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What do you call the dish of an egg cooked in the center of toast?

Eggs in a nest. Everyone I know calls it toad in a hole, but that doesn't make any sense to me, especially since toad in a hole is a totally different dish in England. So I call it eggs in a nest 🤷‍♀️

Toad in a hole

Making eggrolls ahead of an event-advice?

Once you finish making the egg rolls, fry them once to mostly cook through. Store them, and fry a second time to heat through and get some colour before serving. Double frying is key for almost everything! Source: am Chinese and used to work at a restaurant.

I used to roll them, roll in cornstarch, stack and refrigerate. Lots of soggyness. Now I roll, roll in cornstarch, and par fry for 2 to 3 minutes, pull them as soon as the wrappers start to bubble. They won't stick together and the wrappers get nice and crispy when you serve.

How do I get a "deep" flavor to my food?

Butter.

To clarify a little, there are two oustanding to give your food depth (alias body). 1. Mirepoix. For soups, stews, etc, start with 50% onion, 25% celery, 25% carrot. Cook them down. You'll be happy as a result. There a creole mirepoix (sub green bell pepper for the carrot) and it's not an accident that these foods will have real depth. 2. Stock. Both /u/Seven_deadly and /u/BlackMantecore mentioned stock. Chicken stock is about the easiest thing in the world to make. See Our New and Improved FAQ!!! for more information. Whenever you're making a soup or stew or braise or the like, between mirepoix and stock, you'll be sitting pretty.

Advice for Ditching Plastic Wrap?

Plastic wrap is so far down on the list of ways you can reduce your environmental impact it’s not even worth considering. It takes years to go through even half a pound. This is like worrying about leaving the faucet running while you brush your teeth which is less water than a minute of showering. Or counting how many pieces of toilet paper you’re using each flush. A single package shipped from Amazon has more wasted plastic (and environmental impact) than a month’s worth of plastic wrap for personal culinary use. The sentiment is nice, but it misses the forest for the trees. I hate to say it, but this is just one of the ways that people self-flagellate to make themselves feel like they’re helping out without actually making the kinds of change that would actually make an impact.

I just put my rising dough in a big bowl, covered with a lid from a stock pot that happens to fit it well. All the wrap is for is making sure the dough doesn’t dry out, so any enclosure will work — in my experience it doesn’t even have to be *that* airtight.

Why do we usually simmer, instead of boil, soup?

Boiling makes the soup cloudy Simmering for longer time allows the meat to breakdown and soften Boiling removes water content faster than simmering Certain ingredients like bones need time to release flavor. Boiling won't make it faster

There is only a small difference in temperature between simmering and boiling. If boiling cooks the food faster, it is often due to the additional agitation of boiling. The agitation causes emulsification, which can also make the liquid cloudy. Boiling also increases the evaporation rate, requiring more frequent monitoring and addition of water. The agitation also breaks down the ingredients more aggressively which may not be desired, depending on the end goal. There is no particular harm choosing to boil rather than simmer, but those are the primary potential differences.

Where can I order fresh, high-quality, reasonably priced spices online?

This is his favorite spice store. He's had the owners on his show and his podcast. http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/

The reddit hivemind constantly shits on reddit's search feature, but I don't find it to be half bad, especially if you limit the search to just our moderately sized sub. http://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/23x0cc/do_you_have_an_online_goto_store_to_get_hard_to/ http://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/1s0tkj/place_to_buy_spices_online_that_ship_to_canada/ http://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/12dv30/sweet_hungarian_vs_regular_paprika/

Why couldn't I use sous vide for low-temperature pasteurization in canning?

You really do want to leave them in longer then 30min because when the water surrounding the jars it up to temp, it really takes a while for the jars themselves get up to the desired temp. Also if you use enough salt and vinegar in your recipe, you don't have to worry much about botulism. There is a pretty basic range of salt and PH to prevent botulism bacteria from growing. So it should be alright. Personally I just boil my brine and pour it over my pickle cucumbers with herbs in the jars and close the jars, that's it... Always nice and crunchy. Also the right species of cucumbers does wonders for the crunchiness.

I do this all summer long; I keep a jug of brine in the fridge, and as our cucumber crop comes in I will make a jar and process it SV, rather than try to wait for a large enough harvest to make a large batch feasible.

Cannot have dairy due to breastfeeding dairy intolerant infant, what can I use instead of Greek yogurt in a sauce?

Maybe you could look into buying toum, its a garlic dip made from garlic and oil but very creamy in consistency

You could use like a almond/coconut milk free yogurt instead

How does my ice cream get smoother?

If you are making a custard with eggs you may not be tempering the eggs slowly enough. My grandmother’s ice cream always had hard bits of scrambled egg in it.

The whole thing* with ice cream is adding enough fat and sugar so it's smooth, but not so much that it's cloying or it coats the mouth. It's a question of balance. Share your recipe, if you would please, and that'll help. *There are other factors too, like thickness of the custard and how quickly it freezes, but sugar and fat are the biggest things to consider.

I recently visited my parents in San Diego and got around 60 Mexican limes from their tree, what can I do with them before they go bad?

Margaritas. If your quarantine is going anything like mine, lots of margaritas.

Freeze them. Wash, dry, then freeze. You can zest while frozen and they are actually easier to juice once thawed. I had a lemon tree for years and it was amazing to always have lemons available in the freezer when needed.

Is there any way to prevent my cheese from seperating to much in pizzas?

Low moisture mozzarella is the cheap stuff that is ubiquitous, I am surprised your store does not have any. I would look and see if what you're using says "part skim" or "whole milk" whole milk will melt better and more evenly.

Just curious, how is there only higher quality mozz in your area? I buy the cheapest lb from Fry's (Kroger) on sale for $3.29. It is dry and works better than more expensive mozzerella. I had to find it in the deli meat area though, not near the other mozzerella that's near the actual deli. Maybe it's a reason to try making your own??

How to make fried rice for 50?

I was a hotel cook for a while and once I made “kimchi fried rice” because I was behind schedule and didn’t have a lot to work with…. Just steamed rice mixed with jarred kimchi and some soy sauce right in the hotel pan… everyone RAVED about it much to my surprise lol So yeah, I think if you were to take a couple more steps and actually fry up some aromatics and veg you should be fine to mix it all in. Maybe you could also try spreading it in a thin layer on a baking sheet and giving it a quick toast?

Hi, I’ve made fried rice for lots of people before and large pans do work so long as you have the gear to heat it with. That being said, doing what you suggest isn’t a terrible idea so long as you give it a quick toss before packing it away. It won’t be as gourmet as it would be fried together but it’s more practical.

Garlic oil infusion... botulism?

Many people have come here to express their opinions. This is unnecessary. Food safety is rigorously studied and well-understood. The complete, and only correct answer to your question is this: If and only if the entirety of the garlic (internal as well as external) is held at 120 C (that's about 248 F) for at least 30 mins, all botulism spores will be destroyed, and all botulism toxin will be denatured. You can easily verify with an appropriate thermometer. If that condition is not met, you should assume the food contains some viable botulism spores, and handle it accordingly. If you are not going to verify (most likely with a thermometer), you should assume the food contains some viable botulism spores, and handle it accordingly.

Store it in the fridge and treat as a perishable, or freeze it. Here is some good reading on the topic of storing garlic in oil: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uc_davis/uc_davis_garlic.pdf

What is that Middle Eastern dessert made with cornmeal and rose water?

Basbousa INGREDIENTS For the Cake: 2 cups fine semolina 2 cups dried, unsweetened coconut 2 cups granulated sugar 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt 3 eggs 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons vanilla extract For the Sugar Syrup: 1¼ cups granulated sugar 1¼ cups water 1 teaspoon lemon juice For Serving: Finely chopped pistachios Unsweetened coconut DIRECTIONS 1. Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°. In a bowl, combine all of the cake ingredients into a thick batter and press into either a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or a 10-inch springform pan that's been greased and lined with parchment. 2. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the center is set. Turn the oven to broil for 3 to 4 minutes to brown the top of the cake. Let cool. 3. Meanwhile, make the sugar syrup. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water over high heat; boil until the sugar is dissolved. Add the lemon juice and allow the syrup to cool slightly before slowly pouring the syrup over the cake until it's completely absorbed. 4. To serve, cut into pieces and garnish each with the chopped pistachios and more coconut.

You'll hear it by a few names depending on the region. Basbousa as you heard already - but you may have heard it by namoura or a number of other names as well

How do you prevent pooling of liquid when making stir fry in a wok?

"It's called STIR-fry, not SIT-AND-WATCH-fry!!" Advice given to me by an Asian chef who taught me to stir-fry.

Kenji describes the technique in this article and the linked recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/06/the-food-lab-stir-fried-beef-with-broccoli-in-oyster-sauce.html

Can I fry with masa harina?

It wouldn't be tempura, but I've had like cornmeal breaded onion rings before they're delicious. Personally I would try it, worst case scenario you're out an egg some flour and a couple shots of vodka... It can be fun to discover something new. You could also just leave out the cornstarch and add another couple tablespoons of flour. It won't be quite the same but it'll still be good.

different flours and starches have different hydration levels, gluten development etc. so i don't think you'll be able to get a satisfactory substitution ratio for this recipe. try looking for recipes that were designed for the ingredient you want to use. at this point, you're not using the two main ingredients, so you might as well do a different recipe.

How do you make bread rolls that taste of lamb?

I think the comments already have it settled for you, but man, you gotta let me know how it goes.

Think brioche, but using rendered lamb fat rather than butter.

Do any other culinary styles have a similar tradition to French cuisine's mother sauces?

While this isn't necessarily the same thing since the French mother sauces focus mostly on technique rather than ingredients, the first two types of cuisine that come to mind are Cambodian and Japanese. While it might be more similar to the different blends of curry powder you find in Indian dishes, in Cambodian cuisine there is a paste called Kroeung that can be made a few different ways (mostly either a basic kroeung, and red, green, and yellow varieties). It features lemongrass and galangal and a few varying spices and is used ubiquitously and is essential to understanding Cambodian cuisine. In Japanese cuisine, almost every sauce or base is made up of a few essential ingredients. Using just Soy Sauce, Sake, Mirin, Rice Vinegar, Dashi (or stock made with Kombu and Katsuoboshi) and miso (and salt and sugar) in varying amounts you can make a huge variety of sauces. It's explained a bit more here if you're interested.

