numpy, mathplotlib and pytorch, helps me continue to be motivated.
During some research on Reddit over subjects related to math, I discovered some math geniuses such as Lyapunov, Kolmogorov, VI Arnold, which happened to work in dynamical systems. After some reading about dynamical systems, I discovered that dynamical systems can be applied in ML, one trivial example being Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks.
Since my end goal is perfecting ML and AI, but since I also realized that math can be fun (at least a part of) it, I thought, why not mix business and pleasure and learn some more math until I can apply some dynamical systems theory in ML? Anyway, it seems that in order to understand basic dynamical systems I also have to learn subjects I need for ML.
So I devised a learning plan to, hopefully, be able some day to dabble in dynamical systems:

1. **Calculus**:
   • Review calculus fundamentals: limits, derivatives, integrals, and their applications.
   • Study multivariable calculus: partial derivatives, multiple integrals, and vector calculus.
   • Learn about differential equations: ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and their analytical solutions.
2. **Linear Algebra**:
   • Understand vector spaces, matrices, and linear transformations.
   • Study eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and their applications.
   • Learn about matrix decompositions (e.g., SVD, QR, LU).
3. **Probability and Statistics**:
   • Review basic probability theory: random variables, distributions, and expectation.
   • Study statistical inference: hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and estimation.
   • Explore Bayesian statistics and its applications.
4. **Numerical Methods**:
   • Learn about numerical methods for solving differential equations (e.g., Euler, Runge-Kutta).
   • Study numerical linear algebra techniques (e.g., iterative methods, matrix decompositions).
   • Understand numerical optimization methods (e.g., gradient descent, Newton's method).
5. **Dynamical Systems**:
   • Study dynamical systems theory: phase portraits, stability analysis, and bifurcations.
   • Explore discrete-time dynamical systems and their applications.
   • Learn about chaotic systems and their properties.
6. **Dynamical Systems in Machine Learning**:
   • Learn about recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and their applications to sequential data.
   • Study reservoir computing and echo state networks.
   • Explore dynamical systems approaches to reinforcement learning and control problems.
7. **Advanced Topics**:
   • Study chaos theory and its applications in machine learning.
   • Explore dynamical systems approaches to unsupervised learning and generative models.
   • Learn about dynamical systems in physics-informed machine learning.

Is this a good plan? Is it enough for the start or I also need to study some Topology and Differential Geometry?
I do expect learning to take some time since I work full time, I have kids to take care of and I am supposed to spend some time with friends and family, so time dedicated to study can't be more than 10 hours per week (on any subject, not just math). Also, I am 44, can I still learn some math at this age? Judging that I've already learned some linear algebra, I tend to say yes, but I am not sure if it is 100% learning or remembering some stuff from former math classes I did 20+ years ago.
Thank you for answers and ideas, whatever they might be! :)

Hello, after abandoning math school in the last year and doing a BsC and a MsC in Computer Science and I work as a SWE since long time. I did some time ago some courses in ML, but decided to brush up my knowledge and get up to date. To be able to understand ML and read some papers I have realized that I have to learn some Linear Algebra, Calculus and Probabilities and Statistics. These are subjects I studied during my undergraduate school, but it seems not well enough, since I don't remember much apart from Calculus which, for some reason, I really enjoyed.
So, I started learning these Math subjects, I've found some good books and even some great video series. It seems I enjoy Linear Algebra more than I did in school, since the books I bought and videos I watch are more on applied side and use examples from geometry and physics to help to better understand. Also, trying to find myself some real world examples/applications of math using python, numpy, mathplotlib and pytorch, helps me continue to be motivated.
During some research on Reddit over subjects related to math, I discovered some math geniuses such as Lyapunov, Kolmogorov, VI Arnold, which happened to work in dynamical systems. After some reading about dynamical systems, I discovered that dynamical systems can be applied in ML, one trivial example being Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks.
Since my end goal is perfecting ML and AI, but since I also realized that math can be fun (at least a part of) it, I thought, why not mix business and pleasure and learn some more math until I can apply some dynamical systems theory in ML? Anyway, it seems that in order to understand basic dynamical systems I also have to learn subjects I need for ML.
So I devised a learning plan to, hopefully, be able some day to dabble in dynamical systems:

1. **Calculus**:

• Review calculus fundamentals: limits, derivatives, integrals, and their applications.
  
