degrees of geniuses

Cornell University mathematician Mark Kac once made a well-known distinction when he describes Feynman:

"There are two kinds of geniuses: the "ordinary" and the "magicians". An ordinary genius is a fellow whom you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery as to how his mind works. Once we understand what they've done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians. Even after we understand what they have done it is completely dark. Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest calibre."

To some, this distinction hits the mark. For them, the ordinary genius is an understandable genius whereas the "magician" has an unfathomable mind.

I have not gone that far. From my experience, there are 2 types of geniuses: reachable geniuses and unreachable geniuses. Reachable geniuses are people whom I can strive towards. They are role models; my best possible outcome, attainable only if I put in the extra hours, the extra effort, and possibly giving everything else up (e.g. other commitments, CCAs, interests). I may or may not be able to achieve their level of practice and mastery, but my "infrastructure" is there. I can actually become like one of them, though it is likely that I cannot achieve this eventually.

And then there're the unreachable geniuses. These geniuses are totally out of my league, way above my maximum potential. Even if I give everything up, strive to achieve what these geniuses have achieved, I can never ever do so. In terms of understanding and applying newly-learnt concepts, they require just a click or a brainwave, but I would have to mull for days on end on what the concept is about and how it is used. These people are fundamental betters; trying to catch up is futile.

It is when we recognise all these that we realise the realm of competition. When we compete against others, we only pit ourselves against reachable geniuses, not unreachable geniuses. Ignoring the rest, we try to outwit, outperform, outlast our "equals". We are only minions, clawing and gnawing amongst our puny, Laputian selves, amusing the Brobdingnagians who stand, laughing, at our over-inflated pride and contemptible character. 勾心斗角。Even if say, I win, I'm only the winner of that narrow spectrum, myopic, ignorant of the larger world, the bigger picture. This is the nature of competition.

But it is this realisation of the nature of competition that leads to the transcendence of competition. There is no more incentive to compete. Then comes the drive to enrich oneself, to have fun, to share what one has learnt. There is willingness to view the world larger than oneself, and not oneself larger than the world.

Competition fades into the background, the humdrum of the modern existence, like the constant whirr of a ceiling fan-- observable but hardly significant.




The following text has nothing to do with the above text. non sequitur.


Math soc presentation was great today. Our PTM (peer teaching module) group had 6 people, but 4 didn't come i.e. wasn't involved, leaving Ding Feng and I to scramble to find a suitable topic and present it to Math Soc in 4 days time. We contemplated doing many, many topics, but in the end, decided to do Philosophy of Math, something no one would have expected or have experience in. The presentation was smooth. Apparently no one was listening, but Ding Feng and I talked and talked, telling lame jokes, alluding to the Math pros, asking for participation in discussions. Great job Ding Feng for coming up with the powerpoint and the entire "beauty in mathematics".

Astro club had Amyas lecturing. After that I went for dinner with astro people, talked about KI with Amyas (philo of math :), sang a bit of chinese songs. Jie Liang, Daniel, Kevin and I. We were sitting around talking about random stuff. Aaron got tickets for drama feste so away he goes..

I realise that Ivan Loh is actually very nice and helpful if you ask him about Math, and if you're not deterred by his fast explanations. He didn't mind my incessant "obvious" questions, answering and rephrasing again and again until I get it. Perhaps he might be my "confidant" in Maths in the future.

sleeping now

Sleeping quite late every day. There always seems to be something to do, some more to do. Today's been a long long long day. At NUS at 10 for SRP aptitude test (not so good, +studying since the night before), piano at 12+ (late), rugby match at 3 (didn't play, haiz), astro talk by Prof Jocelyn Bell at 6 (no stargazing session after that because of inclement weather, sadly). And I make lots and lots of resolutions: 1. to be able to interpret questions fast and do more physics, 2. practise more piano, 3. train myself for rugby, 4. study more astro to prep for NUS-NTU astrochallenge. I realise that I'm actually already trying to do all of this... but I guess I would have to prioritize.

I was mistaken for a person who hails from China yet again.

And Bb is top in the house standings. Impossible. Incredible.
Analysis:
1. Buckley is RI's traditional last.
2. Buckle isn't doing so well either in RGS.
therefore BB is currently top in the house standings.

Disgust and dismay for being the last in RI release the oppressed spirited fire when we reach RJ, the land of opportunities, the place with a clean slate, with a renewed hope. And here we are, top.

1. There was once when Buckley was/ is last, Buckle was last.
2. That batch of Bb-ians went to RJ
3. They won the house championships.
4.
Therefore, BB will ??? the house championships? Maybe.

Meanwhile, congrats to gaby for winning writer's guild. Told you that your writing style's stellar!!... You deserve to win (though I haven't seen your poem/ prose).

OG still very alive, meeting in school before assembly. Have mugging sessions. Do things together. You guys are great.

Random. Maybe just plain Sleepy. 前后呼应。goodnite.