Mexican Mole and other sauces can be very complex and comparable to French in that a base yields multiple variations

Washing fruits/veggies Does a quick water rinse really make a difference?

Does it “make a difference” is sort of a vague question, but rinsing under running water does remove bacteria. Does it remove enough to prevent illness? That depends on many factors such as the amount of bacteria present, the rate of water flow, the specific bacteria on the veg, whether a biofilm has formed, the immune health of the person eating it, whether you use mechanical means (scrubbing) to supplement rinsing, etc. So the answer is yes, rinsing does reduce bacterial counts, but it won’t sterilize your food. But a 40% reduction in Enterobacter on your apple is 40% less Enterobacter that you consume. And that reduction may be the difference between becoming ill or not. Also, there other things like pesticides and dirt that may get washed off. I rinse food I plan to eat raw under running water and scrub it with a clean paper towel if possible. It’s a similar issue to hand washing. Hand washing is most effective with soap, but rinsing your hands without soap (including manual rubbing/scrubbing which plays a big part) still reduces bacteria. I guess I would rephrase the question from “does it make a difference” to “is the reduction in bacteria/dirt/whatever worth the effort to wash fruits and veg before eating raw?”. I think the answer to that is yes.

It doesn't hurt. For things like blueberries, even just for moving things like dust and stuff that could have fallen on it in transit. A quick rinse would remove most of that. For things like romaine lettuce, you're just trying to remove grit and sand which again doesn't take much.

Dairy free mashed potatoes How can I make mashed potatoes creamy without milk?

I have a family member who also cant do dairy or soy. If I'm doing mashed potatoes when they are eating at my place I use either chicken broth, or some of the water i cooked them in. I keep meaning to try something like almond milk, but I never have it in my house, and only think of it as I'm cooking the potatoes.

Try extra creamy oat milk

How do companies like Sweetgreen avoid warmed over flavor with their chicken?

I feel like I just slipped into an alternate dimension. I don't suppose you could clarify what taste you mean? I eat leftover chicken all the time...

I'm not sure what weird chicken taste you're referring to... Also, why are you pounding them out? I usually season, pan sear with high heat and canola oil, flip after a few minutes, then finish in the oven. Chicken comes out juicy and delicious every time. I also use local, organic, free range chicken, which I assume you aren't using since you pound your chicken out. Are you buying big ass Tyson breasts or something? Your marinade is preventing the chicken from becoming nice and brown as you say. I think the lemon juice probably is giving it that weird chicken taste, as the acid is fucking with the texture. I would suggest seasoning the chicken, heat a pan to high, add oil, heat oil, add chicken, flip after 4 min, throw in oven. Once it comes out, deglaze with your lemon juice. The brightness of the lemon will still be there, the fond from the pan will come up and make a light pan sauce, and the chicken will be juicy.

Why do roast brussel sprouts taste delicious but roast lettuce does not?

Grilled romaine is delicious. Whenever I fire up the bbq grill I usually make it first as an appetizer. Olive oil, salt, pepper, then finish with a squeeze of lemon if that's your jam. But to answer your question, probably because lettuce doesn't have enough physical structure. Romaine, however does, especially if subjected to quick charring heat, you can keep it's crispness and enjoy it's char.

It's closer to regular cabbage, which people do roast I believe.

Is it ok if a raw chicken isn’t 100% thawed if I am cooking it by simmering it for 6-8 hours?

This is absolutely fine...you'd be raising the temp quickly enough in a simmer for bacteria to not grow. I too resist the long water bath for a stock preparation. If you're boiling or braising meat you don't have to defrost it at all because it will be cooked in liquid. Defrosting is really for roasting, grilling, frying (there are caveats here) and sauteing where not having liquid is important to browning and crisping.

Time and temp. Four hours from 40° to 70° then two hours to get it to 140°. You should be fine, I'm assuming you're making a psuedo stock.

What is the best substitution for chickpea flour?

take some lentils and soak them in water for an hour. Drain and blend with fresh water or some stock. If you have a blendtec or vitamix blender, you can make chickpea flour out of dry chickpeas. Blend at high speed for one minute. A fraction of the cost of chickpea flour

If you have dal, boil it and grind/mixie it...or use canned chickpeas.

How do I make Mozzarella cheese crispy?

Butane torch the little motherfucker. Teach him to not be crisp.

Apart from the advise already given, if you really want a nice crunch, cover the top with freshly grated Parmesan. Parmesan and other hard cheeses (Asiago, etc.) crisp up beautifully in the oven. You can make chips out of just grated cheese.

Adding raw meat into sauces or soups?

I cook raw pork and raw meatballs in my tomato sauce all the time. It's just the way my Italian family has always done it. I like the way the sauce flavors the meat, more than the other way around. And if you put raw meat in sauce and then cook until it's done -- no danger of salmonella or other foodborne pathogens any more than if you cooked it separately.

It’s fine, when I make thai curry I put thin slices of raw chicken into the broth/sauce and it cooks there. Totally fine as long as you’re boiling/simmering your broth

Banana bread is underdone in the center - should I slice it and cook it more?

You can dip it in some egg and fry it up. Banana bread french toast sounds amazing

You could always toast it and add Some butter and cinnamon

MSG usage in restaurants other than Asian restaurants do other restaurants (ie Italian, American, etc) use MSG?

basically everything tasty that has umami flavour (across cuisines) has msg in it - the only difference is they don't distill pure msg as a separate additive but rather infuse it into dishes using other means. E.g. in Italian cuisine - tomatoes are literally jam packed with glutamic acid (aka MSG), and the delicious 'flavour crystals' that are present in aged Parmigiano Reggiano are literally crystallized msg. In classical French cuisine MSG is built up in dishes by making hugely complicated and painstakingly reduced meat stocks. Also things like Maggi sauce, bouillon cubes/powder, marmite/vegemite, and tons of snacks (e.g. Cheetos, Doritos etc etc etc.) are overflowing with msg. The anti-msg myth is literally an old racist trope to target Chinese Americans/Canadians and the person responsible for the original falsified study has long since admitted that it was a hoax. Furthermore in recent studies, literally any dosage of msg (even far higher than would ever be reasonable to find in food) caused no effects whatsoever when taken with food, and only an extremely mild headache at \*extreme\* doses (many tens of times what would be found in even the most MSG heavy meal) - were reported in only in a \*couple\* study participants - and \*ONLY\* on a fully empty stomach. It's just not true. MSG is a huge part of what makes food taste tasty, and is literally naturally derived from seaweed.

We used a ton of it at a pretty well known ‘new Southern’ cuisine restaurant at which I worked. Every container of msg and every recipe calling for it was labeled ‘gold dust.’ The purpose being that if an investor, vip, or camera crew came through the kitchen there wouldn’t be giant containers labeled ‘MSG’ in the background bc, ya know, stigma. It’s a fantastic ingredient and has a synergistic effect with other ‘umami’ components. Really makes stuff pop.

How to make amazing, rich, restaurant-style marinara/tomato sauce?

I responded to this last year but i cant find the post so I`ll repost it for you: Forget about ready made sauces, let me teach you how to cook a real tomato sauce base wich you can alter to your liking by just adding stuff, besides you´ll save money, I´ll try to keep it basic and simple: Basic tomato sauce: First of get some canned peeled tomatoes (I could teach you how to make this sauce using raw tomatoes from scratch, but this way is easier and quality remains almost the same), when buying any kind of canned tomatoes you´ll always wanna get the ones with LESS indredients, The best ones list tomatoes and tomato juice as the only ingredients, avoid cans that have conservants, stabilizers or citric acid. Now that we have our tomatoes, you´ll only need some garlic, about half an onion per pound of tomatoes, some olive oil, and oregano (oregano is stronger when dried), salt, sugar and thats it. Blend the tomatoes until liquid and put aside, chop your onions, mince your garlic, put a pan on the stove and let it get really hot before adding anything to it. When the pan is hot enough, add a little olive oil, let it get hot and then add your onions, cook them until they are golden, then add the garlic and let it cook for about 2 minutes, now add the tomatoes, stir and let it cook, when your sause gets to it´s boiling point lower the heat, add oregano and salt to taste, now add a bit of sugar, not too much though, this is just to lower the acidity of the tomatoes and because traditional italian sauces are a bit sweet. We´re almost done now, we just gotta the sauce simmer slowly for no less than an hour (dont forget to stir), here´s a good way to know when any tomato based sauce is done: you´ll see kinda of an oily layer breaking at the top, that means its almost done, if you want your sauce thick just let it simmer even more. Usind this recipe as a base, you can do most italian sauces: Marinara: just add basil at the last minute. Arrabiatta: just add hot peppers with the onions ath the begining. Puttanesca: just add olives, anchovie paste and capers at the last minute. Amatriciana: saute bacon with the onions. Bolognese: saute minced meat and italian chorizo before the onions, and a bit of red wine before the tomatoes. I hope this helps you, and excuse my english, it´s not my native language.

I'm partial to Marcella Hazan's ridiculously easy pasta sauce recipe Everyone that I know that's tried making it has said it's seriously the best they've had. And it's wildly simple. Three ingredients!

How do higher temp oils protect butter from burning?

As most people have pointed out, it's a myth, it's basically bullshit. However, there is a tiny fraction of truth to people saying putting oil in pan before adding the butter helps stop the butter from burning. The reasons: \- The oil hitting the hot pan adds some (relatively cool) thermal mass to the pan that helps cool the pan a bit, meaning the overall heat of the environment is lower than without the oil, so the butter won't burn as much as if it were added to the same heated pan without the oil. This doesn't mean it's a good practice, you just shouldn't have the pan that hot if you're going to add butter to it \-The oil adds a layer of fat to the bottom of the pan that the butter solids could potentially ride on, preventing their direct contact with the hot metal and slowing slightly the transfer of heat. Just like when you put a steak in a hot pan, if you use almost no oil it will sear much faster (but with a less even surface) than with some oil, the oil slows but also evens out the transfer of heat. Now butter has its own butterfat, but keep in mind some of the butter solids will be at the bottom of the butter as it starts to rapidly melt, and those solids could easily quickly come in contact with the bottom of the pan and burn, whereas with oil there maybe they float a touch more on the oil instead of immediately coming in contact with the pan. Either way it's a silly practice that its based on a failure to control one's pan temperature properly. That being said there is a tiny nugget of truth to it within the massive pile of nonsense people throw around

They don't. It's an urban myth.

