The Highly Educated KSP Player - legends in our own minds? (Updated OP 16 January 2018)

[_Augustus_]

I'm a freshman now, update the OP!

New school with nice people, one online class and one in-person class per week. Just had my first online class yesterday. Science and History are so much more engaging!

I don't think I could be an astronaut - I'm not that great at math, engineering, or even piloting stuff. I need help driving a canal boat going 5mph, and I use MechJeb all the time when flying stuff in KSP.

But I am an amateur astronomer now, and I've invested over $1k in equipment, and sold (among other things) my Magic the Gathering cards just to get more equipment.

Edited September 4, 2016 by _Augustus_

[Kergarin]

Well... Where should I start...

 

School was frustrating to me from the beginning on.

In first class, there was this "gifted" guy who allways was asked by the teachers, to show that he is better than anyone else. He then jumped over several classes. In fact I was better than him in everything, reading high degree texts or doing math. But the teachers gave me no chance to show this, just because his parents had connections.

I went on through the next school classes, until I just could not take it anymore, how boring and underestimating school was. After staying away from school unexcused for more than a hundred days per year over several years, I was kicked out school in the 8. class without any graduation.

After staying at home for a year, making my parents desperate, I started some other schools to get a graduation. Never finished them, because I still could not resist the stupidity of them.

Still having no degree with 20 years, I was put into a initiative for "problem" kids. There it turned out that my IQ was 165. The teacher was fascinated and almost got mad about it, he said he has never seen such results before (also in other things I've done in this course) , and this MUST be encouraged. A few days later he returned with the same words as everyone else does to me: there is nothing to encourage me, there are only ways to support below average people.

Shortly after my father died from cancer, my mother was not able to work anymore, because she was caring for my dad 24/7 over years when cancer slowly ate up his body. And the years before he got ill, they had to take care of my sister, who had a car accident when I was about ten. She was in coma for several month, the doctors wanted to switch of the machines several times. But then she started moving her fingers, rolling her eyes, and in a process over years learned to speak, eat and walk again.

So I had to take on a job, if we don't want to loose our house. The only thing I found was an education as electrician. I had to break this off after a half year because of health problem.

Luckily (?) I then got a chance to show what I can in an IT-services company, made my education there, and became technical and project leader of this company shortly after my education ended.

Besides from administration we had software development in business school, what was not part of my work. My teacher said, he has never seen such programming and understanding skills like mine, even not in the classes specialized for this. He recommended me to quit my education, and do something in development. Sadly he also could not help me by finding a place to do this, and I did not find the courage to start over again.

The problem of my leading position was, it was to far away my home (and still underestimating).

After almost 10 years of shuttling between work and home, I found a job in my hometown where I won't be technical lead but at least project leader. So I took this on to be more near to my remainig family.

Sadly this job is absolutely not what it was said to be. I'm doing customer support on the lowest level.

My mind can't take this stupidity anymore, and I feel I'm getting more stupid day by day.

 

The only thing that keeps me from getting crazy are my hobbys like programming video games, playing KSP or developing other things.

 

Now I'm 33 and still feel I'm wasting my life. I think I could do big things in research and development, taking humankind further, or just developing something new.

 

But how? My job takes around 50hours per week, makes me dumb, numb and powerless. So all my private projects are on hold. But I can't quit because I need the money.

 

The only way out would be to study besides my job, but since I still don't have the degree for this, I can only study something related to my job. The best thing here would be informatics, but in the end wouldn't that make me just a stupid undemanding  app or website developer? This would not be much better than what I'm doing now, and surely force me to work far from my small hometown again.

 

I don't see a really way out, I also absolutely can't imagine to do this for the rest of my life. I feel I will collapse soon, if it stays this senseless and underestimating.

 

Sorry for this long excursion, this was not planned.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Kergarin

[monstah]

13 minutes ago, Kergarin said:

She was in coma for several month, the doctors wanted to switch of the machines several times. But then she started moving her fingers, rolling her eyes, and in a process over years learned to speak, eat and walk again.

You may have gone through some rough times, but this made me happy to read it. Didn't it make you happy to write it?

13 minutes ago, Kergarin said:

My mind can't take this stupidity anymore, and I feel I'm getting more stupid day by day.

The only thing that keeps me from getting crazy are my hobbys like programming video games, playing KSP or developing other things.

