I wrote this essay using MediaWiki (formerly at the address http://stargrads.net/wiki) as a proof-of-concept to see if I can write an essay or a paper online. Since I’m removing MediaWiki from this web site, I have copied its contents below… » [Expand post] [Permalink]
Archive for the 'academic writings' Category
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When I switched into quantum computing for my Ph.D. topic, one of the the first research questions that my (former) supervisor, Dr. Richard Cleve, had asked me was whether the adversary method for quantum lower bounds applied in the Hamiltonian oracle model.
The answer is “yes”… » [Expand post] [Permalink]
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Of course, I cannot speak of anyone else’s experience, but my sense is that other students of Chinese background were, like me, also pressured by their parents not to read any books outside of school. The ones I knew always seemed surprised that I was reading books all the time which were not required for school. But more importantly, their parents lead by counterexample: whenever I have visited the homes of my Chinese classmates, I have noticed that by far the majority of books on their parents’ bookshelves were of a serious technical nature. In contrast, whenever I have visited the homes of my university professors, their shelves were filled with books which, by my parents’ criteria, “had nothing to do” with their research. Similarly, the bookshelves in my non-Asian classmates’ homes were filled with fiction or books on subjects which were clearly unrelated to their parents’ work.
In my parents’ house, it was apparent which shelves belonged to my father and which belonged to me: … » [Expand post] [Permalink]
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- The causes of my depression, part 5: the Stephen Hawking incident
- The causes of my depression, part 6: how Mrs. Mallo saved my academic career
- The causes of my depression, part 9: rolling with the punches
- The causes of my depression, part 10: “the Machine”
- The causes of my depression, part 17: my “frivolous” web site and how I learned Persian
I have already written previously about how counterproductive authoritarian parenting is, but this is a fact that I simply cannot emphasise enough. Educators are always talking about the importance of encouraging children to read and write, but my parents have always discouraged me from both. Maybe this sounds unbelievable, but I think it is quite common among parents from certain cultural backgrounds. My parents dismissed anything that I read or wrote outside of what was required for school or a job or some other official purpose as “frivolous” and a “waste of time”.
My parents had mostly ignored my writings in elementary school, but I think this was because they had assumed that everything I wrote was “for school”. My father would occasionally pick up something I had written; he would frown or glare at me, or make some negative remarks, but at that time he did not order or pressure me to stop. I think his comments at the time were mostly directed at the school system for what he perceived to be a waste of my time for requiring me to write essays on topics he considered unimportant — or, even worse, fictional stories… » [Expand post] [Permalink]
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- Overcoming my writer’s block, part 1: overview
- How I managed to be so successful in high school
One of the requirements of the Ph.D. program in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo is the Comprehensive-II (Depth) requirement, which consists of a written research proposal and an accompanying oral presentation.
I have decided to write my research proposal live and online. Besides being a way to test out theories about electronic publishing as well as an excuse to experiment with the relevant technologies, I have a more personal reason for doing this.
Over the years, I have acquired a number of absolutely horrendous academic habits due to the necessity of hiding my studies from my parents, such as keeping a low profile and limiting my publishing. I would usually not even begin a project unless I believed that there was a chance I could complete it without being discovered, and would reveal it only after it was already a fait accompli… » [Expand post] [Permalink]