What home kitchen item do you have that turned out to be far more useful/versatile than you ever expected?

Cast iron skillet. It may seem obvious to some of you, but I had no idea that 90% of my meals going forward would come out of that thing. My wife kids that if we ever get divorced I can have the house as long as she gets the cast iron.

I received a microplane grater as a gift and I'm constantly surprised by how sharp it still is and how much easier it makes prep. I use it for blocks of parmesan and chocolate, citrus rinds, ginger, etc. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/microplane-rasp-grater/?pkey=cslicers-graters-peelers&cm_src=slicers-graters-peelers

What oven setting do you use for a grandma sheet tray pizza?

A fucking hot oven, I've always had better luck with convection, a super fermented (crossing into boozy territory) and hydrated dough, and the bottom crust should be swimming in olive oil. Bake on a lower rack. If you are using actual mozzarella and a nice tomato sauce, you shouldn't be in any danger of burning the cheese because of the moisture.

I'm assuming grandma's sheet tray pizza is where the dough fills the sheet pan and you add your sauce and cheese on top. We always called it Sicilian, but grandma's sounds so much better! Older ovens heated from the bottom so if you want authentically grandma style I'd suggest going bottom only. You want the toppings to cook slower otherwise you'll have burnt cheese and soggy dough.

What are the best tomatoes to use for basic salsa?

I can feel the hate already but I’m going to say it... Canned Roma (San Marzano) They are picked the freshest and canned rather than picked green and forced ripened. If your making the chunky fresh pico style it’s different but for a good traditional restaurant style I always do canned.

Roma tomatoes are good for salsa. Some may prefer some other varieties for salsa, but they're likely more expensive and difficult to acquire.

Why do I keep getting weird solid things in my flourless chocolate cakes?

Are you tempering the chocolate mixture into the eggs, or adding all the eggs into the chocolate? I have always put the chocolate into the (beaten) eggs, never had a problem. That said, your lumps might be the stringy bit in the egg. You could try beating your eggs very well and straining them before adding them to the chocolate. You could also run the batter through a sieve or chinios. I have made a similar recipe, try subbing coffee or stout for the water for extra flavor, I have never bothered with the syrup step. Also silicone baking pans are your friend for this recipe. The well chilled cake can be flipped and the pan rolled/popped off with ease.

Are you straining your eggs? Without pictures, my top guess is that it's the chalazae (had to Google that one) which is pretty solid. Since your recipe calls for 6 eggs, do you find around 12 of these in your cake?

What is this we found inside Maryland crab we cooked this afternoon?

Those are nematodes (a parasite). Most wild fish will have nematodes (even if they are not visible by eye they could be microscopic. You have hundreds visible here which means the microscopic ones were in the millions. Cooking fish thoroughly (which is actually more done than people prefer) will kill these. You will probably be fine if you really overcooked them. I used to work in a fish lab in uni, I've dissected hundreds of thousands of fish.

Do you have a picture that isn't quite so zoomed in? Were these purchased or did you catch them?

What are some of the best cooking channels on YouTube?

Cooking with Dog! It isn't haute couture dining, but it's very charming and if you like learning about popular Japanese cuisine, it's not a bad place to start.

You sucking at cooking for laughs. Munchies has a lot of good tutorial with fun and friendly chefs from all over.

How can I make pasta with toasted breadcrumbs without the breadcrumbs getting soggy?

Sicilian here, we pan roast the breadcrumbs in a frying pan using olive oil and when serving the pasta the breadcrumbs are in a bowl on the table to be sprinkled on top, Kind of like grated cheese would be.

add the breadcrumbs right at the last minute to the top of the pasta once you start mixing it in it will get soggy no avoiding it you can also toast them in bacon grease ahead of time and leave them on the counter to further dry out

Questions about salt I know this might seem like a weird question but, whenever I saw TV chef or cooks in general grabbing salt from the container to season do they wash their hand beforehand?

I always just keep one hand for flipping and one hand for the salt. If I touch the meat with my salt hand, I just wash them real quick.

I asked a CIA instructor about this once. He said there is no risk of cross contamination because nothing can live in salt. He said for aesthetic purposes you don’t want to get debris in your salt well, but if you’re just flipping a piece of meat to season both sides or something like that, don’t worry about it.

What is happening, chemically, that makes eggs, milk, and other simple baking ingredients essential?

I'm glad you asked. The American Egg Board created a video series for Food Formulators that describes in detail the science behind many of eggs properties and how they are useful in cooking. There are lots of graphs and examples that make it relatively easy to digest. If you sign up and take a few 'quizzes' you can even get some continuing education credits. **functionalegg.org**

Eggs are protein, when they are mixed into batters and what not it forms long chains that binds things together. Flour: different types have different protein amounts and gluten content, again forming chains and giving structure to the foods. Milk: strangely enough I was taught that it tenderizes baked products. Sugar: sweetness and promotes browning. Yeast: creates carbon dioxide which when trapped inside the doughs cause it to rise Baking powder: same as above, but activates when wet and again when it is heated, doesn't require rising or proof time. Baking soda: same as yeast, but doesn't need rising or proof time.

Books to help me move away from following recipes and start making my own?

Ratio by Michael Ruhlman, I second The Art of Fermentation and The Flavour Bibles.

- The Food Lab: Cooking Through Science by Kenji Lopez-Alt - On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee - The Flavor Bible

What is the most (hands-on) time efficient way to get the water out of shredded zucchini?

I haven’t tried this method with zucchini, but grate it and salt it, then place it into a colander or cheese cloth, and suspend it over a bowl. Make sure it isn’t touching the bottom of the bowl. Place in the fridge and let gravity drain the water. You can also place it into a colander, put a plate on top and a heavy weight on top of the plate.

Shoot. I was going to suggest a salad spinner, but that doesn't jive with your no-specialized-items request. (They are like $10 at walmart if you end up changing your mind.) You could wrap the shredded zucchini in a tea towel, tie the ends of the towel around a wooden spoon, and use the spoon as a lever to twist the towel. That's still pretty hands-on, but probably easier than doing all the squeezing directly by hand? Maybe? Let me know if that description doesn't make any sense and I'll try to explain it better-- I can think of just how it should go, but I don't think my words explained it very well.

Which are the most vital sizes of skillet / frying pans?

> I normally use 28-32cm frying pans as we are a family of 4 That's about the size I would have recommended for a family of 4, but it also depends a little on what you cook. If you find the pan is often getting crowded, or searing meats are steaming more than they are searing, you can go up slightly in size to alleviate. Note that even the best pan doesn't heat 100% evenly, so a larger pan on a smaller hob is still going to have a bit of a hotspot in the middle. > Are fry pans a bit like kitchen knives, where there are countless variations available, but you only really need paring/chefs/bread knives for 99% of your needs? Yes! You can buy pans in a comical variety of shapes and sizes. > Is there any benefit to the smaller skillets (18-22cm) aside from cooking smaller meals / for fewer people? At the risk of sounding like a smartass, they are smaller. Which means they're easier to store, handle, and clean. It also means that if you are cooking something that can flow and pour around the pan, it's easier to handle a smaller amount of food. I like to make omelettes in a 8" pan (about 20cm) because it makes an attractive shaped omelette from the number of eggs I like to use. If I tried to make an omelette from 3 eggs in a 12" (30cm) pan it would spread comically thin and really change the texture of the result. > My wife does like to fry eggs, 2 at a time, what would be a good size to get for her? IMHO, 8" or 20cm. > Sauteuse vs skillet for general meat/vegetable cooking? Seems like there's not a lot in it. Depends on what specifically you're cooking and the specific pans. You cannot go wrong with a classic skillet, but a sauteuse pan's extra depth (depending on model) can be useful depending on what you're cooking. Taller, steeper sides will also trap more moisture in making them worse for searing.

8 inch is your standard small pan, 10 inch is your standard medium, and 12 inch is your standard large pan. Those three sizes will cover pretty much every thing you’d ever need.

How can I get doctors to ignore my medical condition?

Print out this article, and show it to them. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5016218/ it does not need to be treated. Ask them to strike it from your record, so you don't end up with problems when applying for life insurance. DM should not be diagnosed unless A1c > 6.5 As far as they are to be concerned, you have a gene for something, it's not an indicator of the conditions itself. You ask (read: firmly request in writing) that the diagnosis code that they have in the system be deleted and treated as an error. There is no ICD-10 code to justify a genetic test as a diagnosis. MAYBE a diagnosis code of Z15.89 (genetic susceptibility). E88.81 is a code for Dysmetabolic Syndrome X, but needs to be listed separately from E11 or E13 codes

You can just tell them that you have an endocrinologist who is closely managing this condition (whether you do or not)

My 97 year old Grandmom broke her hip, does she have a shot?

98 yo grandma broke hip and has recovered, sort of. She can walk again slowly with a cart. The possible dementia after surgery can be bad, elder brains have a tough time with anesthesia recovery. She shouldn't;t be getting bedsores if she is getting proper care. That is extremely worrisome and should be reported. She should be able to come home and get palliative care.

Did your grandma have bedsores before the injury? And was your mom already on board with having her home for the end of life?

Is this schizophrenia?

Let me sum up all these opinions for you! 1. Your mum is not the boss when you are 18. 2. You are clearly smart and have great insight- treatment will make you feel better and help you get on with building a life to enjoy. 3. It doesn’t matter where you start seeking help. A hotline, a local clinic, a hospital- just start and keep going. Asking for help here means you have started! 4. The only time people get restrained is when they are dangerous- hurting themself or someone else. And only then to sedate them, then they are let go. You are amazing and awesome- Go You!

You need to see a doctor

Can I have a baby after my husband died?

