this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Earlier this week my advisor was in an online meetings with the other RAs, I was doing other duties at the time, so I arrived late. He brought up a delay I guess I caused on a previous project (I don't recall anything that was particularly long, I think he may have been referring to me pointing out an issue with the math he would have preferred to ignore, but that could just be me being catty) and called my code 'messy' and said to not use my code, but instead use his vibe-coded script that gave better results (It was incorrect, surprise). Today he yelled at me for not getting some work done and I blew up at him, and recused myself from the project (today was the deadline to submit the paper, so that was kind of a dick move).

Now that I am less angry and thinking more clearly, I can't help but think that this is a massive break of professional decorum, and breaks my trust in him entirely. I don't feel that I can really trust him to write proper reviews of my work or be relied upon as a reference.

Am I correct in feeling this way, or am I overreacting?

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[โ€“] dat_math@hexbear.net 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

He also doesn't know how to program (in the computer science department) so he has no concept of the actual quality of my code.

This is the biggest of the red flags, but the other communication issues seem serious as well.

Finally understands" my place in on the team, as the one who "Understands things"

This shit is equally enraging and terrifying by proxy. I'm sure this could be charitably interpreted many ways, but in context of this guy's vibecoding, this reeks of someone who would rather press the "theorem is obvious/intheliterature/leftasanexerciseforthereader" button than really engage with the work they're supervising. It's not required (and it would be weird) for your advisor to understand every aspect of your work that they supervise at the depth and facility you do, but they should feel like they broadly understand it and nearly every supporting concept involved unless your work is absurdly multidisciplinary to the extent that your advisor has never really studied computer science directly.

I was being yelled at while doing another thing that was asked for, explicitly due in 2 hours.

Yeah, this and bringing all of this up in a group meeting with other researchers where presumably the task was not to berate a student for being late is more what I was referring to about direct communication.

In my experience, to communicate issues meeting expectations (outside of maybe "lab manager" type duties that might affect everybody's work when whoever is on duty is late or fucks up), professionals only bring this stuff up in direct 1-1 meetings.

[โ€“] Blakey@hexbear.net 8 points 2 weeks ago

Even then, the criticism in a group meeting should be general and feedback for specific individuals given in private. "Guys, the hazardous materials cabinet was unlocked when I came in this morning, can the last person out double check even if they haven't used it that day?" is public feedback. "dat_math, you didn't tidy your workspace properly before leaving last night" is private feedback.