• Study multivariable calculus: partial derivatives, multiple integrals, and vector calculus.
  
• Learn about differential equations: ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and their analytical solutions.
  

1. **Linear Algebra**:

• Understand vector spaces, matrices, and linear transformations.
  
• Study eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and their applications.
  
• Learn about matrix decompositions (e.g., SVD, QR, LU).
  

1. **Probability and Statistics**:

• Review basic probability theory: random variables, distributions, and expectation.
  
• Study statistical inference: hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and estimation.
  
• Explore Bayesian statistics and its applications.
  

1. **Numerical Methods**:

• Learn about numerical methods for solving differential equations (e.g., Euler, Runge-Kutta).
  
• Study numerical linear algebra techniques (e.g., iterative methods, matrix decompositions).
  
• Understand numerical optimization methods (e.g., gradient descent, Newton's method).
  

1. **Dynamical Systems**:

• Study dynamical systems theory: phase portraits, stability analysis, and bifurcations.
  
• Explore discrete-time dynamical systems and their applications.
  
• Learn about chaotic systems and their properties.
  

1. **Dynamical Systems in Machine Learning**:

• Learn about recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and their applications to sequential data.
  
• Study reservoir computing and echo state networks.
  
• Explore dynamical systems approaches to reinforcement learning and control problems.
  

1. **Advanced Topics**:

• Study chaos theory and its applications in machine learning.
  
• Explore dynamical systems approaches to unsupervised learning and generative models.
  
• Learn about dynamical systems in physics-informed machine learning.
  

Is this a good plan? Is it enough for the start or I also need to study some Topology and Differential Geometry?
I do expect learning to take some time since I work full time, I have kids to take care of and I am supposed to spend some time with friends and family, so time dedicated to study can't be more than 10 hours per week (on any subject, not just math). Also, I am 44, can I still learn some math at this age? Judging that I've already learned some linear algebra, I tend to say yes, but I am not sure if it is 100% learning or remembering some stuff from former math classes I did 20+ years ago.
Thank you for answers and ideas, whatever they might be! :)

Recently, I debated an atheist who claimed the Quran is Geocentric.
He referenced verses such as the one that follows to bolster his position:
And He is the One Who created the day and the night, the sun and the moon—each travelling in an orbit.
Quran [21:33]
The Quran does indeed thematically link the sun, the moon, and night and day; however the Quran never states that the sun revolves around the earth.
Further, the Quran never imputes a causal relationship between the orbit of the sun and the moon and the presence of the night and day (ie it never says the orbit of the sun brings the day).
Each statement, taken independently, is scientifically accurate. It’s only our inference and assumption that the Quran is making a causal argument that leads us to that conclusion. However, I believe that Allah has showing us that our assumptions can lead us astray if we apply logic poorly and assume we know his mind or what the text actually says.
The real issue only occurs when we reference the hadith to elucidate the meaning of the verses. Unlike the Quran, the Hadith do make an explicit connection that the Quran does not - stating that the Sun and Moon orbit the earth.
I wonder whether this is just an early example of what we do today: just like Muslims today who read the expansion of the universe into the Quran, perhaps people then took the best science of the day and made hadith to show that the Quran reflected the scientific knowledge of their time.
The Hadith leads Muslims to make statements like this, which belie logic.
Do you think we have allowed Hadith, which aren’t necessarily all traceable back to the prophet, to colour our perception of what the Quran actually says ?
This verse comes to mind:
Most of them follow nothing but ˹inherited˺ assumptions. ˹And˺ surely assumptions can in no way replace the truth. Allah is indeed All-Knowing of what they do.
[Quran 10:36]
Are we following inherited assumptions, instead of the truth ?

