Dear students:
I am totally cool if you want to occupy Central, but that should not be an excuse for under performance.
Focus on your math and coding, which one day could let you occupy anywhere anytime without being seen by anyone.
🙂
September 29, 2014
Occupation
July 29, 2014
Teaching assistant
TA is a great training for presentation, communication, management, and personal skills. You have to be able to describe course materials in a way that the students can understand, and you have to balance their learning and happiness. Naturally, students want to minimize workloads while maximizing grades. Dealing with a large class (hundreds of undergrad students) is not unlike managing a mob.
It is great if one can focus exclusively on research. That is what I prefer then as a grad student and now as a prof. But without sufficient communication and personal skills, one cannot succeed even with great research skills.
To start with, a great idea is of no value if it cannot be understood and appreciated by people.
Thus, I do not consider TA a waste of time. Quite on the contrary, it is an indispensable part of research training.
July 25, 2014
Stephen King on how to write
It is striking how much the advice on fiction writing applies to technical writing and conducting research in general, despite some important differences, e.g. scientific writings should be precise instead of leaving rooms for imagination.
June 22, 2014
Should you go to grad school?
@stevenstrogatz @magrawala @duncanjwatts "No" for those who need to ask this question. 🙂
— Li-Yi Wei (@liyiwei) June 22, 2014
February 22, 2014
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
December 23, 2013
Dear Asian students
Not having to observe Western holidays is your competitive advantage. Don’t squander it.
December 1, 2013
November 24, 2013
November 8, 2013
How to do CHI rebuttal
I think the basic points are the same as with any rebuttal. The main difference between CHI/UIST and most other venues (e.g. SIGGRAPH) is the addition of meta reviews which might provide helpful summaries for rebuttal.