What’s on your mind?

I started studying math and I'm kind of scared that AI will give us much fewer job options and especially less attractive jobs. I don't want to put up so much effort just to have a mediocre job. And I also don't want to become a teacher. I don't think that we will all be unemployed but I'm scared that math won't be worth much. Can someone relate?

I am really struggling with the first semester of physics bsc. I think I could somehow manage if I studied consistently but I have done almost nothing for weeks. Throughout school I have never been able to go home, do my homework and enjoy the rest of the day. I just procrastinated until the very last moment and until I was anxious enough. Even during the matura, I sometimes started studying the morning of the final tests because I couldn’t bring myself to do it sooner. This is a pattern I want to get rid of for years now. I feel like I tried everything: deleting social media/games, changing my environment, going to libraries or public places, making to-do lists and deadlines for myself, studying with others to keep myself motivated, getting up early, etc. Nothing really worked for more than a couple of days. When I see the effort others put in to keep up with the lectures, it stresses me out so much that it becomes even harder for me to start studying. I don’t want to believe that it is too late for me in this semester yet but how can I actually build routines and stick to them? Does anyone know that feeling or a strategy to cope with this problem that has worked for them?

Im slowly but surely falling behind on everything, one lecture at a time, my mind is focused on everything but studying and i cant get myself to do the exercises and they are so hard anyways, I cant do them without help even if i thought i understood everything or know the answer or whatever.. my brain has refused to keep working and i dont think ill be able to keep up and pass anymore... and the thing is i used to love math, i used to love studying and learning new things and doing exercises and finding proofs and stuff and now its just dull and dead and i wonder whats the point of doing anything at all

I’m in my first semester of physics bsc. I wanted to ask if it’s normal to spend 2-3 hours on one question in Analysis? Meaning not just looking at the solution but effectively trying to understand every step of the proof. It takes me so long to finish an exercise and i don’t know if im doing something wrong. Obviously I learn something at the end but in the next paper it’s the same thing again, every question looks like something I’ve never seen before it’s impossible to solve it without having seen something like it before. Anyone has the same issue?

I have decided to stop attending Linear algebra and analysis classes. I can’t keep up and the environment really sucks. I rather have the script and professor AI… I can’t help the feeling that most people lie to themselves thinking they somehow benefit from just listening while not getting anything. Anyone else sharing my conclusion?

Do you feel like people sharing their positive experiences/achievements is helpful in times of difficulty? I personally see two side: on one side there is the "light at the end of the tunnel argument", seeing people overcoming difficulty gives hope On the other side when I am feeling particularly down seeing other people manage what I can't manage can send me in a downward spiral because I feel like I can't overcome a problem that everybody else can. Not sharing positive experiences creates an echo-chamber that selects only negative thoughts though, and that is particularly unhealthy. What do you all think?

5th semester math student here. I still struggle with even simple proofs and any type of "show that..." exercises. It's not that I don't understand them, but I struggle to come up with the (right) ideas. Somehow I still manage to pass the exams, but I've never had the feeling that I can actually prove anything by myself. Can you relate? Is there anything that helped you to start getting ideas without external help? Is there something like a turning point after which one develops a feel for proofs, and if so, how did you get there?

My first semester of compsci and I already feel like I’ll fumble. Was trying to work on the algorithms and data structures bonus programming exercise today but have no clue how to solve the second problem. It’s a small thing in the grand schemes and bonuses can only help you but I feel like it reflects how much I’ve been struggling to keep up with the subjects. I still have until midnight but I don’t have any more ideas, and everyone just seems to perform so well and manage their time effortlessly. I barely do anything at home besides the bare minimum, so I doubt I’m studying enough. It just all feels so awful 😞 like time and money is being wasted on me just so that I might fail the first semester and have to redo. I also feel like one of the only people who dislikes using gen ai, and combined with other factors I haven’t made any friends, so it’s like one lonely struggle through the course only to be crushed by the boulder I’m rolling uphill. I’m considering if uni counseling can help alleviate some of this, but I’ll have to see some other time. I wonder if someone like me even has the chance to catch up again.

How do you deal with depression? Depressed episodes and still getting stuff done and finding joy a bit? Also if it’s just a few days being depressed? Or quick mood and energy swings?

This is my first semester doing bsc math and i feel like the biggest idiot. I was on top of my class in the beginning and was answering everything the prof asked etc. i even belonged to the people who corrected their TAs and their profs and i was just basically being super cocky. My bad habits got ahead of me and i havent even finished one single assignment (i‘m super lazy). I started skipping classes and i cant seem to keep up anymore. I feel like i messed up my studies for good and that i already failed and should give up by now. I have never even submitted an assignment for linear algebra or analysis and all the future assignments seem to follow up the stuff that was being „taught“ in the older assignments that i didnt do. I feel like a loser. I dont even know how to write a single proof and i dont know how to even start doing those assignments. I am really starting to doubt my capabilities and i feel like its destined for me to fail my first semester… how can i keep up? What can i do? How can a lazy person like me become good again? How and when does everyone find the time to do all the assignments for this week and the upcoming week aswell? How is that possible?