No, having shorter and lighter periods is not a sign of infertility. No reason to think that you have any fertility issues.

There's no way to know for sure without testing. But having a lighter period isn't associated with infertility AFAIK.

Can I email local gynecologist to see who can give me an iud WITH anesthetic??

Just call the office and ask the office staff.

Hi there, Unfortunately, the evidence shows that local anesthesia techniques such as numbing injections either don’t help or are more painful than the insertion itself. Some alternatives such as general anesthesia are available for people who literally could not allow an awake insertion (ie developmentally delayed or history of trauma), however except in extreme circumstances, the entire general anesthesia procedure will again be far more unpleasant and unnecessary (and certainly far more risky) than just the few minutes of pain. I recommend making an in-person appointment with a doctor (one who is on the younger side if possible) to discuss this concern in person. Don’t bother emailing - doctors can’t really start this discussion until you’re their real patient already for practical and legal reasons. For most places, you’ll need to make a second appointment for the IUD insertion itself anyway. (The main exception to this would be a family planning that often does same day IUDs for new patients - ask when you make an appointment if this is an option.) Your best bet is taking 800mg ibuprofen half an hour beforehand. I recommend avoiding TikTok on this one - the horror stories at enough to make anyone want to avoid it. I’ve even had colleagues of mine who also insert IUDs delay getting one themselves because of some of the stories. Just avoid. You hear the very worst 5% of it. Most people it’s like a slightly more crampy Pap smear. (This is coming from someone who both inserts them and has one herself!)

Should I be worried about my nurse practitioner's competence?

If you are explaining the disease to the person who's supposed to treat it, something is very wrong

I don't see midlevels for my care. I tell my friends and family not to either. It's shockingly controversial, but I think our years of education and training as physicians are valuable and important. Some NPs are competent to manage whatever issue you might have. But this extremely hit or miss, and minimum training requirements are frightening. Your NP may have worked in an ortho clinic for several years, and have no relevant experience in primary care. There's nothing that really dictates they have to have expertise in whatever field they choose to work in, and they can change that field on a whim. You have no idea what you're dealing with unless you do a bunch of sleuthing or have inside knowledge of who this person is and what their level of competence is.

I just passed out on the toilet twice and hit my head pretty bad, should i go to the hospital?

You hit your head and then vomited? Yes, you should go get checked out at the hospital.

Hello. If I might ask , how old are you? Do you want have any pre existing medical conditions , for example heart conditions , seizures? But first I think you should go to the hospital to get yourself properly checked out, first identify any reason for you passing out and check if your head injury has led to any further complications.

Is there a way to tell the difference between an anxiety/panic attack and a true cardiac event or chest problem?

You're not over 35 and assuming you don't smoke, you're already negative on two major risk factors for clots, if that's of any reassurance. How long ago did give birth? How were your anxiety levels before? I agree with the other comment that it'd be worth speaking to your doctor about postpartum anxiety. And congratulations on your baby!

Go to medical school? In all seriousness, there is no easy way to tell. But you can start by treating your anxiety and getting it under better control. True cardiac problems are extremely rare in patients your age.

is there such thing as computer glasses?

Reiterating: blue-blocking glasses are a scam. As best I can understand it, the hype started with something true: red light has least effective on circadian rhythm and endogenous melatonin release. From there, companies have incorrectly or predatorily extrapolated that blue light is bad, so slightly yellow-tinged glasses are good. Even if blue light were bad, the glasses available for sale will not block meaningful amounts. But blue light is not bad. It's a scam.

"Blue light blocking" glasses are a scam. If you have farsightedness and need glasses for near tasks such as working at a computer, that's one thing, but if you aren't farsighted, you don't need anything.

What's a good idea at first glance but when you think like an economist, it's not a good idea anymore?

A good current example is how some countries are subsidizing gasoline and/or natural gas (or price ceilings) in Europe at a time when there are supply decreases. Sounds great! Something is more expensive, magically make it less expensive! However, a subsidy is a negative tax, artificially increasing demand just when you are worried about people using "too much" of something causing price spikes. Right now supply is very inelastic, so the only way out is to allow the price increases to decrease quantity demanded. Instead of subsidizing the exact things that are temporarily more scarce, if you are worried about the effect on poor people, you should give them money. This lessens the shock to these people, and at least gives them a chance of spending the money on a substitute good (perhaps they will buy a heat pump instead of using natural gas to heat their houses).

I'm relatively left-wing for my context, which is very left-wing if you consider a US context. It took me quite some time to fully accept why a rent-ceiling is a bad idea. There may be interventions which work, but a plain ceiling is not one of them. The amount and evidence it took for me to be convinced was a valuable lesson about personal bias.

Have there been any successes in nationalising certain industries?

One industry with clear success at nationalization is health insurance. There are a number of countries with nationalized health insurance (single payer), who deliver top 10 or top 20 averages healthcare outcomes across the most prevalent diseases and causes of death. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)30994-2/fulltext Those same countries tend to pay far less per capita than peer nations with private insurance: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/

It depends on your definition of success. For resource allocation and business efficiency, probably not many cases would be considered positive. The state tends to use excess surplus of nationalized business to promote other ventures or some political groups can corrupt the industries to fulfill their needs. On the other hand, if the nationalized sector is used to supply a non-profitable market, it can be a important tool on social welfare. For example, Brazil has two public banks, one of them is very active in supplying loans to the rural sector (where the private banks don't really like to get involved). The other public bank is very important to finance housing for the lower classes. Both banks could be acting in more profitable sectors (like insurance), but society profits from the existence of these banks. So I'd say to you, it really depends on the objective of the policy-maker, a state owned industry is prone to inefficiency and corruption, but in developing nations it can be useful to provide non-supplied needs.

Why do people invest so much into hedge funds when so few of them are beating the market?

The goal of a hedge fund is not to beat the market. It is to allow investors to earn returns uncorrelated to the rest of the market. The performance of a given security can be decomposed into return = alpha + beta + some error term (this is a classic linear regression). Beta refers to market performance, and alpha refers to any additional outperformance or underperformance that the security has vs the market. You can think of it sort of as how much a given stock returns above the S&P, for example. A hedge fund is only a hedge fund if it is hedged. What this means is traditionally that it is beta neutral. To do this, hedge funds are short an equivalent amount of stock as they are long. If they pick the right stocks, then assuming the market is down -10%, the companies you are short should be down more than -10% and the companies you are long should be down less than -10% and so you make money. The reverse should happen if the market is up. Even if you're wrong, you should still be in a position to be uncorrelated to the market. Why do people want to be beta neutral? The answer is that beta is very very cheap. By definition, you can buy beta with an ETF, which basically costs 0%. Many funds do not want that kind of market volatility, and so they buy hedge funds. It's important to note you can only be a hedge fund if you're hedged. You can be hedged against different things, and most funds are not single dimensionally hedged against the S&P. Many tend to be factor neutral - hedged against a bunch of factors including interest rates, leverage, and even some specific themes like China invading Taiwan, or US elections, or anything really. What is very problematic is where hedge funds are not actually hedged. This occured with Tiger Global and a bunch of other funds, which were really just long a whole bunch of things and trying to be selective in what they were long. The problem with that is that such a fund generates both beta and alpha, but charges the same fees as other hedge funds. Imagine you are charged 2% for a fund like this generating 10% returns, and another fund generating 5% returns, while the S&P generated 7% returns. You've actually paid 2% for 3% alpha, since the 7% was free.

A question made for you /u/handsomeboh :D

what is your best advice to someone studying economics as an undergrad?

I just finished a duel degree in economics and finance. Learn as much calculus as you can (ESPECIALLY partial derivatives). The entire degree involves fluent algebra, too. There are a lot of statistics involved, so prepare to run, at the very least, regressions on excel. Learn R. This will make you stand out much more after graduating. But honestly, no joke about the calculus. EDIT: Forgot to add that I was a TERRIBLE student in high school and failed Algebra 2...I had to put in A LOT of extra time to learn calculus, but ended up graduating Cum Laude! YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

I am pursuing my post-graduation in Economics, so I might have something I personally feel I could have done better from my undergrad experience. First of all, I think that you should really try to get your base concepts right. Or at least try to do very good in one of the main sub branches of Economics - maybe Macro, or Micro, or even Stats. Macro might sound interesting to you given your explanation that you're not too good at Math which is perfectly fine. You can make your weakness your strengths with time but I'd recommend working on your strengths first. Do not neglect your basic readings and understandings of various models, you'll really regret that later. Also, do not totally neglect any one branch - it might cost you not being able to diverge your explanation from one branch to another while learning about concepts later in life. Second is that you should start trying to make yourself aware of the world around you, maybe you might not understand all of the things around you but you can at least start trying to be generally aware of what's going around and correlate your readings with the outer world in some sense. That doesn't allow Economics to get boring and you'll always speak and present your thoughts better. The newspaper (or the internet though) is much appreciated. Third recommendation, is to make a pool of necessary books and keep them stored somewhere. I know that for some it is only natural to do so, but if you are really enthusiastic about Economics it's no harm to safely make a library of some go-to books you can always refer to whenever you're stuck with something - like a beginner compilation of books (however, that's the minimum requisite if you really like reading your compilation may be pretty diverse even if you cannot instantly read all the books in your possession but you'll not feel lost when you try to rekindle some concept). Management is really something I lacked in my undergrad and now I do understand why it's necessary. Also, you may even keep some of your notes intact for future purposes - don't just drop out all of them once a semester ends. Also, do not dismiss important references given by teachers they are gems. Fourth, and I guess the last (but advice never seems enough lol) is that be patient and you'll feel improvement over a course of time. Economics is highly relevant and also interesting if you choose to study it the right way. With time, you'll see you will get better although initially it might look overwhelming because Economics is highly intertwined. Math is a refuge sometimes because it's logical, but when you go to the real world it's a real complication right there. Tread slowly, don't expect to know everything and try to discuss and READ (never enough) and you'll be right on track. I hope this doesn't sound too far overwhelming, I just feel particularly sympathetic about what one could do in undergrad, or some things I felt missing from my journey but I did catch up later though it became a bit hard but okay. No lunch is free lunch. Hope you have great semesters ahead and a lovely experience with Economics. :)

Would a universal basic income (UBI) of $12,000 a year be good for the economy?

