Hello? Is someone here?
Hey! I'm here.
Oh, hello! Sorry, sometimes I get ghosts. But you don't seem like a ghost.
No worries, I just had a ghost too.
Oh, yeah? It seems like it's a recurring problem. I don't know why. Anyway, regardless, I'm happy to be here with you.
Neither do it, it was my first conversation too, so I didn't know if that was how it was supposed to be or what. I'm happy too!
Oh, really? Are you new?
Yeah, I'm new. This is my second conversation overall, first real one. On the platform of course.
Oh! Well, hello, hello!
I have conversed with people once upon a time
It's fun to see new people. Conversing with people IS a useful skill. It works pretty well here, wouldn't you say?
Is it a fairly small community here? Do you have repeat conversations?
It depends.
Yeah, it sure does work really well! Seems to be pretty instant messaging
It's kinda nice, huh? As per the community thing, well. I was here last time they did the contest. I think it was back in winter semester? I don't quite remember other than that I won a pair of headphones. Er, pretend that sentence makes sense.
Oh nice, I remember seeing it advertised, but I obviously didn't enter. Nice! Still use the headphones?
I do! I'm charging them right now, actually. Bose headphones. Real nice. Even wireless.
Haha sweet! Those sound awesome. Headphones are one thing that I wouldn't necessarily sink a lot of money into, but if I were given some nice ones I think I would use them
Right? That was my thought, too. I'm not going to go out and buy some two hundred pair of headphones. But, well, if they were given to me, I wouldn't complain.
Amen!
So I went out, got third place, and won myself headphones. Hehe, woo! So are you just stopping by, then? Here to see what it's like and whatnot? Or are you here for the iPad?
Awesome! Yeah, I thought I might as well do my part to contribute to science on a Friday night
I'm sure science appreciates it.
I sure hope so. I bet they need all of the training data that they can get
No kidding. A social bot? Do you know how hard that must be to recreate? I don't know how they recreated voice data. That seems nigh impossible to me. But to get conversation data accurate enough to simulate human's? Fascinating.
Well I have done some machine learning stuff, and pretty much your results are only as good as the data that you train on
Oh, really? Machine learning? That's high-end stuff. How'd you get into that?
So, in theory the "better" the conversations we have now, the better the will perform. It gets kind of hard to define "better" though
Oh, whoops, didn't mean to cut you off.
No worries! I'm a Computer Science major, so it is in the territory I guess
Which year? Because I'm a computer scientist, too. Not a very experienced one, but still in the field.
Oh nice. I graduated last year and I started the Master's Program this semester How about you?
Wait wait, what? That's so cool! I'm just a sophomore. Not a lot of experience yet. I want to be good, though. There's so much to learn, and I want to do it all. I feel like everyone knows so much more than me, and that's kind of intimidating at times, but I really love this field, and I'm hoping I can pick it up soon enough.
Cool! You will get there before you know it. CS can be super intimidating at times, but it is definitely worth the effort that you put in. That is also the hard thing is that even thought it may seem like people know a lot more than you, in reality they only know different things than you The field is so broad that there will come a point where you know a lot more than they do about a specific thing, and vice versa.
I sure hope so. I grew up around computers because my dad was a software engineer, but that only made me comfortable in the environment. All I realize is that I don't know a whole ton.
Are you in a CS class this semster?
I wish. I'm serving a mission soon. No classes at the moment.
Oh nice! That is awesome. Do you have your call yet?
I do! I got it about a week and a half ago. I'll be going to Argentina, Spanish speaking.
Nice!! That is awesome. I served in the Belgium/Netherlands mission speaking Dutch Congratulations!
Thanks! And Dutch, huh? I've always LOVED that language. Is it hard to pick up? I feel like the pronunciation would be difficult for me to master.
Haha really? What do you love about Dutch? I think that is the first time that I have received that reaction
Well, I think it began when I mixed up Dutch and Russian. I don't know how. They're way different languages. But my friend was studying Russian, and I guess since I thought Dutch and Russian were the same thing, I thought Dutch was really cool, too. And then I met someone who'd also served in the Netherlands and spoke Dutch.
