Monthly Archive for May, 2009

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The very first words I have ever knowingly said to a Nobel Laureate

Published by davinci on May 13, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

(Warning: there is some mature language in this post.)

This is another out-of-order post in my autobiographical series. I had left it out previously because it didn’t really have anything to do with my depression or my current situation, but I thought I’d post it since I’d already written it, and it’s somewhat amusing.

In an academic environment, one encounters all sorts of famous and interesting people. Nobel laureates visit universities to give talks all the time, but in such situations it’s sometimes not so easy to have a tête-à-tête or a meeting with only a few others present.

The first time that I knowingly met a Nobel laureate occurred while I was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, and happened outside of academe. In fact, I was just shopping for groceries… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

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Being socially active is important to academic success

Published by davinci on May 11, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

I had originally written the material in this post as a part of the ongoing series on the causes of my depression. I had taken this material out because it had made the high school section of my chronology far too long, and also because I didn’t think the details were that relevant to the theme of the series. However, as I was writing the next post in the series, which was to be about my experiences in graduate school, I realised that a lot of it didn’t make sense except in comparison with my high school experiences. I have therefore cobbled some of the material back together into this post.

I am not including this post in the ongoing series numbering primarily because it is out of chronological order, but also because I think its theme is important enough that the post should stand on its own. There is a widespread belief that intelligence and sociability are inversely correlated; gifted children are commonly stereotyped as being socially awkward and unpopular, especially in high school. I not only think that this stereotype is untrue, I think it is perniciously harmful. It is especially harmful in the case of gifted adolescents of Asian descent, who are basically hit with the double whammy of being stereotyped as socially awkward for two different reasons… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. How I managed to be so successful in high school
  2. The causes of my depression, part 6: how Mrs. Mallo saved my academic career
  3. The causes of my depression, part 15: the most important thing I did in undergrad
  4. My academic and personal background
  5. Why children should be allowed to study whatever they want to study
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The causes of my depression, part 18: my parents blamed me for 9/11

Published by davinci on May 8, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

My parents had been attacking me for years for observing that religion would once again become important in global affairs, that the post-Cold War division of the world would be into blocs defined by religion and culture, and that in particular the resurgence of Islam would have a large part to play in this. Their reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the way they began to treat me thereafter, perfectly illustrate the enormous gulf between traditional Chinese culture and the culture of science.

In science, progress is made through the elimination of faulty hypotheses which are discarded whenever they are shown not to agree with observations of reality. Science therefore demands certain traits of its practitioners: the readiness to alter one’s opinions, no matter how deeply held, when they are contradicted by incoming evidence; and the willingness to admit one’s errors. An individual scientist may be unwilling to abandon a pet theory, but for the most part, science celebrates the desertion of wrong ideas; when one studies the history of science, the really major discoveries have been hailed as such precisely because they overturned previously cherished beliefs. These traits are not only lacking in traditional Chinese culture — which values obedience, harmony, reverence for authority, and the concept of “face” — but are actually antithetical to it… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. My depression in Waterloo, part 2: role reversal and sacrifice
  2. My depression in Waterloo, part 3: my Master’s degree in computer science
  3. My depression in Waterloo, part 5: feeling “unworthy”
  4. My depression in Waterloo, part 10: disowned
  5. My depression in Waterloo, part 11: the biggest regret of my life
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The causes of my depression, part 17: my “frivolous” web site and how I learned Persian

Published by davinci on May 7, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

When I entered graduate school to study discrete-event control systems, I once again put up a web site with my interests and my writings. As a part of that, I experimented with automatic translation, but the state of the technology was pretty poor at the time, and so it didn’t work out. What I ended up with was a web site with sections in four languages — English, Chinese, Klingon, and Hindi — and different content in each.

I featured a number of projects on the web site which had nothing to do with school… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The causes of my depression, part 19: the demographics of my graduate school labmates
  2. My depression in Waterloo, part 2: role reversal and sacrifice
  3. The causes of my depression, part 4: the Mentorship Program
  4. The causes of my depression, part 10: “the Machine”
  5. The causes of my depression, part 15: the most important thing I did in undergrad
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The causes of my depression, part 16: choosing my major

Published by davinci on May 7, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In the third year of Engineering Science, I had to make plans for graduate school. The program was divided into a number of options (now called “majors”, which is basically what they are), and I chose Computer Engineering. Unfortunately, it would be two years before the Nanoengineering option became available, although there was a lot of buzz about it at the time. If it had been available, I might have chosen it, as it would have allowed me to study some topics closely related to the construction of quantum computers.

But since that option was not yet available, I turned my attention to control systems. This allowed me to learn more about finite state automata and computational complexity, as well as certain topics in mathematics and physics, in a context which was acceptable to my parents. I was concerned that if they realised I was going to study some of the subjects which they had previously dismissed as “worthless” and “irrelevant” to my future, they would continually distract me with their criticisms and prevent me from continuing my studies. Fortunately, that did not happen — at least for a while.