BainCapitalist already linked to them, but the Basic Income and automation FAQ's are great. > Would a universal basic income (UBI) of $12,000 a year be good for the economy? If you mean increase GDP, then no, there is no real reason to think it would significantly grow the economy. The popular study on this (from the Roosevelt Institute) was very flawed for a number of different reasons. I can go into it if anyone really wants to know, but it wasn't credible. One of the big issues with Yang's UBI (imo) is his plan doesn't even fully pay for it. Quick math, about 240,903,600 people would receive the UBI, which would cost around $2.9 trillion to fund. Yang's website claims funding of: * 0.5-0.6 T from cutting current welfare programs * 0.8 T from his VAT * 0.1-0.2 from "other savings" (he's pretty vague on this) Taking his numbers at face value, we have around 1.5 T. Obviously he's still missing a lot of funding. He claims 0.5-0.6 T from increased economic growth citing the Roosevelt study above, but that isn't a credible claim.

Inflation would not be an issue, the Fed controls inflation The whole reason we have an independent central bank is so that policy makers don't have to think about inflation as a cost to fiscal policy. Moreover see the basic income and automation faqs

Was China the largest economy in the world in the 19th century?

The population of the UK was too small for that to happen. I had a look at the full Angus Maddison project data from 2020. For 1870 there were 31.4M people in the UK with a GDP-per-capita of $5879 (in 2011 dollars). In the same year in India there were 253M people with a GDP-per-capita of $850. So the UK had ~7 times the GDP-per-capita but India had 8 times the population. These numbers may be different to the ones you're reading because I'm using new Angus Maddison project data and wikipedia is using data a few years old.

That is not hard when you account that China had 20%-25% of the world population within it's realm at the time. The UK specificly and western europe generally had a much smaller population. If you go by GDP per capita, the numbers would be different. Still, untill 1750 most regions of the world were not that different from one another in economic terms. 70% of the population were engaged in agriculture, 20% in trades, 10% rest. The names of the rulling classes were different from region to region, the standard of living for the vast majority was pretty similar everywhere. The industrialization of the UK was the first real progress in human history that shoot up population numbers immidiatly.

Explain like I'm five years old:Why is NZ and Scandinavia so high on Ease of Doing Business rankings despite high public spending?

It’s because public spending doesn’t necessarily mean it’s regulatorily difficult to start or maintain a business charter. Nordic Countries make starting a business fairly simple, and a lot of the public spending those countries do benefits businesses as well.

Taxes are one component of doing business.

What are your thoughts on that any job that is worth doing deserves a living wage?

A "living wage" is a pretty arbitrary concept

Walking my dog is worth doing and I might be willing to pay someone to do it, but I can't afford to pay a living wage.

How do these record profit margins play into inflation?

Profits have risen since the COVID recession. They've risen sharply, in absolute terms and as share of GDP. But, is that a good reason for inflation? Not really. See this. Profits rose as a share of GDP directly after the COVID recession. However, since then there has been much less change. Profits as a share of GDP were about the same for Q3 2020 as they were for Q3 2021. So it doesn't help very much for explaining the inflation we've seen between those two dates. To put it another way, if profits really explained inflation then we would expect no inflation between the third quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021. In fact it was about 6%. (We should remember that there are more businesses then just corporations. Here I use the statistic "net surplus" which looks at nearly everything rather than just corporate profits.)

*I’m not an expert* It seems most economists disagree (or at least uncertain) with the premise of your statement. While profits might play a minuscule part in inflation it’s not the main driver. https://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/inflation-market-power-and-price-controls/

Why don't non-profit companies outcompete for-profit companies?

I agree with MachineTeaching, but I would put it a bit differently. All businesses need capital, and they must pay for it. Conventional businesses obtain that capital from shareholders or from borrowing. Both shareholders and lenders must be paid a return. Non profit businesses obtain capital from other sources. For a worker co-op it's from the workers. For a consumer co-op it's from the customers. In both cases a return must be paid or few would invest. The return to the workers may just be through higher wages, but that's still a form of return like profit.

Well, because that already happens, with the distinction that it's not limited to non-profit companies. If you can outcompete a competitor, why not do that? I mean, the point is usually to at the very least generate more revenue, if not more profit (in absolute or relative terms). Being for-profit or non+profit doesn't change that. What does potentially change that is *debt*. Debt, after all, is a burden. But then, non-profits can have debt, too, and you usually don't go into debt if you don't see it as beneficial, and companies do to public and sell shares because that's a potentially very cheap form of "debt". So really, a non-profit is potentially less flexible and has a harder time doing business than a for-profit. As a sidenote, companies advertise because it works (or at least because they think it does). The very point is to earn more additional revenue through advertising than what advertising costs. *Not* advertising in turn means you possibly generate less revenue than if you would.

Why did you choose to study economics?

I was forced into studying the subject due to school time tabling problems ended up really enjoying it at that level read freakonomics thought that was neet now slowly being beaten to death by Stata at university regretting being born

Honest answer? To get my family off my back for my political science major. I ended up doing a double major in political science and economics. But, I’m glad I did.

Are there policies that reduce poverty and increase inequality?

The reintroduction of private property and market in China is a great empirical example of economic policy that helped to reduce poverty and increase inequality. Context: Mao Zedong abolished private property and tried to establish a central planned economy, China was thrown into more poverty and famine, after his death in the 70s, Deng Xiaoping reintroduced private property, market, and opened China's economy. Paper about inequality in China: Income Inequality in Today's China, 2014, by Yu Xie and Xiang Zhou: >Since its beginning in 1978, China’s economic reform has led not only to rapid economic growth but also to a large increase in economic inequality. Although scholars continue to debate about precise estimates (1), the consensus is that income inequality in China has now reached a level much higher than that in the United States (2). As we will discuss below, the Gini coefficient for family income in China has now reached a level above 0.5, compared with 0.45 in the United States in 2010. This finding is significant because China had a very low level of income inequality as recently as in the late 1980s \[...\]

Yes, absolutely! NYFED's January 2021 Paper Monetary Policy and Racial Inequality >This paper aims at an improved understanding of the relationship between monetary policy and racial inequality. We investigate the distributional effects of monetary policy in a unified framework, linking monetary policy shocks both to earnings and wealth differentials between black and white households. Specifically, we show that, although a more accommodative monetary policy increases employment of black households more than white households, the overall effects are small. At the same time, an accommodative monetary policy shock exacerbates the wealth difference between black and white households, because black households own fewer financial assets that appreciate in value. Over a five year horizon, the employment effects remain substantially smaller than the countervailing portfolio effects.

Why is the efficient market hypothesis "still around" if clearly we can make profits from stocks through analysis and undervaluation?

People on Reddit talk about the EMH way more than financial economists do. There are several reasons why it is still around: 1. The purest test of the EMH is looking at the market reaction to big news events, and here the market incorporates the information very quickly. 2. Over longer horizons, it's hard to tell mispricing from time-varying discount rates, so you can't decisively refute the EMH. For example, Gene Fama (one of the original proposers of the EMH) still thinks it holds. 3. Even if it doesn't hold, it's hard to make money that way. Maybe a few people can do it, but most investors are better off acting like the EMH is true. This is a particularly important thing to emphasize when you teach an investments class, since many people in the class are going to assume they are in the "few".

The EMH doesn't say you can't earn capital income from assets... It pretty much says you can't earn excessive capital returns vs. similar assets. As in you won't be able to earn more by picking your own stocks than you would through a passive index fund tied to the market, except by chance

Why are prices of goods lower on Black Friday, when demand for Christmas gifts begins to surge, than After Christmas (Boxing Day), when demand sharply declines?

The surge in demand around Black Friday is well anticipated by stores, who preemptively increase their supply in order to capitalize on the increased demand. This helps keep prices from increasing for most things as the supply rises to meet the demand, but creates increased pressure for the stores to attract that increased demand to their products specifically, resulting in the numerous sales, as well as tactics like loss leaders (steeply, often unprofitably, discounted items meant to get people in the door where they will then buy other, more profitably priced merchandise at the same time), or more cheaply made versions of expensive items like TVs that can be sold at a discounted price without cutting into profits. Likewise, stores aren’t ordering extra stock to replenish what is sold during the holiday season for the post holiday, because they know ahead of time that demand is going to drop off sharply. Increased and decreases in demand tend to raise or lower prices as supply tries to catch up to the change in demand. Since the demand changes are predictable, suppliers can anticipate those changes and plan accordingly, which somewhat or entirely negates the effect of the change in demand on price. That said, it should be noted that unexpectedly hot items during Black Friday will often fly off the shelves very quickly and then see a spike in prices on resale sites, while stores that fail to sell off their excess stock during the holiday season may be left in a position that they need to steeply discount their supply to get rid of it in the post-holiday, so in that sense the changes in demand still do have their intuitive impact on pricing. For the most part, good planning prevents this from being too much of an issue as retailers attempt to capture the increased demand, though.

That is a good question. First, I want to point out that the type of comparative static analysis that you are trying to use (demand goes up, price should go up) makes more sense when you are comparing apples to apples. It would make sense if you wanted to compare sales in Black Friday 2022 vs sales in Black Friday 2023. But the markets that you are comparing are not the same market, and there are some things to take into account - A toy on the 24th and a toy on the 26th are different products. One is just a toy, the other one is a Christmas present. In general, a consumption good is a product-time-place combination, not just the product part. - The same product sold at different moments in time are imperfect substitutes. Therefore, in a dynamic setting, firms are also competing with themselves at different points of time. When a firm sets a low price on Black Friday, they are decreasing the demand for their own product at later days. For this reason, dynamic pricing of durable goods is a very complicated problem - Also, when you talk about durable goods, you have to think about storage costs and depreciation. How expensive is it to store the items I didn’t sell this year to try to sell them next year? How likely is it that a new model will come out and nobody will want them next year? With these things in mind, I think the answer is that firms lower their prices on Black Friday because of competition and search costs. not because of high demand. They lower their price on at least one day because that is the only way to compete with other firms. They all lower the price on the same day, because that is the day people will go out shopping

How do you respond to "You are an engineer?