PathAI's PLUTO will give a competitive advantage by driving massive reductions in training and inference costs for AI-powered pathology tools.
The launch of PLUTO by PathAI represents a significant advancement in AI-powered pathology, with the potential to improve diagnostic and prognostic tools across multiple disease areas. The technology will enable users to compress their pathology workflows using a diverse, multi-resolution foundation model at significantly greater speed and a much broader scale than before. This development has the potential to accelerate drug development for complex diseases and improve patient outcomes.
Read More https://newsramp.com/curated-news/pathai-launches-pluto-a-state-of-the-art-foundation-model/d2214931b79cfbde95ec66a24df9a92d

There have been an increasing number of juniors visiting this sub asking for advice about writing essays. Below are some tips and advice for making your essay stand out as excellent. Feel free to ask questions because I will answer every single question in the comments.
I know from experience that many of you are struggling to identify a good topic for your essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or essay examples you read, or the rough draft you already started (or worse, that GPT started...). I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.
Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.
Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.

It's About You. Tell Your Story - And Be The Protagonist

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.
Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?
It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.
You'll see the advice everywhere that all essay prompts are really about the same thing - you. The goal of each essay then is to showcase who you are, what matters to you, and how you think. I guarantee if you're on this sub enough, you'll hear the advice to "show, don't tell" when writing about yourself. But what does this mean really, and how do you do it well? How do you even get started on an essay that does this?

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives, especially those related to personal insights -- what are the most meaningful things about you, and what do you value the most? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests?
  
• What sparks your curiosity?
  
• About what topics do you enjoy reading?
  
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?
  
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
  
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?
  

I have a free introspection worksheet with over 100 questions like this designed to help you find ideas worth exploring in your essays. You can find it on the A2C Discord or download it directly here.

Find Your Story And Arc

Think of a small anecdote or story from your life that you could share that serves as a microcosm of who you are and what is important to you. It will massively help you narrow this down and find a gem of a story if you first start by thinking about your application arc or theme. This is the one-phrase summary of your entire application. It could be "brilliant entrepreneur who started her own successful business" or "talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports", or even "avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry". It doesn't have to be related to your intended major, but it can help your arc be stronger and clearer if it is.
Once you have an arc determined and a story to share, think about what you want that story to say about you. This is where it can help to think of this as something you would share on a date - what impression does it make about you to the reader? Once you know this, start showing, not telling this attribute of yourself through your story. For example, instead of saying that you're compassionate toward others, you show an example of a time you were compassionate, then elaborate on why, and what it means to you.

Essay Brainstorming Techniques

If you are having trouble finding a story, or simply have writer’s block once you have picked your topic, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

• Stream of consciousness writing -- Start writing whatever is in your head, and don’t stop for 30 minutes. You probably won’t use what you just wrote for your essay, but it will help you find a starting point.
  
• Journaling -- Answer the prompt as if you were writing in a journal. This will get you in the habit of writing about yourself and establish comfort with the concept. It will also take you to a new level of introspection and self-awareness.
  
• Twitter X style -- Write several rapid-fire responses to the prompt in 280 characters or less. Choose an idea from these responses to expound upon in your essay.
  
• Read each essay prompt, then go through your introspection worksheet responses and connect the stories and insights to one or more of the prompts. Some students like using color coding to visually see how their different ideas might work together.
  