– davinci

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The causes of my depression, part 9: rolling with the punches
  2. The causes of my depression, part 11: nothing in common with classmates
  3. The causes of my depression, part 8: a “prestigious” degree
  4. The causes of my depression, part 19: the demographics of my graduate school labmates
  5. The causes of my depression, part 2: my high school predictions about the future
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The causes of my depression, part 15: the most important thing I did in undergrad

Published by davinci on May 6, 2009 in autobiography, personal and social issues. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I was actually very disappointed with what officially passed for “interfaith dialogue” at the university. I believe very strongly that one of the roles, if not the primary role, of a university education is to teach critical thinking skills and to inculcate the habit of subjecting truth-claims to skeptical scrutiny. But I observed all sorts of ostensibly university-educated people making claims which, I think, they quite frankly ought to have been embarrassed about; they were either flat-out self-contradictory or obviously wrong, or could have easily been verified to be so by a quick trip to the library.

I set out to unofficially rectify this situation by engaging in conversations with a lot of people of various religions… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The causes of my depression, part 17: my “frivolous” web site and how I learned Persian
  2. Being socially active is important to academic success
  3. Overcoming my writer’s block, part 6: communications technologies and their effects on global politics
  4. The causes of my depression, part 13: leading a double life
  5. The causes of my depression, part 7: my mother’s selfishness
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The causes of my depression, part 14: meditation and other Buddhist activities

Published by davinci on May 5, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

My social circle during my undergraduate years consisted mostly of people who were connected in one way or another with my interest in religion. I converted to Buddhism and became the President of the Buddhist Student Association — a long and interesting story which I may tell in later posts. There are, however, a few items related to my depression, and to my efforts to overcome my parents’ attempts to destroy my scientific career, which I will relate here.

Because of my association with Buddhism, I began to meditate regularly. In fact, I took part in organising regular meditation sessions at the university. The practice gave me the strength to cope with my parents’ abuse. Naturally, as soon as they discovered what I was doing, they started to attack me for (what else?) “wasting my time”… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The causes of my depression, part 19: the demographics of my graduate school labmates
  2. My depression in Waterloo, part 5: feeling “unworthy”
  3. The causes of my depression, part 18: my parents blamed me for 9/11
  4. My depression in Waterloo, part 10: disowned
  5. My depression in Waterloo, part 8: disguising my research
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The causes of my depression, part 13: leading a double life

Published by davinci on May 4, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I mentioned earlier that I lived essentially two separate lives in my undergraduate years. My life outside of the classroom was an attempt to continue to do the things that my parents had tried to prevent me from doing. Because I could not focus on studying theoretical computer science or physics, for the reasons explained previously, I turned my attention to what I believed would be happening in the near future in the Muslim world. I sat in on classes in history, religion, and languages, though I did not take them officially because I did not want my parents to see these courses on my transcript. There were a few people who knew that I was doing all of these things in additional to being in Engineering Science, and they always expressed amazement that I was able to pull it off. But I don’t think that this was actually all that impressive… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. My depression in Waterloo, part 11: the biggest regret of my life
  2. The causes of my depression, part 8: a “prestigious” degree
  3. The causes of my depression, part 10: “the Machine”
  4. The causes of my depression, part 11: nothing in common with classmates
  5. The causes of my depression, part 3: “stop wasting money on worthless books”
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The causes of my depression, part 12: my grandmother’s death

Published by davinci on May 3, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

A major blow to my ability to concentrate on my studies came when my grandmother passed away.

I was taking Stephen Cook’s course on Computational Complexity and Computability at the time. In high school, when I was studying the exact same topics covered by the course, my father had called them “worthless” and had told me that if I didn’t stop “wasting my time” on them then I would never get into graduate school. And when I had defended myself by telling him that Gödel’s theorems and the P vs. NP problem were among some of the most important ideas in computer science, he screamed at me, “Then why haven’t I heard of them?”… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The causes of my depression, part 11: nothing in common with classmates
  2. The causes of my depression, part 8: a “prestigious” degree
  3. The causes of my depression, part 7: my mother’s selfishness
  4. The causes of my depression, part 9: rolling with the punches
  5. The causes of my depression, part 6: how Mrs. Mallo saved my academic career
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The causes of my depression, part 11: nothing in common with classmates

Published by davinci on May 2, 2009 in autobiography and personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Though I hadn’t realised this at the time, by far the most damaging part of being in the wrong program in the long term was that I had essentially nothing in common with any of my classmates. I’ve heard that it is not unusual for people to form lifelong friendships during their undergraduate years, but I barely interacted with anyone else in the program. Their goals were completely different from mine, as were their attitudes towards learning.

While there were a few guys at the top of the class who were actually passionate about some specific subject, most of the rest of the class wanted only to memorise enough equations, and for long enough, to pass their tests and do well on their assignments. More than once, I have heard, “What are you still studying that for? We don’t need to know that any more (or, until the final exam).” I suppose that this isn’t a problem specific to engineering… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The causes of my depression, part 8: a “prestigious” degree
  2. The causes of my depression, part 9: rolling with the punches
  3. The causes of my depression, part 10: “the Machine”
  4. The causes of my depression, part 1: a summary of the present situation
  5. The causes of my depression, part 4: the Mentorship Program
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