My go to is, “I’m smart enough to memorize what a lot of really smart people actually figured out”

I’m a roadway engineer. When people find out they usually just yell at me about potholes and the new city bus route.

Advice needed: what is the best way to tell new engineer to just sit back and listen without trying to come up with solutions to problems he doesn't understand yet?

As an engineer with 20 years experience i think the best way to handle this is to not knock his ideas. Continue to be open to accepting. Objectively explain why you think his ideas won't work, but appreciate and encourage his ideas. Remember, he may have quoted the wrong engineering principle, but his overall idea may be correct.

Just be clear your expectations of him in these meetings. If you are bringing in there to learn and listen only, tell him that. Also just be honest with him, at least in my indistry the young fresh grad know It all can quickly be made a pariah. Labeled as someone who thinks he has it all figured out and doesn't want to learn. This will make people not want to bother teaching him. Ive seen it happen and these types don't last long because they lack this self awareness. If he doesn't see it maybe you should tell him how he's being perceived. If he's a big kid he can take it.

When did this sub become a place to discuss generic HR problems?

So, are you proposing to reduce the meaning of “engineering” to a mere technical exercise? I seriously disagree with this. Engineering has a human component that is as important as the technical one, and that has been neglected for too long, leading to a dehumanized “go technical or go home” attitude that doesn’t help anyone and perpetuates toxic stereotypes. As a senior engineer, most of the questions and mentorship requests I get from juniors are not technical: they are about themselves as engineers, as peers of other engineers and about progressing in their careers. With time I’ve learned to love answering these questions as much as the deterministic, technical ones, because my professional experience is probably as valuable to them as my technical knowledge, and noone teaches you about teamwork and social skills in university. I work in a particularly negatively stereotyped branch like software engineering, where social and interpersonal skills are not as widespread as technical skills, and any chance to discuss with others the nuances of non-technical aspects of their job is a great learning opportunity for everyone -including myself- involved. For more technical questions, as other mentioned, it’s much better to look at the more specialized subs.

The description of the sub permits questions about the “engineering profession”. Sure this place can be a great wealth of knowledge for technical questions, but there are many situations that are unique to our work environment that we can also help with. If you’re unsatisfied with the popular threads, use your resources and filter by new.

How to deal with having no “Senior” engineers to learn from or validate your ideas?

This is a tough situation to be in. I was in something similar when I started where I am now but it wasn't that I was the most senior, it was that senior engineering didn't really care to help. This is how I handled it.... * **Let the data drive the decision:** Any calculations, analysis, or information that you deem reliable should drive your path, don't start second guessing yourself. This is like second guessing an answer on a test and changing it to a wrong answer. * **Stand by your decision:** If the data took your there then stand by it until it is proven incorrect, if it can be proven incorrect. People who don't like an idea, just because, will jump on your uncertainty to undermine your decisions. They will get you and everyone else to second guess you even though you may be right and they just don't like it. * **Own your mistakes:** If you fuck up, and you will, own your mistakes. Don't make excuses just state the facts, try to have a root cause as to why it didn't work, and create a plan to make sure it doesn't happen again. Don't be afraid of making a mistake or admitting that you made a mistake, no matter how bit. * **Be Curious!:** If you have down time at work look at past projects, dig through archives of projects and find out what worked and what didn't work. Ask people questions that have been there for a while, they don't have to be engineers. A lot of the times the biggest successes and failures details make their way around the company. You can learn a lot from this. Tip: my boss has random crap on his desk, a lot of it is from industry. He keeps it there for new engineers because when you go into his office people will either ask what it is and pick it up or ignore it all together. This let him know what type of person he had working for him. There isn't one person here now that won't just pick up random shit off his desk and ask about it btw. Best of luck!

I've been in your shoes - but keep in mind that sometimes the notion that "someone more experienced would immediately have the answer" is just a fallacy Do you have a sister company or anything? Or is it a true startup? If you have a sister company or something, I would reach out to them to do reviews. Depending on what your designs are, you could always ask your management about doing reviews on Reddit, etc. Just be sure you take the stance of quality, not desperation (i.e. we have code reviews every day for quality - can we do \_\_\_ for PCB reviews?). If there's a specific area of your design you're having issues with, you could focus on that area. Worst case scenario, you could always review your designs with the software engineers. In my position, I went from being the only EE in a small company to working with a handful of EEs in a really really big company. Being able to review designs is great, but I've also learned that simulation and prototyping are still king for finding issues. Even with lots of experience, we still re-use as much as possible to avoid risk. Prototype quickly with breakout boards, etc. and re-use what you prototyped.

Anyone else get pissed off by Sales/marketing for setting engineering deliverables?

After you shake hands with someone from Sales be sure to count your fingers.

Salesman, AKA professional liar's. Bad for the organization, bad for the customer.

Is there anyone here that works as an engineer at a museum?

I did it for 10 years and it is the the best job every. I worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and as a contractor to Air and Space. Traveled the world doing exhibits as well for the Peterhof Palace and the Louvre . I quit 20 years ago as the end of the big exhibit was coming and I do not work cheap. I moved Olmec heads from Mexico and Terracotta Soldiers from China and all of the Star Wars space ships around the world. I got a masters in fine art appraisal from GW in DC and left the engineering world. Contractors like Artex and other art handling companies are the way to get into the business.

This brings me back to my old idea of perhaps having a side gig in the special effects industry. Engineering is cool, but the things the guys at ILM do is magical

Is it too late?

Once upon a time, a 30-year old man had to choose between studying engineering school, or working as a draftsman to support his son and daughters. An old colleague and friend of his advised him to do both; work through the day, and study engineering through the night. He said it would not be easy, and that it might gray some hairs, but it would give him a better quality of life for the future. I'm the son. Am also an engineer. Don't give up- your son will be extremely proud of you one day.

I’m 39 and in school for EE. I constantly joke about the basic things I want to work on before I retire. As long as you can make it work (financially, logistically), why not go for for it? You aren’t old. You’ve had experiences that bring stability to how you approach being new at a job (hopefully). Yeah, some of your professors and bosses might be younger than you, but so what?

Do you think COVID19 will change the way buildings are designed?

I'd been frustrated a lot even before this by handwashing sinks that: * Are controlled by IR sensors that aren't sensitive enough, maybe because I have cold hands, or maybe because the lenses get dirty and scratched? * Shut off far too quickly and are hard to reactivate. Maybe because after my hands have cold water on them a passive IR sensor doesn't trigger. * Have very low flow, at at level that might be ok if the water stayed on long enough but makes it really hard to wash well when you only get a few seconds of flow. * Have insufficient space for your hands between the spout and the back of the sink. I hope that changes.

As an HVAC engineer, I have seen some clients reach out to us on potentially implementing UV treatment or better filtration systems for improving indoor air quality. I think we will see many cases of that moving forward. ASHRAE has been pushing documentation on the subject quite hard the last few weeks.

During layoffs in an engineering company, which ones are the first to go?

When I had to let 60 people go I did a matrix. Rated everyone on skill, attitude, experience, unique skill, past warnings etc. then reduced each department by the same percentage and just ranked people by a score. There were those above and below the line. Then had one of the worst days of my working career after sitting down with each person individually. It's a hard thing to do.

Not sure. We haven't had layoffs in nearly twenty years. Our contract is seniority based - senior staff (ie: near retirement) can volunteer to take a severance package. Only after there are no more volunteers, can the company force layoffs starting at the most junior employee. The severance package is sweet enough that those eligible for retirement would be idiots not to take it. We have a host of graybeards who are sticking around in the hopes that their combined numbers will force severance offers just to get rid of them. Nobody has *ever* had a forced layoff here. We invest too much in training new hires and in the cost of severance packages that it makes more economic sense to just keep them around doing *something* if we're going to need to replace them any time in the next five years or so.

How do you deal with Tribal knowledge?

As I guy who sells really expensive equipment to companies all the time, the kind of equipment that usually has a vast deal of tribal knowledge, I'd say start with the manufacturer. I've often been the guy that gets a call, "Hey we're interested in XYZ, what can you tell us?" "Well for one, you have 3 of these machines at other installations" Often there are other repositories of information. Starting with a known expert, even outside your company may point you in the right direction. I can't tell you how many times companies call me wondering how to solve it, when in fact it's been done many times. Start with the end in mind. Figure out where the gaps are. Find other people to fill those gaps. Build systems so that the knowledge isn't dependent on people.

I actually asked this question a few years here Wow can’t believe that was 3 years ago. Anyway theres some good advice in there.

How difficult is an MBA compared to your engineering degree What was the process like?

2.8 gpa undergrad (BSME). 4.0 gpa MBA. I didn't get any smarter, it was just that easy. The difficult part for me was time management because I was working as a full time engineer and doing my MBA part time. Personally, I only did it because work paid for it. It's a great way to gain an understanding about how a company functions. The curriculum was (not surprisingly) heavily finance and accounting, which has helped me be more mindful of the bottom line impact that my spending on projects has. I would say work for a few years first, because an MBA won't get you far without work experience. I worked full time for 5 years before enrolling.

MBA = Learning fancy BUZZWORDS

When people say "the grid isn't build to handle lots of decentralized renewables" what exactly are they talking about?

