I was dumb enough to ask this question to LLM, and ofc I got bland answers like "You are probably not dumb, here's ABC to improve oneself"..

So sad that I am too dumb to get a job or make friends. I ended up in grad school trying to get a doctorate, as I was so stupid that looking for a job sounded insurmountable. Now, LLM apocalypse is dawning upon us, which manufactures papers faster than we can even follow. Wonder if any of academia would even be left. Imagine my stupidity of not thinking ahead here.

So anyway, how do I cure my dumbness and actually function as a normal person?

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[–] [S] 7 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Basically, the horror stories of job search and thoughts of rejection was very scary to me. Worse, I was dumb enough to choose math major, which does not help.

One another thing is, I have no friends. Seems like I am too dumb to understand what people want and see how to communicate. Maybe this dumbness is genetic in origin and cannot be fixed :/

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  • [–] 13 points 8 hours ago

    All right. The first thing I'm going to advise you to do - or rather not do - is constantly putting yourself down so much. Humility may be a virtue, but constantly telling yourself that you can't do something is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Secondly, what you're describing doesn't sound like stupidity. It sounds like you're neuro-atypical, specifically mildly autistic. While that can make socialization - and by extension networking - considerably harder, the good news is that there's a plethora of effective strategies that can help drastically with that. I suggest you head over to one of the Autism communities and ask them for assistance with introducing you to them, and maybe help with finding the ones that'll work most effectively for you. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help.

    Finally, perhaps you can try to consciously veer away from focusing on the things in your life you feel you cannot currently do. Instead, try redirecting your focus to what you can do. It doesn't matter whether it's something big or something small. Even the smallest victory is still a victory, and every one of those is something you can use to build confidence which in turn can be leveraged to achieve more.

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  • [–] 6 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

    You'd probably benefit from talking to a therapist. They'd be able to work with you closely about your job search anxieties, your negative feelings about your intellect, and your challenges finding friends.

    details

    • to start, see if your university has any kind of mental health counseling for students
    • if your university has a hospital, see if it has mental health services
    • if you have paid insurance, look on the portal to see if you can search for therapists there. Find some that sound promising and call/text/email.
    • if you have a doctor, ask them for help/advice about finding a therapist
    • e: or just do a web search for therapists in your area. pick out some, and call / text / email.
    • keep trying. pick one thing from above and try it out. if that doesn't work pick another and keep trying it out. etc.
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  • [–] 4 points 7 hours ago

    Mate, you sound autistic. Not meant as an insult - I am also autistic. For people like us, learning to communicate is difficult and takes a lot of effort, trial and error and potentially assistance.

    Also, math major is a fantastic background. You have plenty of opportunities in manufacturing - look at remote processing plants and see if they are looking for optimisation-focused people.

    Rejection-aversion is also a real thing, I'm not sure how to help with this other than pointing you towards therapy

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