I pointed out that I find it gross to prioritize federal spending for your vacation home over victims of war.

Also, ordinary Americans certainly don't have vacation homes.

I watched him for years coming into weekly colloquia and seeming to tune out reading papers. But, occasionally there would be a speaker that was less than credible, and you could feel the entire hall close off. But, my advisor would hear a tidbit of a good idea (even amongst loads of bunk), and look up from his journals and ask a genuinely curious clarifying question. This would often lead to new lines of research in our labs.

In the end, many of these speakers were on the wrong overall track, but they definitely had insights that were incredibly valuable. Those who dismissed them entirely missed out, while my advisor had a knack for finding the signal in the noise and moving forward with that without missing it due to judgement.

A PhD doesn't mean that a person knows everything. It means they made progress in understanding in a narrow area. Might not have included Python.

I do notice I weigh 25-30 pounds less than my friends that are same height and waist size. I'm 6'3" and when fit hover a little under 170 lbs, while everyone else is 190-200. I think it's a distinct lack of muscle.

Or rather, all online diagnoses are cancer.

Today my wife had a specific medical concern that we wanted supplementary information about, and because of your link we had incredibly helpful and credible insight that helped us and provided a deeper understanding of what her physician was saying.

We're all allowed to like different things, and you shouldn't take that difference as commentary on your intelligence. I think an unemotional reading of this thread lacks condescension or insinuation.

What is your favorite SciFi novel? Maybe highlighting that will help see the difference in style preference. Personally, of the SciFi I've read, after Stephenson I liked Weir and the Altered Carbon series. There's another book that I think of all the time but don't recall the title or author - future dystopia where the USA has split into two countries - conservative middle America red states and liberal coastal states with strongly defended but crossable borders.

Personally, it's my favorite book of all time. I'm not a Sci Fi snob and rarely read the genre, so I'm not sure what the signaling is.