I've been very affected by this myself.

It happened the most while attempting to study research papers.

A lot of times I would be unable to finish reading what I had planned, because I had stumbled upon an interestingly-looking concept and then proceeded opening up another paper on that subject and so on.

And then, of course, having returned back to the original paper, I would have to re-start reading from beginning to freshen up my memory.

Terribly exhausting process, so I can perfectly understand your frustration.

The only solution I found was to un-clutter my computer 'work-space' as much as possible: close any non-essential apps, unplug internet cable and each time I have the urge to stop reading and go research a newly discovered subject, I remind myself that I am only allowed to do it after finishing what I'm currently reading.

Another helpful thing for me is to remind myself what I'm trying to accomplish with whatever I'm doing at that particular time and what my long-term goals are.

For instance, if I'm working on a project for a client, the goal is to get the work done as soon as possible and obviously get paid. I am not working on said project to primarily enrich my knowledge, but to make money.

I can use the time after the project is delivered to draw conclusions from the experience or do further research.

This may sound trivial, but it really does help to constantly remind yourself of what your goals are, it keeps you in check.

For extra effect, every time you have the urge to let your mind wander too much, try imagining the possible consequences of not completing your task (on time).

This can be particularly effective if you're doing client work. Imagine how embarrassing/unprofessional would have to explain to your client/employer that you won't be able to deliver on time because of something that you could've prevented.

Side-note: you have not provided enough info, but you may have obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is nothing to be ashamed of, but you can only 'solve' this with medication, so you would need to see a doctor.

Sadly I have experienced this.

I was in mourning after losing a relative and refused to participate in an overtly cheerful activity.Not only was I reprimanded for it, but later heard the professor felt the need to complain to other people as well about yet another kid 'whos grandma had died'. It just so happened that my grandma had not died, nor would have I cared much if she would've had, but a much more cared for relative.

Thankfully it was quite a lot of years ago.

Isn't it quite easy to present proof that a relative has really died?

It really depends.

Many people, especially poor folks, don't do obituaries, because they can be expensive. Original death certificates are always in high demand, and people tend to not realize that they need dozens of them -- proving to a teacher that grandma died is low priority. There are other cultural factors as well. Some religions call for immediate burial, so publication of the obituary will likely lag the student's absence.

Another factor to consider is that fall exam times line up with the holiday season, which also happens to be a time of the year when death rates spike.

Given all of the other accommodations that colleges give students, I don't see the big deal here. When I was in school, I was able to get incompletes to finish coursework or take exams late for various reasons. I had friends who got ADD diagnoses from doc-in-the-box places because they found taking exams in lecture centers with tiny desks impossible to deal with. If a C student gets an extra 3 days to study, the outcome is likely the same as it would have been.

I'm a professor in a university. For us a photocopy of the obituary, death certificate or an equivalent document is enough to allow the students to take the test ~1 week later. But the exact documentation needed probably depends on the university.

No, generally not in the timeframe between being notified and the funeral. There may be an announcement in a local newspaper -- local to your deceased relative -- but this is as likely to be after the funeral as before.

I don't think there's an issue with saying "you're getting a 0 on the exam until you furnish proof of death and proof of relation, at which point you can (re)take the exam." Surely even the most bureaucratic university would have some mechanism in place to allow a student to take an exam, even a final, later than planned (or even the next semester?)

yes, it's called an Incomplete.

Very interesting point of view, I have never thought about it that way. I think you're right.

Finally a contest with more substantial prizes. I can't help feeling that lately virtually all companies have been launching contents to solve (very) difficult problems, but instead offer only rewards that coincidentally, just the persons with the most experience/most qualified, would consider undignified. (like the recent NASA ISS contest or most of the competitions on Kaggle).

I like this and I think I'll actually start using it.

Overall interestingly done, although the small 'the' overlaid on the main 'New Republic' title irks me to no end. It really, really does not fit with the rest of its surroundings and looks added at the last minute.

Interesting, but ow my eyes, everything is so big.I'm on 1920x1080 and even so, I have trouble getting a global 'view' to properly navigate around. I like the fact that the tooltips are theme-able.

Ugh, should've put a [pdf] warning in the title. Other than that, R can indeed be hot, but maybe just in the special 'flavor' Revolution Analytics developed, otherwise it's one of those languages you dread using but are forced to because so much scientific code/packages etc has been written on it, some with no equivalent in other languages.

It's also from 2010 (according to the copyright statement in the PDF).

just did put in pdf to the title

however you managed to skip past the auto-scribd-autodetection, congratulations! scribd is a mistake.

It looks like URL parameters after .pdf extension confused the parser that probably expects URL to _end_ with '.pdf'

It's pretty sad, but not because I knew him in any capacity, or actually have heard of him until now.

It's sad because he clearly had a psychiatric issue and only if people were more educated on this matter, they could've reached out to him and offered him help to get his problem under control, instead of just laughing at him.

To an uninformed, uneducated person, it's likely that this is all he was: a pathetic, over the top compulsive liar.

I presume he died because he killed himself, which is something someone would do after at least temporarily snapping out of the psychosis that made them do all of those things and realizing it wasn't something they would ever be able to take back or sweep under the rug, thanks to the 'wonders' of the internet.

This is very interesting, thank you for sharing.