This would be primarily aimed at the large number of students who have to take organic chemistry as a requirement.
For organic chemistry graduate students and professional organic chemists, all this stuff will largely be so ingrained as to not to require these kinds of resources.
There are, however, a large number of people who are in chemistry fields who need occasional refreshers on introductory concepts and for that purpose, these are excellent.
On the other hand, by the standards of what an undergraduate organic chemistry student is looking for from a free online resource, and given that it is just one guy doing this, in his spare time, I think this is absolutely fine.
(I have a competing website on organic chemistry and I think this guy does a much better job on graphics than I do.)
About 10 years ago I visited him in his studio where he had all mocked up in paper and cardboard, putting all the pieces together. Fun to see it finally out and in people's hands.
Been doing this 12+ years, mainly focused on teaching sophomore organic chemistry. Started as a blog, don't know if it really qualifies anymore as I've organized many of the posts into chapters that follow the typical order of topics as taught in most North American schools. Still write rants from time to time
Bought a World Book set at last year's Berkshire Hathaway meeting, for something like $650 including shipping. Awesome deal.
My kids (10, 8) earn "check marks" for each 20 minute chunk of time they spend reading it, which they can trade in for various goodies. Usually before they go to sleep
Edit: Also, they have used it for school projects. 2nd grader had projects on Poland, Neil Armstrong, and pygmy rattlesnakes this year. Very handy as an introduction to a wide variety of topics.
>Also, there is the third category: Small business. Few grad students, and relatively low pressure.
These can be the saddest cases in my opinion. Lower downside, but lower upside too. You work your butt off and knock the ball out of the park with your project: who notices? A few experts, in a very narrow field, may recognize the significance of what you've done. Can be lonely.
Two most extreme stories I am most familiar with (did not experience first-hand) were of a PI throwing a chair in the direction of a postdoc, and of a PI having a screaming fit directly in the face of a graduate student. Both assistant profs.
One got tenure and became more mellow in a relative sense. The other was subsequently unable to attract any more graduate students to their lab, and left for another, slightly less prestigious institution.
I am also familiar with one case of graduate students resigning en masse, leaving a PI with a hollowed-out research group of 2-3 that they had to rebuild. Prof had a subsequent attitude adjustment.
In all these cases the stories spread pretty quickly and profs realized that there were costs to abusive behavior. These stories pre-date social media BTW.
It's pick your poison, like choosing a startup vs BigCorp. My observations pertain to organic chemistry specifically, I'm less familiar with other fields.
With an assistant prof you will be asked to do unreasonably long hours on ideas that haven't been fully validated, but you get a lot of face-time with the PI (for better or worse) and have a chance to get on the ground floor of a potentially great research program. Your boss has a lot more invested in your success because their career depends more on you. It can be exciting.
With a more established prof you are more likely be plugged into the n-th iteration of an established research program. You're more expendable because the prof has more options to hire your replacement; you can get lost in the crowd; the prof won't be in the lab as much (travel, service responsibilities) so it's more sink or swim. Lots can go wrong in this environment. As the group gets larger, internal politics can create frictions, especially if the supervisor is away a lot.
An early stage lab has a lot in common with a startup. The PI is given seed money to validate an ambitious idea and has limited time and resources to do it. The work is extremely labor intensive and in the early stages the PI will be in the trenches with the early employees working in the lab and setting an example for them to follow. Fast failure and pivots are extremely common. Furthermore, at any time the research idea could get scooped by another hard-working research lab, resulting in publication in a lower-tier journal. The PI must get early results that can be used to obtain further research grants.
A good PI in this situation will set expectations accordingly that 60+ hour weeks will be required and hopefully those who are not willing to do so will self-deselect. From their perspective I completely not understand not wanting to invest $50k/year of their startup funds in a graduate student who is not putting in the necessary time to succeed.
The prospective graduate student's maximum power is at the time when they are choosing a research advisor. Choose wisely, and remember you are always free to choose not to go if you don't see a good situation. I advise that people think long and hard about whether or not they truly want to do graduate school. There are far better ways to spend your 20's than in a lab. I had two great experiences in "intense" labs in my field (organic chemistry) after a very poor experience with a prestigious but absentee graduate advisor in another field - but it is definitely not for everyone.
If I understand correctly, you are saying that the parent comment is evidence that the core algorithm for self-selection and other-exclusion are similar regardless of what group the members identify as being a part of. No higher moral principle is in operation here. All that has changed is who/whom.
I attended the annual meeting last year and though I historically love the company, came away less than impressed. I can see how people in the past would take a pay cut to work closely with WB or have him invest in their company. But does Greg Abel really have anywhere near the kind of gravitas necessary to attract top talent or get good deals? I don't see it. Lots of bland corporatespeak from him.
As a birder I have thousands of bird photos and would pay for this service.