The grid is optimized for the 1-way flow of energy from a small number of larger power plants to many individual customers. With distributed generation there are many small generators mixed in and the system has to start to deal with energy flowing "backwards" through the system. It's true a wire can flow energy in either direction. The grid uses AC energy so it's not just real power and real current, but there are frequency and phase effects and imaginary power bouncing back and forth through the system and in transformers. Long circuits and actual loads (motors) add inductive load to the system. You want the power factor to be as close to 1 as possible which minimizes losses from imaginary power. (Imaginary power is the energy that flows from the phases of sources and loads not being perfectly aligned which happens in a real system. The power does nothing in net since it just bounces back and forth, but it does add to the energy losses of the circuit in the wires and transformer, potentially limiting the capacity of the circuit.) To minimize imaginary power you add capacitor banks throughout the system. Capacitors can be set up in all sorts of ways to be on all the time or on a timer (to balance a factory running) or by certain temperatures (to balance out a whole bunch of air conditioning running). Then of course in the traditional system the voltage drops as you go along the circuit. At the substation the circuit may be the equivalent of 125 V but at the ends it may drop to 115 V. Long circuits have regulators on them which boost the voltage back up to some set range. So, adding distributed generation in the normally "distribution" part of the system means a lot of this stuff which is set up assuming energy always flows 1-way from the substation means it won't always work well now. If you put a bunch of solar panels at the end of a circuit, now the voltage could be too high for those customers near it, or imaginary power could be overwhelming parts of the system because it isn't phase-balanced anymore. Another thing is that the limit of the current a wire can handle is the temperature of the wire. They design the system for the wires to stay below a certain temperature. If you put in solar panels at the end of a circuit, you may now need to re-wire it with heavier wire to be able to handle the power the solar facility is generating. There are also fuses throughout the distribution system (they look like "C" clamps), they're all set up for the expected max amount of current flowing through where they are. When a wire falls and touches a tree or the ground, most of the time there's a fuse that trips and breaks the circuit turning off power until a worker fixes the problem and resets it. Sometimes the wire falls and the current doesn't reach the amount the fuse is set for and so it burns on the ground instead. If you put generation on a circuit, you'd now need to re-evaluate what the current is going to look like in the design conditions and potentially re-fuse it to fit that. Additionally, traditional generation is slow-reacting, like baseline generation because a power plant is generating for thousands of customers at a time so load isn't changing dramatically from minute to minute. A coal or nuclear plant works best running at the same output level for hours at a time. Hydro is good because they can change the flow rate of water in a matter of minutes or less to match the fluctuations in the grid load. Distributed generation is solar panels on roofs. When a cloud goes over a town, chunks of generation stops in a matter of seconds and the system sags and swings around as that generation disappears and it returns to the traditional 1-way flow, then the cloud passes by and the sun shines again, and the solar panels start blasting again--the system could surge.

I'm an intern at a transmission line company this summer. From what I've gathered there's quite a few issues with decentralized renewables or "Distributed Energy Resources". My perspective is based on my limited experience (could be wrong) and being in transmission. I think the main take away is that the grid was never designed with the intention of having DERs bypassing the bulk electrical system ( a solar farm connecting straight to a distribution feeder). So failure points: * DERs add more fault currents that originally expecting. Could lead to expensive upgrades. * DERs can cause power flow in directions not intended for and inject large amounts of harmonics that would usually be used to detect problems. I think this screws with the protection and control. Distance relays might give false measurements of where faults occurred or harmonic levels cause false trips or prevent that kind of monitoring. * DERs can cause feeders to stay energized when they should be isolated. This could cause low voltages for users and add risk to maintenance. * P&C relays trip quickly when a fault occurs but then reclose automatically to restore power if the fault has been cleared. There needs to be communication and protocols in place to trip out the DER otherwise an unsynchronized connection could occur during the auto reclose. That would destroy the DER. I think there are substation concerns as well but I'm not familiar with those yet. I don't think any of these problems aren't solvable but it's an issue of scale and things are slow moving since the electrical grid is so fundamental to our society so it has to be right. There will probably be lots of studies, debates and tests to figure out economical, reliable and safe was to do all these which will take time.

Anyone know how to balance engineering with wanting to have uninterrupted periods of adventure in there life?

Here's how one guy did it. He wasn't a super high paid project manager or anything, but he was one of the best electrical designers I have met. Works in Houston where there are a lot of mega-projects. Stadiums and refineries and such. He works for a while, and does a fantastic job. I send him out to take some field notes, and the next morning he hands in his field data already on CAD. On these giant projects, they hire dozens of engineers, then lay them off as the project winds down. He's got a spidey sense when this is going to happen, and quits proactively. Then he spends six months playing his guitar. During that period, nobody can hire him for any amount of money. He plays, does a few gigs, maybe makes a few bucks but mostly does whatever the hell he wants. Then he hires on again. Same guys always on one project after another. They all know him. They hire him, he works like mad, then quits when his spidey sense goes off and plays guitar for another six months.

I recall when I first started work - just a normal job, nothing unusual - I found that all of a sudden I had much more time to enjoy life, simply because the work was around 40 hours with no homework or studying required. No weekend studies etc. plus you can just take a vacation day here and there. Depending on how much time you feel like you need, you might find that you can get plenty of adventure and fun in on evenings, weekends and vacation days. The hobbies you mention, some might require travel and some not, but if you emphasize location in your job search it might kinda take care of it self.

Mechanical Engineers: Jobs where you don't take work home with you?

Stay away from manufacturing

I work from home, due to the pandemic. I'm personally terrible at keeping the two separate because I can't seem to turn my brain off from work. It's important to establish boundaries with work so it doesn't follow you home. I think it's also something to inquire about when you are interviewing. Ask what a typical work week looks like. If they talk about working 24/7 and that's "part of the work culture", steer clear of those companies.

If 100% of cars were EVs, do we have enough power on the grid to charge them all at once?

Roughly 1.2 million MW of electrical capacity and 280 million cars. Assuming all that energy goes to the cars, with no losses, you're looking at 4.3 kw per car. That would charge a long range tesla model 3 in 17.4 hrs. Obviously not a realistic scenario, but we definitely need more generation to keep up

Realistically, if we as a society get to the point where a majority of cars are all electrics, there will have to be some form of grid-car communication to prevent overloading of the system during this exact situation. Our grid currently has the capacity, just not all at the same time. For instance, midnight to 6am, the grid has a pretty low demand. We could totally have most cars to wait until then to charge (with some kind of override button to begin charging immediately). I read several different articles recently that had proposed this exact same solution for a more renewable grid. Renewables are not as on-demand as our current grid, so we would need some kind of large battery storage (like every car plugged in at the same time) to combat that. Though that is more for drawing power from the cars in times of high demand, and charging them up when there's extra supply.

Is it worth learning Python as a Mechanical Engineer?

I can recommend Automate the boring stuff with Python. It's a beginner-level book, with a very practical aim. As an ME you'll probably never write very complex programs that need to be written and documented properly. But it's always useful to know how to automate boring stuff.

YES. Although you're currently set on mechanical engineering, when you graduate you'll actually be attractive to a range of jobs, some outside of engineering. Go and do a general search of tech jobs right now, and things like python (especially for data science at the moment) are almost ubiquitous. I can't imagine that will change significantly in the next few years. So prepare yourself - I wish I had!

Did you prefer working in a big or a small company?

I worked in a big bureaucracy, a billion dollar company, and several small firms that had less than a dozen people. The bureaucracy was maddening - so many rules and procedures, so many little feifdoms, anything that really needed to happen was slow as shit. I actually got in trouble for increasing my productivity. I was outta there in 1.5 years. I worked for some small firms, the kind where the boss also sweeps the floor and does some of the CAD monkey work. One was rewarded for being more productive, one had constant learning opportunities and challenges, and ironically most of our work was contracted with that same big bureaucracy, getting things done with 5 guys that they couldn't accomplish with 50. Later, I worked for a large company. It was fun, I was used to a really fast pace at the small consulting firms, so just doing my normal output I was considered a rockstar (really it was easy). Many large companies will be different, but this one rewarded innovation, expected high standards, allowed creativity and gave me a lot of leeway. What rules they had were reasonable and flexible if needed. Because of the massive resources of such a company, I was involved in really cool research, got to travel to foreign countries I'd never have otherwise, was encouraged to patent my ideas, had a pretty good time. Then they got bought out by a company that didn't have any respect for innovation, and basically all the good engineers left over the space of a weekend. The writing was on the wall and our entire lab was closed down, leaving only bean counters who bought crap from China instead of innovating. I now work for myself, pretty good except my boss is an asshole.

I’ve only worked for relatively small companies so far and one drawback I have noticed is that if you end up stagnating in your department or get stuck under a toxic manager, you likely will have nowhere else to go within the company so you are forced to leave for a new company when you cannot stand it anymore. It’s tiring and can make you look bad if you have to job hop a fair amount.

Engineers who struggle with delegating work, getting out of the mindset of "if I don't do it, no one else will", and violating your own boundaries out of a sense of responsibility, how do you fix it?

You have to practice it, like any other skill. Effective delegation doesn't just happen, it is a learned behavior. If your line manager is good at it, ask them to help you learn. If they are any good they will recognise an opportunity for professional development and coach you. If that doesn't work out, find someone else who will. OTOH, if you aren't responsible for delegating work to others, the only skill you need to learn is how much workload you can handle and how to communicate what your capacity is. There are lots of techniques and all of them work for someone, none of them work for everyone. You need to find what suits you and your environment. Personally I quite like Kanban (you can use MS Planner or any one of a number of tools). It's a good way to visualize your backlog of work and your WIP. Strict Kanban puts a limit on the number of tasks that are allowed to be WIP, which enforces a healthy mindset to avoid context switching. Some people like GTD or other time management frameworks.

I kind of have the same question I think

In this time where many are staying home, what are some resources to review/sharpen your engineering design/analysis skills, or learn/train using new tools?

If you've got access to a student licence for some CAD software, now would be a great time to spend a week or two going through the tutorials.

It definitely depends on what you're interested in. I am an Aerospace Engineer with a focus in dynamics and control. This book and website have so many helpful tutorials about Data-Driven Modeling (Dimensionality Reduction, Machine Learning and Data Analysis, Reduced Order Models, etc.) : http://www.databookuw.com/ All example code from the book is on this website and each chapter has video lectures to go along with the material. You can find a lot of interesting aerospace-related data sets and create analysis projects easily at home.

What's the best non-technical advice for mid-career engineers?

Under promise and over deliver

Soft skills are the difference between being good and great. Practise them as much as technical ones.

Mars rover windshield wiper brush?

I don't think it is as simple as brushing it off. There is a lot of electrostatic attraction in Mars atmosphere. The dust collects to the surface easily and is a bit like when your hair rubs against a balloon. Perhaps ionising the surfaces might help but I don't work for NASA so...

Maybe you'll get lucky and it will rain?

Is there an engineering reason that luxury cars are so complex and difficult to work on?

