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Andre the Chemist

@andrechemist.bsky.social

2.1K followers 470 following 5.5K posts

Noted rhenium hater and **undefeated** youth soccer coach (total of one game coached).

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · May 1

I want to be able to pin another person's post to my profile.

steve @stupidlikeafox.bsky.social · May 1

Just saving this statement for later, don’t mind me

9 out of 10 sickos agree with Andre’s favorite drink order

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 38m

Huh. Interesting.

This is really food for thought for me about what it means to know something. And is it known because of memorization or learning? And are those things actually different (and how different are they)?

Reposted by Andre the Chemist

Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 5d

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

I feel like at that point, it's not that you've "memorized" it, it's that you've "learned" it.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

"What's with all these disgusting ghouls and dead-eyed freaks?"

"Those people will be your new neighbors!"

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

What is thermodynamics, Ken?

Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 2h

Too hot to hold when they come out of the toaster, completely cold 30 seconds later. That’s the English Muffin Promise.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

Memorization isn't learning. When people equate the two, it lays clear that they don't understand what learning is and you should just ignore pretty much whatever they say about education.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

In grad school I had to memorize the d block of the periodic table for an organometallics class, and I did it.

I don't remember it now. I've never needed it in my life (as an organometallic/inorganic chemist).

What was the point? To weed out some fraction of students?

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

Now, this student was an extreme example. I really felt there was some bigger cognitive issue going on there.

But the idea that memorization is a substitute for understanding and thinking is pervasive. You see it in popular culture for "smart" people (listing digits of pi, for example).

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

We went over everything and they were like "I don't really get it. I need to memorize the structures."

It was so bad. They couldn't extrapolate. They could give me the Lewis structure for CO₂, but if I immediately asked for molecular SiO₂ (the same structure) they were stymied.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

I said "What do you mean 'all the formulas'?" and they responded with "All the ones that might be on the test."

I told them that I don't know which ones might be on the tests we have and I could teach them how to determine a good Lewis structure from any formula (it's like 5 steps, not hard).

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

How many? I don't really know, but a whole list that their HS teacher gave them as ones that they should know.

In my class, they struggled with drawing Lewis structures, so they came and asked me for all the formulas so that they could memorize them.

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

(okay memorizer isn't a word I guess but moving on)

They did high school honors chem and were on some sort of chemistry team (Olympiad maybe?) for their school. They wanted to be a chemistry major.

They got through Lewis structures in high school by memorizing a LOT of Lewis structures.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 1h

If teaching chemistry was just "memorize the periodic table" that would definitely make my job easier but I also wouldn't be a chemist because memorization sucks and I'm bad at it.

Also memorization is not even that useful if you're good at it! I once had a student who was a really good memorizer.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 2h

There's something very satisfying about having a student email you with the claim that "the assignment never said to do [X]" and being able to reply "here's a screenshot of the assignment that tells you specifically to do [X] right in the section you are referring to".

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 2h

"Women don't like the vehicle."

Chemical structure of the "nanodragster", a mlecule consisting of a rigid frame of aryl groups connected with alkynes. On the ends of the frame are chemical "wheels". The smaller wheels are p-carborane with methyl groups and the larger wheels are C60 fullerene.

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

Is that not the case already?

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

I think that's it, but it's so annoying when all the other systems I use spit out files with the same name all the time.

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

I was waiting for someone to say this.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

Also, fix the thing where I'm typing a formula and it suddenly jumps to a different Excel file I have open for no reason.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

It's 20-fucking-25, make it so Excel can open two files with the same name if they're in different directories already.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

Does it all *actually* still work tho?

I've seen my share of teaching labs and they're full of stuff that could work, but mostly doesn't.

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

That's a slideshow.

Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

I feel like in Star Trek you're going to need to update your software license every year if you want the replicator to work but in Star Wars you pull a robot out of the sand and hit it with a wrench and it still works.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

I think that I've decided I'm team Star Wars over Star Trek. Not that I like one better than the other, but in terms of the future I want.

I don't want computers that you talk to and holodecks that separate me from reality.

I want rundown hardware that still works even if it looks like shit.

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 3h

That is, amazingly, a less stupid name for it.