Accidental improvement to my system! It was unexpectedly motivating to get on Skype during my workout. Didn’t wanna go, then remembered I get to talk somebody’s ear off. This is important, because according to my thinking on the subject it doesn’t really matter how you exercise, as long as you’re fairly consistent about it. Lifting regularly is 90% success, diet and rest are 9%, and 1% is the difference in programs (whether powerlifting, bodybuilding, etc). So really, just go to the gym two of every three days and do whatever.
Response to a criticism that this is contra-mainstream…
On the contrary, I don’t think anyone would disagree that regular attendance is the main thing. They just tend to de-emphasize it because it’s “assumed”. And it’s difficult to lift regularly without getting stronger. Sure, one might be inefficient, but in five years the guy who keeps going 2 of 3 days consistently will beat the New Year’s resolutions crowd. Usually, the best effect of rapid gains is to give a person a success mentality. Which eventually slips. And then they slip, and slack off on the diet. Etc. So I’m merely emphasizing the most important part, which tends to get overlooked.
By analogy, most statistics classes never dig into the topic of good data vs. bad data, which is by far the most important thing. Good data is “assumed” in class, and one is rarely taught (formally) how to sift datasets.
Thought of a good litmus test for physics charlatans, those shamans of pretentious quantum arcana. Ask them “What are the units of measure in the Schrodinger equation?” You’ll likely have the pleasure to witness some of the most confident people in the world suddenly go cross-eyed. A wave function of what, exactly? Probability of what? Can you express that in meters, kilograms, or moles?
This is of course assuming they aren’t dumb enough to freestyle blather on the subject. Dunning-Kruger may often be misunderstood and mis-applied, but it is a real phenomenon.
Yesterday’s Slashdot e-mail was great:
Statisticians Study Who Was Helped Most By Obamacare
Colleges Face New ‘Gainful Employment’ Regulations For Student Loans
Want to ridicule these properly. Alas, extra workouts teach that time is precious.
I’m beginning to understand schadenfreude. I always kinda assumed everyone was pretending at it, so as to appear both tough and “too cool for school”. Kinda like disparaging popular entertainment. But I guess there might be some real people saying the same things.
Aeoli Pera 
>Colleges Face New ‘Gainful Employment’ Regulations For Student Loans
Dear Lord, that’s horrifying. If you’re so poor(poor, that is, in spirit) that you have to have a job then you shouldn’t go to college.
Professions are an indignity meant to be suffered by the little people, by burgerlich mensch, who will bear his yoke with unconcealed pride. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, and accountants, ought not to have such overweening self-importance that they label the 5-star kennels where they are housebroken “universities,” after institutions of manly, humanistic cultivation that no longer exist. That self-importance is our birthright, not theirs.
I agree, except for the last part. Why on earth would we have inherited overweening self-importance, and from whom? It seems to invalidate my inheritance that I’m even asking.
>Thought of a good litmus test for physics charlatans, those shamans of pretentious quantum arcana. Ask them “What are the units of measure in the Schrodinger equation?” You’ll likely have the pleasure to witness some of the most confident people in the world suddenly go cross-eyed. A wave function of what, exactly? Probability of what? Can you express that in meters, kilograms, or moles?
That would be a trick question. Because of second quantization, most professional physicists only work with field operators and not traditional wavefunctions. Unfortunately, there exists this little thing called Haag’s Theorem…
You just showed off my ignorance, then. I’ve never done physics in a professional way, just the academic way.
I remember picking up a book by Paul Dirac at the university library once, thinking “hey, quantum mechanics, I know about that,” and there was a big intro chapter on operator theory that was already over my head. I think it’s a huge mistake to teach QM to undergrads- they can memorize the physics, but they just don’t have the math to grok it.