Why Essays Matter

Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize about college admission: it's not an award for being the smartest, most accomplished, or most impressive. It's an invitation to join a community. Far too many students think that if they can just show that they're smart enough, they'll get in. Yale even says right on their admissions website that 75% of their applicants are academically qualified to succeed at Yale. But only ~4% are getting in. That should tell you that they're looking for more than just top tier test scores and grades. To be perfectly clear, you will need top tier grades and (optionally) test scores to show that you're qualified, and the vast majority of my students come to me with this part already in the bank. But what sets the admits apart? It's personal insight - sharing who you are, how you think, what matters to you, and how you engage community. You can't just say "/IAmVerySmart, please admit me," or even "I did a cool thing guys! Isn't that neat!" You need to go deeper and show them your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, character traits, foundational beliefs, personality, etc. And you need to do it in a charming, winsome way that makes them like you and want to invite you to join their community.
So how do I get students to do this? All of my students complete that introspection worksheet. We go through it and find the stories, examples, anecdotes, conversations, memories, relationships, and other things from their life that will help us craft a strong and personally insightful narrative. We also make lists of the values, strengths, and key personal qualities we want to showcase. Once we have some topics, outlines, abstracts, or rough drafts, we talk about which stories to tell where, how to tell them well, and what details to include to present the best they have to offer. Then we refine, edit, polish, and enhance over and over until the story sings, but more importantly shows their heart and soul. We also go through all the other application components to ensure consistency, quality, and distinctiveness.
Here's why this works so well: at most highly selective colleges there is a primary reader (or 2-3) who will review everything first and then present it to the admissions committee, who then votes on whether to admit you. That presentation typically goes one of three ways:

1. Total enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. They strongly advocate for admission and paint a clear picture of how you will contribute to their goals and community. Everyone in the room picks up on that energy and is leaning forward in their chairs, looking for reasons to admit you. This is quite rare, generally less than 5 out of every 100 applications, even among those which are "fully qualified." When you do this right, you show depth, meaning, and valuable personal insights so the reviewer is learning about who you are and how you might engage the community they're curating. You come alive off the page as a person, not just another file.
   
2. Business as usual. You're another great applicant in a pile of great applicants. They share a basic review of the facts, your profile, stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Maybe someone on the committee finds something they love, and they really push for admission. More likely, not and you get deferred/waitlisted even though there wasn't anything "wrong" with your application. They just didn't love you enough to commit.
   
3. "Here's a stack of 20 applications that I didn't find all that compelling, so we won't present them individually, but you guys are the committee and you make the decisions. So let me know if there are any you want to talk about." In this case, unless there's a letter of endorsement from an athletics coach or your last name matches several buildings on campus, you're probably not getting additional consideration, much less admission. They will regret to inform you.
   

Everything we're doing is designed to help them get to know themselves, present the best they have to offer, and land in that first group. Having top tier essays is the single best way to get there. Get started on brainstorming in the next few weeks so you'll have time to get a few essays completed over the summer.

Disclaimer: I am agnostic and do not consider myself a theist by any means. This is also my first post in this sub so if I am not making any sense please feel free to critique it.
Cellular Biology as potential proof of an intelligent designer?
This is a theory I came across recently and I will paste it in here.

After reading a few college level books on molecular and cellular biology I was blown away by the parallels between computers and the mechanisms within the cell. My honest reaction was - How the f**k can anyone look at this science and not see a creator?
I’m a science guy, I respect science, I made a very good living in science but there is no way I could look at the facts about cellular biology (that everyone agrees with) and believe it happened by chance. Even when I specifically looked for evidence of how life first emerged (abiogenesis), I could not find it and so far, neither has science.
Yes, I know all about how molecules can bond spontaneously, but no way can I ever believe that the minimal amount of information (represented by the specific order in DNA) required for a self replicating organism with heritable traits could arise naturally. It is as unlikely as the operating system and hardware of this computer I’m typing on resulting from putting all the parts in a box and shaking it up. Time is not a magic bullet, it would not happen even in the 13.78 billion years available for it to happen.
The mathematical improbability of life arising on its own is as close to a smoking gun in the hand of God as you will ever find. The Big Bang runs a close second though. We can still see the smoke curling out of the barrel in the CBR.
And it’s NOT just the mathematical improbability. It is the obvious design inference we (should) draw from the scientific discoveries in cellular biology. An archeologist at a dig will uncover a circle of stones with traces of ash and infer that it was done purposely; how is it possible to NOT see the much more obvious design in the functional molecular machines we call ‘proteins' and the language encoded in the DNA that instructs the cell how to make them. Watch this animation of the protein 'Kinesin' and tell me you don’t see design.