For the oldies here: anybody else feel like ETH has sucked out all the enthusiasm you once felt for your studies / research field?

How many times and how long am i supposed to keep trying to make friends and initiate stuff? It's tiring on top of alrady existing mental health problems and the load of moving to a new city and starting your studies and keeping up and stuff.. ive met so many people and exchanged so many contacts and written to many as well, but why has no one written to me? t the pre study event, i was ditched, guy hadnt even asked for my contact while he asked everyone else, then later on the first semester day it was like everyone was already friends in my group and i was just hanging out alone, and then i was ditched by another group because i didnt speak swiss german it seemed and they made sure to speak in swiss german even though they knew i didnt understand it and then now i had met up with this guy outside of uni and we spoke a bunch and i asked him to hangout again and ive been ghosted.. how long do i keep doing this? its exhausting... im sure somewhere its my fault, maybe i dont seem approachable or something, maybe im an asshole... maybe its the fact i also dont have the emotional energy to invest in new friendships... i can barely wake up in the morning and finish the content and stuff, i cant make it to the lectures on time so no one sees me, even though im at the uni almost all day after that just studying, but of course no one tries to talk to the loner especially now that all the friendships are solidifying and ive been too absent...

For the people who study at hönggerberg: Which cafeteria is better: fusion or food market? I have been arguing this with some friends for a while.

It’s my first semester at ETH studying physics. I had mentally prepared myself for the stress and I don’t really struggle or need to force myself to be able to study. But I really wonder if it’s expected of me to spend this much studying or if I’m just doing too much or doing it wrong… I study every single day, after school and often also during breaks. I also spend my weekends revising the materials and solving all the questions. I still make a few hours time in the evening for hobbies etc. But for now I can’t even imagine taking a day off… and even with all this time I’m spending I’m barely making deadlines and catching up. I don’t spend too much time on exercises unnecessarily, the time I spend studying is me effectively trying to understand the topic/exercises. I’m just worried that maybe I’m spending way too much time and draining myself, does anyone feel the same? Or anyone been through this and has some good advice ?

I know it's kinda weird, but I have a bit of a crush on my TA. For context, we're both around the same age, and I'd really like to get to know them better. To be honest, I don't know what to do. If I ask them out for a coffee or something and they say no, things could get pretty awkward. Should I just wait until the end of the semester and ask them then? I'd appreciate your opinions on this.

Started my studies three weeks ago and have the feeling I belong nowhere, a lot are older than me or already have a friend group and and I don't know I I fit in. I tried a lot during the first weeks, I talked to a lot of people but nothing happened. I don't want to continue my studies as I am so exhausted and just want to go back home where my families and friends are. I thought about doing a gap year before I started studying, and now I am thinking about stopping my studies and doing that gap year. I know maybe I should try some months more but I don't know whether anything will change and if nothing changes I prefer to stop now to have time to go working and maybe travelling. Should I follow my intuition and stop studying and try next year somewhere else?

I really want to short major AI companies but dont have the guts to do so (I would go all in and probably lose all money) :(

I am better than (you)! Is what I wish I was, please rip and tear the hubris off my vessel. Many here were once the top of their class, it's only natural after all that the "most apt" will end up in the same building. I've heard rumors of olympiad winners who crushed competitions in their preteens. It gets me rethinking whether I was ever exceptional, let alone above average, in any discipline. But consider the average person clinging to a physics or mathematics degree. (substitute me into the equation here) I know I'm not the only one that thought they were a smidge above the rest and I am dreading what it means to be graded at university level. I've only known perfection, every time I wrestle an abstraction into submission I prop myself up and stroke my own ego, thinking aptitude and competence were entitled to me. It's unlikely for me to be the best as I had been thus far and while my fists grasp my resolve and I fiercely swear I'll succeed, I want to free myself from this fragile and egotistical self-worth that shackles who I am and should be. Do I do this out of passion? Do I truly see the beauty in it? I hope intimately and desperately that this is not pure vanity. However, no matter what of that is true, I started as a kid who was just a bit better, which earned praise, which created the need to be a tiny bit better still. Ambition and talent are now a soup I can't separate. Let f(t, e) be a function of talent and effort, what comes out only takes shape once it is graded, once there is an academic branding of that value. The domain is unknown. The range is a greater mystery. I've lost sight of my limits, and I'm afraid I'll crash rather than soar. But that value is the same value I assign myself. Sorry for composing this like a [[insert self deprecating insult of your choosing]] Thank you for reading. Now your participation: How to anticipate failure, how to accept imperfection? How to manage the drive to know everything, how to move on when gaps exist but definitions are stacking up?

how do neurodivergent people fare at eth?