Have you ever tried finding some academic subject you can read and research into by yourself? Myself, I am interested in neural networks. There is just a lot to read out there, being published every single day. And there are lots of tools around now which let you play around for yourself. That might not be your thing, but I bet there are lots of areas out there that are ripe with development, and with lots of opportunity. Even if you never get to develop anything for yourself, just the reading and experimenting and following on the footsteps of people who are very smart, and likely also felt dumbened from time to time (and who are in lots of cases the same age as you and I) can be pretty rewarding.

[Kergarin]

On ‎03‎.‎10‎.‎2016 at 4:04 PM, monstah said:

You may have gone through some rough times, but this made me happy to read it. Didn't it make you happy to write it?

Have you ever tried finding some academic subject you can read and research into by yourself? Myself, I am interested in neural networks. There is just a lot to read out there, being published every single day. And there are lots of tools around now which let you play around for yourself. That might not be your thing, but I bet there are lots of areas out there that are ripe with development, and with lots of opportunity. Even if you never get to develop anything for yourself, just the reading and experimenting and following on the footsteps of people who are very smart, and likely also felt dumbened from time to time (and who are in lots of cases the same age as you and I) can be pretty rewarding.

Thanks for taking your time!

Well it was not that academic, but the last thing i was teaching my self was how to write Android apps. I then developed a retro/modern mix strategy game from scratch by creating my own game engine (without any framework or something. everything done by myslef. from taking the touch coordinates from the display to putting the images in the right size and vector on it).
But after if had finished the engine with all its geometric calculations, made the game playable online against each other, and worked on the AI, this also became boring at a point where all the challenges were done, an it just becomes work like creating menus, Levels, tutorials etc...
I sadly have not worked on this for more than a year.

Actually i would like to participate in Microsofts project malmo. it really is a shame whats going on there. The things i've seen People do so far, verry far away from what AI really is, But sadly im absolutely exhausted and don't even find the time to install...

Following others sadly does not make me happy. Most times it even frustrates me to see what others are doing with their lives. And often it makes me mad, to see that a team of dozens of people gets a lot of attention for things i could have easily developed alone in my garage... if I had the time... the room in my garage... and the money to start something...

 

Anyway, thanks for the kind words!  But i don't want to spam this thread with my problems

[monstah]

15 minutes ago, Kergarin said:

But after if had finished the engine with all its geometric calculations, made the game playable online against each other, and worked on the AI, this also became boring at a point where all the challenges were done, an it just becomes work like creating menus, Levels, tutorials etc...

Ah, I share that feeling. Countless projects have I given up on once the magic of discovery and invention is gone, and left is just the dull work that has to be done.

That's something you and I both need to work on, in my opinion  

[Kergarin]

19 hours ago, monstah said:

Ah, I share that feeling. Countless projects have I given up on once the magic of discovery and invention is gone, and left is just the dull work that has to be done.

That's something you and I both need to work on, in my opinion  

Exactly.  I think you are right. But it feels like time wasting to do the dull things, while so many challenging things are left. 

[Jonfliesgoats]

I have some degrees.  None of them mean that much really.  I am definitely a legend in my own mind.  Yay me!

[Jonfliesgoats]

There's this emotional let down many of us feel after we hit some achievement, look around and think "That was it?".  Unchecked you can kind of lose track of whatever passion got you into your field in the first place.  Something similar happens when you become personally over invested in a program turn into a workaholic, etc.  At some point you  realize that even your best triumphs and greatest accolades really aren't that big of a deal.  Perhaps this is the risk in marrying our identities to our professional and academic credentials?

For me I bought an antique plane and got back to my roots.  I rediscovered why I loved flying and later, why I loved engineering.  I am happier and more productive at work and much less of a jerk at home.  

 

On 10/5/2016 at 6:03 AM, monstah said:

Ah, I share that feeling. Countless projects have I given up on once the magic of discovery and invention is gone, and left is just the dull work that has to be done.

That's something you and I both need to work on, in my opinion  

 

Along those lines, look at Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the years after Apollo.  Neil tried settling on a farm in Ohio and teaching at the University of Cinncinnatti.  His marriage struggled.

Buzz is still driving red cars and hanging out with blondes as he advocates for more space exploration.  You get some sense that he is looking for some kind of satisfaction he just can't find.

Hmm.  I'm incoherent again.  Time to put down my iPad.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Jonfliesgoats

[septemberWaves]

I'm going to university next year. I'll be studying physics, and then once I have that degree I'll do a doctorate which will probably specialize in the dynamics of interplanetary travel. I'm going to use it all to do mission planning for interplanetary exploration/colonization. I hope to work with SpaceX and perhaps get the opportunity to go and work on the Mars colonization program in its early stages*. But of course, I have a long way to go and a lot of work to do before getting to that point.