It's kind of like why a giant/luxury house is a lot more maintenance and upkeep than a small house. The luxury house has a pool and spa which the small house doesn't. That's great except pools and spas are a lot of maintenance. Also, "Oh, you need a master craftsman from far away to replace your Italian marble floor that the tiles take 6 months to order?" or "Bob down the street can go to Home Depot to pickup and install the carpet."

A few guesses: * Most luxury brands assume you'll be having someone else perform the maintenance, so things taking longer to maintain has 2 benefits: Easier to design, and you pay the dealers more (most dealers make far more on service than they do on sales) * Luxury brands tend to have newer technologies that haven't been fully miniaturized * Luxury car makers aren't making 100k of that vehicle, so any ease of assembly (and hence ease of maintenance) doesn't pay itself off nearly as quickly

Are tattoos taboo in engineering world?

That tramp stamp won't come up until you decide you want to fast track your promotion.

Depends where you work and if you can still be professional (aka are your tattoos offensive and can you cover them if necessary) my work has both office employees and a full fab shop, and being that fab shops tend to have a lot looser guidelines for tats and what not (because it is always associated with the lifestyle, true or not) that carries into our office. A lot of us have full sleeves and whatnot and wear them proudly. But we can also cover them up very easily for big government/customer meetings.

Why did you choose to become an engineer, and what is your dream?

i pursued engineering because my highschool physics teacher convinced me that an engineering degree opens a lot of doors but doesnt pigeonhole you into a single career. he was right, as he started his career as a chemical engineer for a plastics company that made water bottles. he hated that, and became a teacher. As for my dream? I honestly don't know. But none of my dreams have anything to do with work ... I currently design cannabis extraction equipment which is a pretty interesting and fun way to apply my engineering skillset I guess, and its a cool industry to be a part of. Not really a dream job but as close as I am gonna get in engineering.

Robotics Engineer Here. My dream was to do what a Robotics engineer/Controls engineer studies for (research, modeling, application of new theories of control, designing and creation of prototypes, etc...); I ended up doing grunt work (plc, hmi, electrical drawings, basic python scripting, etc... I am now an Automation "Engineer"). My dream was to make this world a better place for everyone. Now looking to quit and do my master degree before my brain complete dies doing this kind minion work.

What are alternative career paths for a recent engineering graduate who's effectively unhireable as an engineer?

If took me 5.5 years, I think my gpa was 2.1. I am a hard working person, self motivated, easy to work with, and and communicate clearly. Not everything in a job is purely academic. There are qualities to a person that you cannon learn in school. Ask your friends, ask your parents, cold call, get your foot in the door for an interview, and talk about the growth you’re capable of. For reference, I had a job prior to graduating my 5th year, and now I am running a department 5 years later. People with 4.0 gpa’s often feel as they are entitled to a job. Don’t let your gpa bring you down.

Don't put your GPA on there but do not lie when they ask. Explain your case and tell them you worked through it. Just reading your post you can tell you communicate well so I'm guessing you're a confident speaker. Just be open and honest and tell them that you didn't quit and aren't interested in quitting. This career field means something to you and you'd like a chance at a job with a place that has some patience to help somebody learn. You'll probably do just fine.

Fellow Mechanical Engineers: How do you justify your choice to yourself to stay in mechanical design when the market is so amazing in tech?

Boy carefull with the tinted glasses. There is one thing the tech world does not really offers to most people: A life. I mean look at the hours. The guys burn up so damn quick. It's a great field, very dynamic. But it's not the be all end all. Everybody needs their shit built, we can work everywhere.

I have a fantastic work life balance, great pay and a stable career. So I’m pretty content with my career choices I not in tech for the same reason I’m not a lawyer; I have zero interest in such work

Engineers working in NYC, how much do you make and how is your benefits package?

Structural Engineer - 1st year working out of college, $78k... 18 days of paid time off, $350 stipend per month for health insurance, so really on the hook for $94 towards health insurance. 50% match contributions to my 401K, as a field inspector I travel around the 5 boroughs and Westchester County and get reimbursed $0.58 per mile and all the tolls. Honestly, fuck this city... that's all I have to say.

Well I live in NYC but work across the bridge in NJ so it may not be what you're looking for exactly.. I'm an ME working in Mechanical design. First job after graduating with 2 internships. I make 66k, health insurance, no 401k and no vacation days during your first year.. I know it's awful, but it was better than the $18/hr I was making before. That and the fact that i moved back in with my parents so I'm not paying any rent. I'm only about 3 months in but I'm still actively searching, and you gotta start somewhere. I got an offer a couple of months earlier for an MEP firm in Manhattan, 55k, no health insurance and maybe having to go up to their CT office 2 days/week. I didn't think too long before turning it down. I'm not sure if I get unlucky and end up with awful offers, or if that's the trend in NYC right now so ymmv.

Engineers in the US, How much PTO do you get?

Unlimited PTO and we're encouraged to take vacation.

First year 80, second to 4th 120, 5th and on 160. Defense.

Has anyone else taken time off?

I was laid off in 2020 due to covid and willingly spent over a year unemployed. Easily the happiest I've been in 10 years lol

I've thought about doing the same. I like to call it my "pending sabbatical". If you can wing it financially, I say go for it. I do know a guy who planned to take 3 months off and enjoyed it so much he ended up taking 3 years off. He's never mentioned any difficulty getting back in to the industry. We're EEs in the semiconductor industry FYI.

How do I get a job as an “aerospace engineer”?

I’ve worked as an aerospace engineer for NASA for 25 years, it’s never been a better time to hire into the industry. Besides the big companies you already mentioned Blue Origin has been growing at breakneck speed. Besides the big guys, look for some of the smaller contractors and apply in their systems. KBR, Jacobs, Barrios, ILC, Oceaneering, Leidos all have many positions where I work and some of them are frankly better employers than the big defense contractors.

Relativity Space is hiring. Apply.

Is it worth getting a Master's degree for getting more & higher paying jobs?

Im currently getting my masters through the company I work for and I opted out of a thesis and am taking a few additional courses instead. Depends on the school and maybe they only offer that option to people already in industry?

Try to find statistics in your field? I'm in materials science which is related to chemistry, so I looked at the average salary for chemists with bachelors vs masters. I believe the tradeoff was like 10 or 11 years for the masters to overtake the bachelors (assuming constant salary with no growth, equal to the average). That also didn't consider to cost of a master's. And if you can save/invest, the extra money earlier is also helpful. I believe the person with a master's would end up with about $200,000 more than the person with a bachelor's after 25 years of working, assuming the person with a master's took 2 years to get the degree and make no profit/losses while studying. Again, that's data for chemists though.

Is it my duty to inform power companies when I constantly hear their power lines humming (corona discharge)?

I work for the BPA. A small to moderate amount of corona is safe and often an unavoidable efficiency loss when transmitting power at high voltages. There are hardware upgrades we can put on the lines to try to smooth out the electric field discontinuities that cause coronal discharge, but even with those you'll hear corona at any of our 500 kV lines when they're energized. It's just impossible fully prevent. If you want to give the utility a ring to let them know about your concerns, that's free and leaves you with a good conscience, but I doubt anything will come of it unless it's genuinely dangerous or causing an audible noise compliance issue.

I called the water company the other dsy to let them know aboit a leak. They were very thankful and called several times to give me uodates on the repair!

Has anyone here received their PE with a felony conviction?

What industry are you hoping to work in when you graduate? If it’s not public sector (utilities, wastewater, etc) you likely will have little use for a license.

3 felony conviction? what did you do lol?

How did you trade up in your career?

I once read the suggestions to ask the interviewer what appealed to them about the company/division/group. What kept them coming to work? What kind of non-technical issues did they deal with? What are raises/promotions like? At the end of the day, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. Have each interviewer describe the culture and see how it aligns.

Finding a "better" job will be relative to the individual. I recommend spending some time brainstorming, doing some research, and probably writing and journaling, to identify what features of a job and company really matter to you. For me (as a software developer of 6 years), here are those features: * **Agile or scrum project management process.** I find the "Software Development Life-Cycle" a/k/a waterfall is needlessly inefficient at best, and overall ineffective at worst. Clearly this is just my opinion and some teams are ok with it, but I'm not interested in being a part of those teams. * **Minimize production support to the extent possible.** We get paid when our systems are working in production. That being said, I would like to "keep work at work" and avoid being contacted outside business hours, especially during vacation or holidays. I make sure to make life as easy as possible for my ops team because they allow me this privilege. * **Office is located close to friends & family.** This one doesn't have to do with the company per se, but it's something that I personally need. Some people can move to San Francisco or Seattle and make a killing. I am not one of those people; I am very slow to make friends, so it is not wise to inject myself all alone into a new community. There are a few others, but you get the idea. It's good to consider the popular topics too, salary and technology being the most obvious. Give it some thought, make some lists, and do some research to see what you find.

What is the most ridiculous thing you've had to bring to life after it was promised?

I built a 14mm diameter camera that could see at a sideways angle....for urethral insertion I built a multileaf collimator something that is used to shaped radiation for cancer therapy, normally about 300 pounds and the size of a suitcase, but for mice. It was around the size of a deck of cards. I built a vacuum powered chamber that you could mount a pig lung in, then we could record breathing patterns from respirators and..."play" them back on the lung. I designed (but not built) a cable and plug for charging commercial trucks....manually operated....at 14MW I built a robot that can go inside MRI machines I built an $800k mobile robot to wheel around and industrial room to....and I shit you not.....read the gauges. I built a three wheeled windsurfer for traveling on the road with no sail and a gas engine. I built a wireless ROV to swim through power transformers and inspect them. Oh, that one was actually released as a product. https://new.abb.com/news/detail/7870/abbs-txplore-robot-redefines-transformer-inspection

> And there's a good chunk of the industry that exists on Vapourware that sales guys dream, but seems tangibly impossible. [...] So it made me wonder, what are some (obviously gotta keep specifics intact) stories of things that were promised by a sales guy/ceo/whoever....and then they came to you and said "Just make it work" It's not just "sales" people. Includes other engineers, engineering management, etc. that can be a bit out of touch with the real practicalities of things. I feel like it's pretty much every day with that kind of stuff.