It's somewhat paradoxical how regardless of faith, people have different interpretations and biases of what science proves/disproves in terms of there being a creator.
My questions
Would you consider this argument to be valid?
What (if any) refutations would you have to this argument?
How do different religious traditions interpret and utilize the teleological argument?
What are some naturalistic explanations for the apparent design in the universe, and how do they compare to the teleological argument?
Most importantly and lastly, are there theological arguments that you find more appealing/sound than this?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-argument-for-god-that-has-been-presented-to-you?q=what%20is%20the%20best%20argument%20for%20god%20that%20has%20been%20prese

So recently I’ve came across a verse in the Quran which says that Allah killed Jesus (read it in arabic, not the English translations that don’t translate it accurately).
مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلَّا مَآ أَمَرْتَنِى بِهِۦٓ أَنِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّى وَرَبَّكُمْ ۚ وَكُنتُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًۭا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنِى كُنتَ أَنتَ ٱلرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنتَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ شَهِيدٌ ١١٧
Quran 5:117
I never told them anything except what You ordered me to say: “Worship Allah—my Lord and your Lord!” And I was witness over them as long as I remained among them. But when You took me [The Arabic Word Tawaffani Actually Means When You Caused Me To Die / Killed Me - Very Clear), You were the Witness over them—and You are a Witness over all things.
This reminded me of the verse in the Quran where the Prophet is commanded to ask for proof from the Torah when they claimed certain things about God’s law:
ll food was lawful for the children of Israel, except what Israel made unlawful for himself before the Torah was revealed. Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “Bring the Torah and read it, if your claims are true.” [3:93-95]
(QUESTIONS: Is the prophet’s example one we should follow here ? If someone claims something is Haram, should we ask for proof from the scripture or from outside of it ? Have we made things unlawful for ourselves that Allah did not ?)
Is the narrative that we have become accustomed to as Muslims actually supported in the Quran itself ? Or are we adding our own inferences to it and following our logic rather than the text ?
I watched this video for further context, very interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=TR3NSX3UFy8
I’ll pull up all verses related to Jesus’ death ‘ resurrection so that we can have a discussion on it.

There have been an increasing number of juniors visiting this sub asking for advice about writing essays. Below are some tips and advice for making your essay stand out as excellent. Feel free to ask questions because I will answer every single question in the comments.
I know from experience that many of you are struggling to identify a good topic for your essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or essay examples you read, or the rough draft you already started (or worse, that GPT started...). I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.
Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.
Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.

It's About You. Tell Your Story - And Be The Protagonist

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.
Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?
It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.
You'll see the advice everywhere that all essay prompts are really about the same thing - you. The goal of each essay then is to showcase who you are, what matters to you, and how you think. I guarantee if you're on this sub enough, you'll hear the advice to "show, don't tell" when writing about yourself. But what does this mean really, and how do you do it well? How do you even get started on an essay that does this?

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives, especially those related to personal insights -- what are the most meaningful things about you, and what do you value the most? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests?
  
• What sparks your curiosity?
  
• About what topics do you enjoy reading?
  
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?
  
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
  
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?
  

I have a free introspection worksheet with over 100 questions like this designed to help you find ideas worth exploring in your essays. You can find it on the A2C Discord or download it directly here.