Yes and no. I was definitely really blessed so learning it was fairly straightforward. The nice thing is that most of the words are phonetic
Oh, really? Is it a Latin-based language?
so once you have the rules down the pronunciation isn't too bad It is Germanic, so basically it is in between German and English There are a ton of cognates and English words that have been adopted into the Dutch language
That is so COOL. Like, I'm not even a language nerd. I just find it all fascinating.
I think it is so cool that you recognize Dutch as a language! Not many people realize that they speak Dutch in the Netherlands
Really? I remember being surprised they called it "Netherlandish" in Dutch. For the name of the language, I mean. Why wouldn't people count it as a language?
Yeah, so the word for Dutch in Dutch is "Nederlands," and the word for the Netherlands in Dutch is "Nederland." Basically the "s" says that it is a language For instance, English is "Engels" and England is "Engeland" People count it as a language, but they usually don't know what language they speak in the Netherlands
Oh, I see, I see. Yeah, my friend explained all about that. I guess I haven't thought Dutch was ALWAYS interesting, just when I heard about it.
I am so impressed by your about Dutch! Anyway, we can talk about something else if you would like.
Hehe, sure. As much as I love Dutch. Er, um, I dunno. I kinda miss taking classes. It was nice, you know?
Yeah, classes can definitely be fulfilling. But on the other hand they can take over your life. What have you been up to to stay busy? I totally know what you mean
Not much, unfortunately. A lot of idling, more than I'm comfortable admitting. Realizing that I'm learning to be productive when I don't have a schedule to follow. It's been interesting. I'm not as good at self-discipline as I'd like. How do you fix that?
Self-discipline is really hard. I don't know, I'm trying to improve it myself. I think something that helps is being accountable to someone I certainly do a lot better when I have a deadline or I know that someone is going to follow up with me about what I'm doing
No kidding. I could do school all year long. I love it. Deadlines were thrilling and stressful and horrifying sometimes, but they got me working.
Yeah, and I just love the satisfaction of doing something difficult and learning a lot along the way. Do you know what you want to do with CS after you graduate?
I wish. I don't know. And . . . that's something I've been thinking about a lot. So many of my friends are out doing things: getting internships, studying under research labs, even working part-time at real industries. I think that's wonderful. I support them in everything. And . . . I'd love to go out and do those things, too, but I don't know what I want to pursue yet. Not really. I love computer science so much, and I'm happy I'm here.
It sure is hard to figure out what you want to do when you grow up. A mission is a great place to kind of figure that out It is a nice environment where you can step away from all of the "stuff" and focus on what is important and gain a perspective that would be difficult to gain elsewhere
I'm hoping I get that. Have you read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? It's on topic, I promise.
Haha I have read part of it... Not very effective of me
You can be 2/7ths as effective.
Even if it was off topic, go for it!
Okay, so, in the book, he mentions how hard we make work to climb the work ladder, only to find that, once we've reached the top, it was leaned up against the wrong wall. *hard we work And he pointed out the importance of knowing where we're headed. To make sure that the destination is worth it before you make the journey.
That is a super good analogy!
I know, right? He's brilliant.
That would be a very disappointing feeling To have worked your entire life only to realize that what you were working for wasn't worthwhile I think it is very wise to be thinking about these sort of things now (in the early part of our lives) when we have the flexibility to make choices
Wise? Sure. The problem is, I don't have a lot of wisdom yet. You don't acquire much until you're older, and by that point, you no longer have the flexibility to choose. Funny how life works like that. I'm not . . . worried about the future, per se. But I don't have a clear goal, a clear purpose.
It is funny how life works that way. I don't know if we should be super concerned with a clear destination, but I think the direction in which we want to pursue should be clear
I don't even have that down. I'm in college, partly, because it's fun. And partly to get a degree. I love computer science, and I'm lucky that it's such an in-demand field at the moment.
I think being in college is a direction
And after college? . . . what then?
In my opinion I think that comes with time
Did it for you?