*Yes, I'm aware that many people consider SpaceX's plans for Mars to be impossible. But a few years ago, the same was said about landing a launch vehicle to reuse it, and a little over a century ago the same was said about heavier-than-air flight. Perhaps it is a bit optimistic to assume that SpaceX can succeed with their interplanetary endeavours, but our species has never gained anything from pessimistically refusing to try things in the assumption that they cannot be done.

[LordFerret]

On 10/27/2016 at 1:42 PM, Jonfliesgoats said:

For me I bought an antique plane and got back to my roots.

I just can't get this out of my mind...

[Jonfliesgoats]

Adorable!

Domocratization of innovation is really important.  It took a fair bit of money to experiment with balloons.  The result was relatively little progress in flight even though we had lighter-than-air capabilities throughout the nineteenth century.  Unforeseen innovations (steam engines which laid the technical and human foundation for internal combustion) arrived.  This combined with the relatively low cost of spruce and canvas allowed not just rich, like Alberto Sants Dumont, Bell, but poor, like Wright Brothers, Glen Curtiss, to experiment with heavier than air flight.

Innovations in materials, low cost additive manufacturing or other techs stand to do the same thing with space.  For now, its nice to see spaceflight moving from governments to private enterprise, even if it still is in the realm of established billionaires.  The future looks bright for budding action-nerds.

On 11/5/2016 at 5:36 AM, eloquentJane said:

I'm going to university next year. I'll be studying physics, and then once I have that degree I'll do a doctorate which will probably specialize in the dynamics of interplanetary travel. I'm going to use it all to do mission planning for interplanetary exploration/colonization. I hope to work with SpaceX and perhaps get the opportunity to go and work on the Mars colonization program in its early stages*. But of course, I have a long way to go and a lot of work to do before getting to that point.

*Yes, I'm aware that many people consider SpaceX's plans for Mars to be impossible. But a few years ago, the same was said about landing a launch vehicle to reuse it, and a little over a century ago the same was said about heavier-than-air flight. Perhaps it is a bit optimistic to assume that SpaceX can succeed with their interplanetary endeavours, but our species has never gained anything from pessimistically refusing to try things in the assumption that they cannot be done.

 

[monstah]

On 05/11/2016 at 8:36 AM, eloquentJane said:

many people consider SpaceX's plans for Mars to be impossible

Oh, not me! Hard. Expensive. Crazy. Optimistic. Yes, yes, yes and yes. But possible, and I so hope I live to see the first footsteps being actually taken (and I think I will).

[adsii1970]

Yeah, yeah, I will be updating this thread sometime in the next 48 hours.  I'm sorry I've neglected it for so long...

[monstah]

@adsii1970 I was just about to page you, you know

[Robotengineer]

Quick update on me. I'm going to graduate in December and start as a freshman next semester (even though I will be taking the 3rd semester courses for my major next semester, so practically a sophomore) after a semester as a full-time concurrent student (taking physics 1 w/ honors, Calc 2, gen chem, and the department freshman seminar course, intro to engineering (boring as heck). My primary problem has been dealing with boredom between spurts of activity when deadlines or exams approach, shouldn't have much problem with that next semester since I'll be taking 18 hours. 

I have been somewhat surprised by how well I have transitioned from being a rather misanthropic internet dwelling gamer to a reasonably friendly and scholarly student. It can get awkward being 2+ years younger than my classmates, but I try not to mention it and my (few) friends don't seem to care much. 

I have also realized there may be more to life than going to Mars, especially if it is to be a one way trip. I have realized that I can do more for humanity as a researcher, advocate, and engineer than as an astronaut, though that still remains a possible route.

The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department here focuses almost entirely UAV's, with no professors currently researching in astronautical engineering areas, so I will probably end up transferring to a more space oriented school. My current plan is to study space propulsion or space systems in graduate school. 

Sadly, I have had very little time for KSP (or any other games for that matter), but hope to be able to play some over winter break. 

[adsii1970]

OP Update (finally)...

Hey, folks -

It's been a while (at least since August of 2016) since I've updated this thread. There's a lot been going on here, such as designing a new course, additional university obligations, trying to finish a book for publication, and now, my newest endeavour, updating some older mods to work in 1.2! Anyhow, I plan to spend a few minutes each week keeping this list updated from this point forward - don't hold your breath, but it will be my goal!

