Hey everyone! It's Thomas and we're finally here the end of 2020. I'm planning to do a big update
video in the New Year but until then, I thought i'd make a quick video talking about 20 Things
I learned in 2020. If you're new around here, I'm Thomas, I'm a third year astrophysics student
studying at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, and this is my channel where I talk
about a lot of university and science content as well as stuff like this that's just a bit more
random. If that sounds fun make sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon so you don't
miss future videos but for now, here are my 20 things I learned in 2020. One. Simple acts can make
all the difference. Now the coronavirus pandemic has maybe been the most defining part of 2020
and it's really sort of blown my mind, just quite how simple the most meaningful acts can be. Washing
your hands. Keeping a safe social distance. Wearing a mask. At times they can be really hard things to
do but they really do make all the difference. Case sensitive programming languages suck.
Now if you've never had the displeasure to use a case-sensitive programming language then
enjoy your blissful ignorance. I advise keeping a safe social distance from languages including
Mathematica for this reason. Although to be fair, I could go on for a long time about all the reasons
that I would like to avoid using Mathematica. Discord light mode is better than Discord
dark mode. I realise this is verging on heresy for some of the PC master race lot out there but on
desktop it's just better. At least I think so. Same goes for Twitter, Reddit and Facebook on desktop.
I will die on this hill. Number four. If in doubt ask for help. This is something that's taken me
a really long time to learn but it it's really true. It's much better to spend
five minutes, like, emailing a lecturer or a tutor if you're stuck, than spending five hours
sort of pig-headedly going through a derivation trying to work out where
you're going wrong to find out you missed, like, a power of two in the second line.
Please ask for help. Good shoes are a must. This is something i was sort of aware of before this year
but since the start of this academic year I've been living in a flat, away from
the physics building. I've not been in halls of residence, so my walk to class is a bit longer and
good shoes have really helped. I tried walking in like my, sort of, less comfortable shoes and
yeah, they were significantly worse. Same goes for desk chairs and actually mattresses. Like if
you're gonna have to spend a lot of time in them make sure you're comfortable. Your body will, your
body will really thank you for it. Twitch streams can have some of the best communities on the internet.
Go check them out it's free. Even if you can't go to an IMAX, Star Wars on Christmas Eve is awesome.
Now, this is the tradition that sort of appeared in my family around the time of The Force Awakens
being released back in 2015. We went to see it in the IMAX in Edinburgh on Christmas Eve. It was
like the only showing we could get four seats right next to each other and since then we did
Rogue One, Last Jedi, Solo and Rise of Skywalker on Christmas Eve in that same IMAX. Now no new Star
Wars this year, plus the pandemic, means it was Star Wars on Christmas Eve, it was on the telly, but it
was still great. Number eight, and this is for the students. Buy a wok. Stir fries are easy cooking.
They're a good way to use any veg that you have that's about to go off and they're kind of hard
to mess up. And they're cheap! Buy a wok. It is not worth struggling on with a small frying pan.
Seriously they're like eight quid in Tesco. Go buy a wok. Don't go browsing the alcohol aisle
unless you definitely want to buy something. Those whisky deals in Morrisons and Tesco's, they can
be rather deadly. Number 10. Invest in good lighting. Whether it's for YouTube, Tiktok or a Microsoft
Teams call, buy good lighting before you buy a new camera. It's cheaper and it will probably make all
the difference. You can have the best camera in the world and crappy lighting will still ruin it.
Exhibit A. Like you would not want to watch this for an entire video right?
Number 11. Invest in good earphones. Now I know it's tempting to just keep buying the cheap,
seven quid earphones from Amazon or wherever whenever they break but trust me. Spending
some good money on some good earphones will make listening to music so much more enjoyable and yeah,
it's like in the long run it's probably cheaper. I mean I use galaxy buds for my sort of on the go
in ear listening and yeah, they're not cheap, but realistically they're gonna last a lot longer than
the seven quid earphones and they sound better. Not to mention you don't have the trouble getting a
mask on and off if they're truly wireless. Number 12. If you have an idea for a passion project,
do it! If I hadn't decided to give this YouTube thing a shot back in May, you wouldn't be
watching this video. Don't worry about if people think it's going to be geeky or a waste of time or
money. If it's fun then go for it.
Adulting is hard. Like, nobody knows what they're doing. Everyone is
just pretending. Electricity bills, insurance documents. They're designed to be confusing.
You're in the same boat as everyone else. Write documents in LaTeX. Yes it's going
to take some time for you to learn but the end result is far better than using Word and
you'll probably get more formatting marks where available. I know I certainly have. In addition,
number 15. Use Mendeley and BibTeX for referencing in LaTeX. It will save you so much time. Number 16.
More expensive tea is better. I have spent far too much money on T2 tea this year, and yeah that's
not going to stop anytime soon. It's great. In times of isolation music is more important than ever.
Eighteen. Human ignorance and stupidity will amaze you. I have lost count of the number of people I've
seen on social media claiming goodness knows what this year. Personal favorites include the
Bill Gates is going to control everyone with the coved vaccine conspiracy, and that we can't
say that all gas giants are uninhabitable because we haven't studied them all. Despite
the definition of a gas giant failing to meet almost all of the criteria for human habitability.
And those were just in the last two months. At the same time people can be unbelievably kind.
I suffered a loss this year that I'm not gonna talk about much on this channel. Aat least not yet,
but at that time my friends just sort of leapt into action. I had cards coming through the door,
I had tea delivered from the south of England. One of my friends shipped brownies from Northern Ireland.
And you just have to look on social media, and on the news, to see all the acts of kindness worldwide
this year. People giving more of their time and more of their money to the less fortunate.
We've seen footballers campaigning to get food for hungry children. We've seen health care workers
going above and beyond to help people, and we've seen thousands donate to charity drives across
the world. A special shout out to the Yogscast Jingle Jam. They've raised over two million
pounds in just two weeks through their annual charity live streams which they just they don't
get enough credit for. And finally, you never know what's coming so make the most of the times you
have.The last events I went to before the pandemic hit were The Script's Glasgow concert in the Hydro
and Celtic Society's Highland Ball. Now those times were great on their own, but nine months on, with
no more concerts and no more dancing, when I look back, they're a bit more special than they appeared
at the time. So those were 20 Things I Learned in 2020. I know I will have learned other things this
year but quite frankly, I don't have time in this video to get through all of the things I learned
in all of my courses, or to rant at length about Mathematica. You know all the standard stuff to do
at the end of YouTube video so I'll just leave you with this. I hope you take something away from this
video. I hope you're well, wherever you are. I wish you a very happy new year and I'll see you in 2021.