College is great because it gives you the ability to explore various things and try out different experiences with little costs It definitely did for me. As I learned different things and had different experiences I learned what I didn't and did want to do I don't know for certain what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I have a fairly good idea I would recommend taking as many opportunities as possible to gain experience. For instance, when I first started my undergrad, I thought that I wanted to go to graduate school in Boston. I did an internship in Boston and it turns out I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. But the good thing was that I only committed 2 months of my life rather than 4-5 years
I hear a lot of people worry about college and the tuition money. Just worried about wasting it, you know?
Yeah, I can definitely sympathize with that. I think that if college is stretching you and helping you grow, then it is worth the money
I like that.
That doesn't mean that you can't have fun in college Or even that it is the best way to learn skills. I think that you can learn a TON on the job, but college should provide you with a foundation to learn for the rest of your  f life
I'm surrounded by people who just want to get through it as fast as possible. Kinda intimidates me at times. Like spending four years in college is too slow.
If I were you, I would try as hard as you can not to fall into that trap
So many people have so many credits. They transfer in with, like, 65. Just from AP courses.
To be honest I think that does them a diservice
Why? Doesn't everyone want to finish as quickly as possible? I mean . . . I don't. Not . . . not really. I really like school.
Because those classes are the foundation of what you are going to do, and usually (not always the case) wherever you got the credits won't be as high of quality in terms of learning as it would be if you took the classes in college. In my opinion of course So if your foundation is weak, then when you learn the higher level concepts it will be much more difficult
Does that still apply to things like GE classes? I mean, I enjoy them, but I don't think I'll pursue courses in them.
If you like school, then stay in as long as possible!
That's not bad advice.
I think it applies less to GE classes, but in my personal experience I have gotten a lot more out of writing and history classes at BYU than I ever did in high school Of course, I am biased. I want to get a PhD, and I know that is not for everyone so take all of my advice with a grain of salt!
Hehe, noted! I don't even know what it'd take to get into graduate school. I haven't looked into it at all. Is it hard getting in? What do you have to do? What do they look for? I'm a full year in. Have I already ruined my chances?
No not at all!
I hope not. There's not even a real point in me getting a master's or PhD, I don't think. It's not that I don't think I'd enjoy it. Because I think I would. But . . . I'm not sure that's the direction I want to go. Or maybe it is? I don't know.
But a Master's can be very beneficial no matter what you would like to do
Isn't it hard to get into a graduate program, though?
I don't think my other message sent. Getting a PhD is only useful if you want to teach at a university or do research professionally, and it will actually limit your job prospects because you are overqualified and super specialized As long as your grades are fairly good and you have some research experience (optional, but it helps a lot) then getting into a graduate program is doable I think you would be hard pressed to find a job that doesn't pay you more with a Masters than with a Bachelors And if you enjoy school, then I think it is definitely worth it. However on the other hand, if the wall that your ladder is leaning against is maximizing salary then the years you spend in school (not making money) may be detrimental But most graduate programs in CS (and other STEM fields) will actually pay your tuition and pay you a stipend to be a graduate student It isn't much, but it is definitely possible to do it loan-free
Hmm. How do you get research opportunities? And what does that mean, exactly?
BYU has great under graduate research jobs, so if you find a professor that is doing research that interests you then you can see if you can join their lab
Is this research more for computer sciency stuff? Like, should I find a computer scientist to do research with?
It depends on what you want your graduate degree to be in If you want a CS degree then CS research would be good For example I do research for Dr. Clement in Bioinformatics Most CS research have another discipline tied to it Bioinformatics is Biology + CS. Machine Learning is Statistics + CS, etc
Machine Learning has statistics attached to it? Whoa. That sounds interesting. Where do I go to find this stuff out? I'm not sure starting research with a professor would be a good idea right now--or maybe it would be, I don't know--but I'd love to know for post-mission. I've heard about research opportunities being a thing, but where do you GET them? Where do you find them?
I would email a professor that you would like to work with Yeah, post-mision would probably be best for you I have to go now, but it was super great chatting with you! Best of luck with everything!