There are a lot of great comments in the posts I want to come back to and comment on, but right now, the main purpose of this post is to update the list with the most up-to-date information you've given me. One of the things that is amazing is how many of us out there have had life happen to us and where we are at now is not where we thought we would be. I'd like to share some insight on this as I do have students that I advise on educational goals each semester:

We now live in a very fluid world where there are very few certainties. Don't get caught in the mindset of "if I would have just finished this..." or "I should have never majored in that..." because if you do, you'll miss out. You'll miss out on what can still be because you're too worried and sorrowful over what could have been. You're never too old to learn something new because that is what life is about - constantly learning and improving.

I'd like to do something a little different when I add new members and update older ones. Here's what's been done in a nutshell:

Welcome our list's newest members:

@eloquentJane has been added to our list as one who is planning to go to college. Great plans and lots of vision...

@Jonfliesgoats has been added to the degree roster, but need some information about the degrees earned... or I can always make something up!

@Shikashi has plans to enter the Autists Higher IT School in Linz, Austria. Let us know when you find out!

@Kergarin has been added under a new category - "SELF TAUGHT/ON THE JOB SAGE"

@UnusualAttitude has been added to our list as one who has earned a degree. Like too many of us, we spend time working outside of our degree field.

@Ultimate Steve has been added to our list as an aspiring young dreamer.

@Reddy: has been added to our list as one who has earned a degree.The ink on the diploma is still wet, so CONGRATULATIONS!

@TheSaint has been added to our list as one who has earned a degree. I need your graduation years for both, please...

@PTGFlyer has been added to our list as an aspiring young dreamer.

@Razor235 has been added to our list as an aspiring young dreamer category AND already has a private pilot certificate.

@NSEP has been added to our list as one who has earned a degree. I need to get your Bachelor degree information, but did put down "Life Happened" for your master's degree.

@TheKosanianMethod has been added to our list as someone planning to enter college. 

@Van Disaster has been added to our list as one who has earned a degree. I need to get your Bachelor degree information. University info, date, etc.

Updates on members already on the thread:

@Robotengineer is concurrently enrolled in high school and college. Even has an announcement about plans for graduate school.

@_Augustus_ is now in college... but I need to know what your major is, where you are going to update the OP correctly.

 

 

[TheSaint]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

@TheSaint has been added to our list as one who has earned a degree. I need your graduation years for both, please...

Oh, Thomas Edison was in 1993, and UoP was in 2005, IIRC.

[adsii1970]

6 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Oh, Thomas Edison was in 1993, and UoP was in 2005, IIRC.

Thanks! The op is now updated with your information.

[_Augustus_]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

OP Update (finally)...

 

@_Augustus_ is now in college... but I need to know what your major is, where you are going to update the OP correctly.

 

 

I'm not in college, I'm a freshman in high school.... College is another couple of years away.

Edited November 7, 2016 by _Augustus_

[adsii1970]

4 minutes ago, _Augustus_ said:

I'm not in college, I'm a freshman in high school.... College is another couple of years away.

I misread your post and previous complaint... Before I correct it, what's your planned major? Any idea what college or university you might want to attend?

[NSEP]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

@NSEP has been added to our list as one who has earned a degree. I need to get your Bachelor degree information, but did put down "Life Happened" for your master's degree.

I have not earned a degree yet, i am still in middle years of education! Where did you get that information? Im currently just a young dreamer and what i call a fantasizer.

[adsii1970]

17 minutes ago, NSEP said:

I have not earned a degree yet, i am still in middle years of education! Where did you get that information? Im currently just a young dreamer and what i call a fantasizer.

I thought I read that in one of the posts, turned out I was looking at someone else's comment. You've been "fixed."

[NSEP]

Just now, adsii1970 said:

I thought I read that in one of the posts, turned out I was looking at someone else's comment. You've been "fixed."

Thanks, glad you fixed it!

[NSEP]

By the way:

I currently in my middle teenage years, and compared to the people of my age around me, i know alot about science and spaceflight.

I am a space nerd, i love both the history and future of spaceflight, i know a handfull of things about spaceflight. I also know quite a bit about basic chemistry, i love poking dihydrogenmonoxide jokes on my fellow classmates.

I am still nothing compared to most people on this forum, there are alot of people hanging around on the science and spaceflight subforum that know alot more than i do. Yet, i still love talking about it.

Im almost sure that i am going into art, like drawing. I also really love writing. But i like science and spaceflight alot more than art and writing! My dream is being an inventor, and i also have some ideas for inventions, some of them are ridicilous, but they might work.

My ultimate life goal is to go to space, as a tourist at least. So i can experience what it feels like to take the journey to the final frontier.

[_Augustus_]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

I misread your post and previous complaint... Before I correct it, what's your planned major? Any idea what college or university you might want to attend?

No idea!