@stevenstrogatz @magrawala @duncanjwatts "No" for those who need to ask this question. 🙂
— Li-Yi Wei (@liyiwei) June 22, 2014
2014-06-22
Should you go to grad school?
2014-06-13
Vermeer geekification
One part of me wants to algorithmize everything, while another part wants to preserve the vintage of manual art, like romanticizing about an alternative universe in which light sabers can beat laser blasters.
2014-05-20
The seven year itch
Around year 2007 I collaborated with some guys on a project. After a while due to lack of progress, the project was shelved.
Earlier this year, the same group of guys contacted me about joining the project again. They found a way to rejuvenate the project just days before. It was less than 48 hours until the submission deadline, so I did not think I will be able to make enough contributions to be a co-author.
Today I am thrilled to find out that the paper has been accepted (by a top venue). This is the longest wait period among all projects I have been involved with.
Patience pays off. Good ideas often need time to mature, and might look like craps in the beginning. Store them in your mental jewel box, and they might shine in the future with the right circumstances. Avoid the temptation to publish the idea too early just because it might get scooped. An ill prepared idea, like an ill dressed person, will not get the deserved recognition and impact. And ideas easily discovered probably are not all that novel anyway.
Never give up until it is absolutely dead. Whatever considered impossible by ordinary people may be overcome by those who want to be extraordinary.
2014-04-01
Thunder swim
I find it extremely romantic and serene to swim under a thunderstorm.
So getting kicked out of the pool is like being interrupted while being in a zone.
Come on, I get wet one way or another, and I am much more likely to be killed by car commute than lightning.
2014-03-31
2014-03-19
2014-03-07
Double-edged sword
I found Bobby Fischer against the World a fascinating documentary about a particular kind of talent (chess) of a unique individual (Bobby Fischer, widely considered as the greatest chess player of all time who later self-destructed into an outcast) at a particular era (cold war, with chess being one of the competitions to showcase US/Soviet supremacy).
One interesting point pursued in the movie is about the specific type of brain that enables superior chess play may also cause certain psychological issues.
One can make a more general point in that unusual brains, as double-edged swords, can produce special talents as well as abnormal behaviors, as have been seen in geniuses across different disciplines such as musicians, artists, scientists, and mathematicians.
2014-02-22
Be different
This is likely a unique local phenomenon, but I often see these student representatives wearing suits and sitting in meetings for various organizations.
It is extremely difficult for me to understand why anyone wants to do this. Young people should dream of being different instead of rushing into conformity.
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
– Steve Jobs
2014-01-09
Tolerate only A players
Quote from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs:
You have to be ruthless if you want to build a team of A players. “It’s too easy, as a team grows, to put up with a few B players, and they then attract a few more B players, and soon you will even have some C players,” he recalled. “The Macintosh experience taught me that A players like to work only with other A players, which means you can’t indulge B players.”