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102 sats \ 1 reply \ @noknees 25 Oct \ parent \ on: First shape found that can't pass through itself | Hacker News science
true enough, although in India we follow a different curriculum that is rougher, you can say. There is a big knowledge gap between Grade 12 -> IITs
Example for a person pursuing astrophysics:
Most students think “IIT = freedom to study stars.”
In reality, you’ll be hurled into a curriculum built for engineers, not dreamers of galaxies.
Your first two years - Mechanics, electrical circuits, calculus, thermodynamics, and a soul-crushing schedule of labs and assignments that test not curiosity, but endurance (nothing related to space yet)
Astrophysics comes after you’ve crawled through that engineering purgatory. It’s like wanting to gaze at the Milky Way but being handed a wrench to fix the observatory first.
Extremely basic curriculum idea:
- Tensor calculus (for general relativity)
- Quantum field theory (for particle cosmology)
- Numerical methods and differential equations (for simulations)
- Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics (for stellar structure)
till 2nd year 😂
Around 3rd year, when your peers are preparing for placements or startups, you’ll start realizing the price of genuine curiosity 😂
You’ll sit with research papers you can’t fully understand. Professors will talk in tensors and not simple english. You MUST earn trust through projects and papers and then you can get to tie-ups with IUCAA, TIFR, and PRL that too as an apprentice, then you have to do at least 10+ projects as an apprentice till you get access to a lab or project or funding.
By that time, your crush would have had a family with 2 kids and you'll be left gazing stars for the rest of your life :)
Amen
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