Find Your Story And Arc

Think of a small anecdote or story from your life that you could share that serves as a microcosm of who you are and what is important to you. It will massively help you narrow this down and find a gem of a story if you first start by thinking about your application arc or theme. This is the one-phrase summary of your entire application. It could be "brilliant entrepreneur who started her own successful business" or "talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports", or even "avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry". It doesn't have to be related to your intended major, but it can help your arc be stronger and clearer if it is.
Once you have an arc determined and a story to share, think about what you want that story to say about you. This is where it can help to think of this as something you would share on a date - what impression does it make about you to the reader? Once you know this, start showing, not telling this attribute of yourself through your story. For example, instead of saying that you're compassionate toward others, you show an example of a time you were compassionate, then elaborate on why, and what it means to you.

Essay Brainstorming Techniques

If you are having trouble finding a story, or simply have writer’s block once you have picked your topic, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

• Stream of consciousness writing -- Start writing whatever is in your head, and don’t stop for 30 minutes. You probably won’t use what you just wrote for your essay, but it will help you find a starting point.
  
• Journaling -- Answer the prompt as if you were writing in a journal. This will get you in the habit of writing about yourself and establish comfort with the concept. It will also take you to a new level of introspection and self-awareness.
  
• Twitter X style -- Write several rapid-fire responses to the prompt in 280 characters or less. Choose an idea from these responses to expound upon in your essay.
  
• Read each essay prompt, then go through your introspection worksheet responses and connect the stories and insights to one or more of the prompts. Some students like using color coding to visually see how their different ideas might work together.
  

Why Essays Matter

Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize about college admission: it's not an award for being the smartest, most accomplished, or most impressive. It's an invitation to join a community. Far too many students think that if they can just show that they're smart enough, they'll get in. Yale even says right on their admissions website that 75% of their applicants are academically qualified to succeed at Yale. But only ~4% are getting in. That should tell you that they're looking for more than just top tier test scores and grades. To be perfectly clear, you will need top tier grades and (optionally) test scores to show that you're qualified, and the vast majority of my students come to me with this part already in the bank. But what sets the admits apart? It's personal insight - sharing who you are, how you think, what matters to you, and how you engage community. You can't just say "/IAmVerySmart, please admit me," or even "I did a cool thing guys! Isn't that neat!" You need to go deeper and show them your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, character traits, foundational beliefs, personality, etc. And you need to do it in a charming, winsome way that makes them like you and want to invite you to join their community.
So how do I get students to do this? All of my students complete that introspection worksheet. We go through it and find the stories, examples, anecdotes, conversations, memories, relationships, and other things from their life that will help us craft a strong and personally insightful narrative. We also make lists of the values, strengths, and key personal qualities we want to showcase. Once we have some topics, outlines, abstracts, or rough drafts, we talk about which stories to tell where, how to tell them well, and what details to include to present the best they have to offer. Then we refine, edit, polish, and enhance over and over until the story sings, but more importantly shows their heart and soul. We also go through all the other application components to ensure consistency, quality, and distinctiveness.
Here's why this works so well: at most highly selective colleges there is a primary reader (or 2-3) who will review everything first and then present it to the admissions committee, who then votes on whether to admit you. That presentation typically goes one of three ways:

1. Total enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. They strongly advocate for admission and paint a clear picture of how you will contribute to their goals and community. Everyone in the room picks up on that energy and is leaning forward in their chairs, looking for reasons to admit you. This is quite rare, generally less than 5 out of every 100 applications, even among those which are "fully qualified." When you do this right, you show depth, meaning, and valuable personal insights so the reviewer is learning about who you are and how you might engage the community they're curating. You come alive off the page as a person, not just another file.
   
2. Business as usual. You're another great applicant in a pile of great applicants. They share a basic review of the facts, your profile, stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Maybe someone on the committee finds something they love, and they really push for admission. More likely, not and you get deferred/waitlisted even though there wasn't anything "wrong" with your application. They just didn't love you enough to commit.
   
3. "Here's a stack of 20 applications that I didn't find all that compelling, so we won't present them individually, but you guys are the committee and you make the decisions. So let me know if there are any you want to talk about." In this case, unless there's a letter of endorsement from an athletics coach or your last name matches several buildings on campus, you're probably not getting additional consideration, much less admission. They will regret to inform you.
   

