benjaminrigsby Overview I’ve been testing out ChatGPT’s capabilities for a few months with different tasks including quantitative and development questions. In a few cases, I’ll write the code and then see how ChatGPT solves it (or if it does). This case was particularly interesting because I didn’t give it a bunch of instructions to start with … Read more
I often run into a scenario when writing unit tests and mocking up code where I need to convert a block of text data into Python format. Whether it’s data from a CSV file, an email, or even a simple copy-paste from a spreadsheet, manually converting text data to make it play nice with Python … Read more
(Adapted from an answer I gave several years ago to this question on Quora) I’m assuming you are actively writing. If not, you must start there. Here are some things I have tried to follow to improve my scientific writing: Understand the basic parts of a scientific paper. This might sound trivial, but it is the … Read more
This page has a bunch of info about stuff that I own. I’ve mostly put things that I recommend on this page, and tried to provide useful feedback/advice wherever possible. I constantly try to find gear, tools, and systems to smooth out the day to day bumps in my life. Hopefully this page gives you … Read more
Overview: There are many pros to Affinity Designer from my experience and only a few cons. Would I recommend it? Yes, if you are using Inkscape often (once per month or more), Designer is definitely worth buying (wait for 50% off sale price). Disclaimer: Many things I mention are probably possible in Designer and Inkscape. … Read more
As a graduate student, I’ve looked at hundreds of research papers. Over the years, I realized the necessity to develop a system for myself to effectively keep track of, organize, and process – in a word, harness – all this knowledge. Further, I realized I needed to have a system that made it easy to … Read more
I wanted to mount four Xbox controllers to the wall in a cool, aesthetic way.
I’ve been collecting quotes that resonate with me for a number of years. I find them useful to reference as guidelines, and they help build structure in the framework of everyday life. Making it more solid where it is too flexible and more elastic where it is too rigid. I have done my best to … Read more
Authorship disputes are a persistent problem in academia, and they often lead to feelings of resentment. These disputes are a waste of energy, discouraging, and (mostly) avoidable. To reduce the chance of disputes in my lab, I reviewed a couple of journal papers on authorship guidelines and an example or two that other labs had … Read more
In the summer of 2017, I dove into 3D printing head first. I’d only used a 3D printer two or three times previously, so it was a plunge. I got a budget 3D printer kit (Tevo Tarantula) after watching a bunch of different reviews (see below for reviewers I trust on 3D printers). Building the … Read more