Physical, especially boutique, bookstores are a rare species nowadays, and I am glad to walk into one today and serendipitously browsed Impossible is Nothing: China’s Theater of Consumerism.
November 21, 2021
November 19, 2021
Waiting area after vaccination
Flu shot in one arm
Covid booster another
Still little I felt
November 18, 2021
Butterfly effect of small initial unbalance
Part of my body is now made of titanium.
Despite the discipline and care I have maintained, there will always be random deviations that started small but eventually amplified to visible unbalances.
Fortunately, this particular issue could be resolved via mechanical instead of biochemical means.
But something will get me eventually, as nobody lives forever.
November 15, 2021
The downside of globalization
Listened to this podcast today, which highlighted the importance of help transitioning those left behind by technological and economical upheavals for social and political benefits.
Persistence
Persistence (grit, tenacity) is perhaps the quality that I admired the most from a person, who has a strong desire to achieve something without ever giving up.
(Sometimes I wonder if I have too little desire, like a monk.)
November 14, 2021
Advice from my 80-year-old self
I often talk to an imaginary 88-year-old self for advices as a way to elicit answers that I already have in mind.
November 13, 2021
Moral judgement on the two sides of the same coin
There are situations where one activity receives lower moral judgement than another, such as spending and saving, resting and working, consumption and production, which are actually two sides of the same coin and can only co-exist together.
November 12, 2021
Career corner cutting
I have seen people cutting corners and playing little tricks for the sake of advancing their careers, but none of them, even without getting caught, have become very successful.
Maybe they shift their energy away from what they should really focus on, or they are not very confident about their character, ability, or effort.
And once they start on the wrong path, they tend to get caught up in a downward spiral without being able to get back on the right track.
At the end of the day, how we do things matters more than what we have done, and I would prefer achieving a little less than doing something that I know is not right.
November 11, 2021
Award nomination
A few years back, someone asked me to nominate him/her for the SIGGRAPH significant new researcher award. At that time I found the conduct questionable, so I consulted with my PhD adviser, who told me that I should not incur any potential benefits or conflict-of-interests from the nomination. For example, an advisee receiving an award could potentially enhance the reputation of the adviser. A corollary is that the nomination should be anonymous, for which the nominee shouldn’t even be aware of being nominated (not to mention soliciting) as otherwise it is a form of doing favor.
In the end, I still did the nomination due to institutional pressure, but in retrospect I found the entire experience lame, and that person did not win the award anyway.
Today another individual asked me to nominate him/her for a research award, with whom I shared the above story.
I believe someone who deserves an award would not care about it.
I am not following baseball, but the most memorable event in MLB is when Ichiro Suzuki turned down a prestigious award, multiple times.