Everything we're doing is designed to help them get to know themselves, present the best they have to offer, and land in that first group. Having top tier essays is the single best way to get there. Get started on brainstorming in the next few weeks so you'll have time to get a few essays completed over the summer.

Hello! I'm currently on a 'Ring' binge again after reading 'Ring', 'Spiral', 'Loop', and 'Birthday' by Koji Suzuki and it may seem foolish but what can am I missing about the homes occupied by Reiko Asakawi, Ryuji, etc in the 1998 film 'Ring'? (Or 'Ringu')
I see that Reiko seems to live in a condo and Ryuji lives in an apartment?
Ryuji's seems older and more sparse.
Tomoko in the beginning of the film lives in a house.
What would I infer about their living arrangements or economic circumstances if I was more familiar with Japanese living based on the production/set design?
What about the Yamamura Inn that Reiko and Ryuji visit in Izu Oshima? Is that meant to be an older Inn or typical for the business or location?
Thank you very much for your time and insight and I sincerely apologize if the question is foolish or poorly worded.

It’s on a book (tale of 2 cities) if would be beneficial if you are willing to read it:)! No AI!!! Ai = automatic end of agreement! Just try your best and A’s are the obviously goal! HMUUUU✨✨ (dm for payment info) These are Google doc worksheets! This is no essays but there are some paragraphs you need to write! Please guys ✌️🤗

I know psychology gets a bad reputation as a degree for how diminutive opportunities exist for graduates, especially for bachelors. I've come to find that, for every degree, whether a bachelor, master, or doctor in psychology, the chances are you haven't learned any skills in your education, as there aren't any physical skills being taught that would align with any remarkable jobs, so they're stuck with some job unrelated to their degree. Though I'm open to correction if I got anything wrong so far, what I infer from what I know now, from what I've read from theses and essays and what I've heard from psychology graduates, is that I would have to teach myself whatever skills necessary to get my desired career, whether from personal practice or professional training.
By all means, I write welcoming judgment with open arms here, but here's my rough sketch of how I would start my career. I would get a job as a barback, and apply to a community college to graduate with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Then, that interval between having my bachelor's program and starting my master's program, I'll try for a job in therapy that I like. If I fail to find one, from the years I spent in training as a barback, I'll try for a job as a bartender instead. And if I fail, I'll try to earn a higher wage in my current job.
Let me know what I should consider or if you made similar choices to what I've mapped out here. Thanks!

I have a student who lost their mother to violence over a year ago. They are also LD.
I have another student who lost their dad to a heart attack about 2 months ago.
The first student doesn't try, doesn't ask for help, doesn't even put on answer on a worksheet. When I approach and say, hey, how.can I help you get started, they just suck their thumb (6th grade) and mumble, no thanks.
The other student missed about 2 weeks, came back and made all the work up and had an A. First student has an F bc they have turned in literally nothing.
I am torn. I totally get where first student is traumatized. As was 2nd student because there are multiple issues (health) with their remaining parent, whose health is on the decline rapidly.
For me, 1st student should be able to grieve, but understand that doing zero work does not help them. I have tried, guidance counselor has tried, and on site therapist has tried. 1st student just refuses.
Should I let 1st student fail for refusing help? I personally feel like if I just pass them, they'll get into that mindset that they'll be "successful" with zero effort, and the world is going to be a horrible place for them when they go out into it. Can't read. Can barely write, and gives zero effort. All o can think is homelessness, abusive relationships bc of financial needs...I know you get what I'm trying to say, so I'll leave it at that.
To clarify, have contacted Dad with concerns and he assures me he can take 1st student to the library to finish assignments. Student 1 has come back on Monday with no finished work. Talked to dad, he said he took student 1 to the library and put them on the computer (where my work is posted), but said they just wouldn't do anything.
Do I fail student 1? I've followed all the IEP requirements and have gone out of my way to assist them.
I'm really torn. Thanks, and please be kind.