RSN amazing race, others

Can't believe that my team actually got 2nd in Raffles Science Network (RSN) amazing race, in which we have to complete tasks at stations, get clues (anagrams) for the next station, and go to the next station to complete yet another set of tasks and so on. Joel Kek was with me as well as Nancy and Amy who are in J2. You could really tell that the race was fun because Nancy and Amy (apparently good friends and themselves voluble and loud in a huiyaoish way) were complaining incessantly amongst themselves before it started... by the time we finished the 1st station, lo and behold, they were enthusiastic about completing the next station already.

The tasks were surprisingly but thankfully relatively simple to complete. Maths Soc station was about 1. stringing a given set of numbers to obtain a specific objective number, and 2. finding the inherent flaws of the false mathematical paradoxes. Very interesting; we actually scored quite well for the first section. Medical Soc was a traditional pen-and-paper test... tikamed a lot. We had to collect items for astro's scavenger hunt, which was rather interesting. Bio Soc was a race against time as we had to answer questions to guess a word, with a letter of a secret word revealed every 3 consecutive questions answered correctly (screwed if you answer 3 wrongly). Sadly, the word "cerebellum" did not cross our minds. Nevertheless, we completed elements-stringing-into-words for Alchem fairly well, and proceeded on to the electronics station, where we racked our brains to determine the exact placing of resistors in an unrevealed box with 4 points where crocodile wires can be placed. To no avail. In the end, only the great Amyas (who set the question) could do; none of the participants actually completed the task.

BB eventually won 2nd, and BW 1st.

Math Olympiad Training on Monday was random, with IMO questions given to solve. I sat there stunned as Mr Lu kept saying "obvious", "naturally" (Huiyao: sir, not that natural leh) while explaining solutions, while some nodded their heads in enlightenment, while I didn't understand much. Intend to carry on though... hopefully next week would not be a repeat of today.

Met a few tutors for the past few days. All are of high standard. The GP tutor is particularly impressive: she is highly articulate, slightly wry, good at suanning, worked as a journalist in the Straits Times, and naturally has connections with the people in this field. Sounds good. I really need to progress full speed for GP since my starting point's so low.

“Diametric” opposites

Student / Working adult

At the cusp of JC life and perhaps adulthood, I think myself as a youngster. I am a carefree boy who cares about results, who friends me, whether I can play sports well, and whatnot. Naturally, the thought of being an adult in just a few years time irks me. Just as Gabriel said,

“I am ambivalent of being an adult. On one hand, I want to be a grown-up. On the other hand, you are out of this easy system of exams and playing, going headlong into complicated adult…”

“stuff.” I interjected.

“It’s kind of nostalgic being in secondary school.” Gabriel mused, while some secondary school girls behind gossiped about school, about their parents, and about themselves.

Yet I know I must be a grown-up soon, because I’ve used up almost all my money today and cannot spend as I wish.

Aspirations / Earning money

I wonder if I would ever take the easy route, earning money and never thinking of contributing to the world. It seems obvious—this current moment—that my aspirations are much more crucial. But recent experience with the lack of money inevitably means that this might be a major concern in future. The allure of a leisurely and affluent lifestyle, and the power of spending (i.e. consumerism), may prove too great. I’m afraid that I may just abandon my ambition and target in life, do the easy thing that, albeit giving instant gratification short-term, ends in emptiness filled with regret.

Does it always have to be diametric opposites? Can it be like a dialectic, thesis and antithesis, eventually emerging as a synthesis?—a compromise as well as the best of both worlds.

workworkwork

RE work: not looking good at all...
Chem work for CCT: 1/4 done
Physics work for IJPO: bad bad bad; don't even talk about it
English Portfolio: thought of theme, but haven't really sat down and slog it out...

I wonder (aloud) whether wenjie has a blog-- his list would definitely be longer

complain: too much holidays

There’s something wrong, wrong, wrong about school. As our very much revered TPH rightly puts it, “这个学期有十个星期，你说上几个星期的课?” Although that was a rhetorical question, he answered it anyway, “我看有足足有三个星期放假！” (exasperated wry smiles). It’s a nail on the head, though. School’s so “in and out”, brief and not at all intense, like a stuttering engine which would extend its insistence and existence way past the start of our traditional holidays. School-going is no longer a continuous, flowing process of learning, or rote-learning, or spoon-feeding, it’s highly interrupted, slack and almost non-existent.

The very purpose of school lessons, I feel, is to teach us societal conventions and conventional information in as quick a way as possible. So it’s chop chop information cramming in school, and after you’re left at home at your own devises. There you can engage yourselves in independent, critical thinking, read out of curriculum, explore the world… do whatever your heart tells you to!

But now they’re placing so much holidays in between that there’re no lessons—then where to get the teaching and learning done? Do it myself? A good solution… precisely what I’m doing now. But I want to be able to do whatever I like, so either I don’t care much about the tested topics or I care about them and try to get all the information I require. Let’s say I’m a good boy and commit to the latter, the next question to ask is: what do I look through? Which fact do I concentrate on and mull over? Which one do I just take at face value and gloss over? Unless you’re a genius (which I’m not), we would want structured lessons that tell us all these so that we’re not that tied down to exams, and can do whatever we want easier.

Perhaps I’m being too reliant on spoon-feeding, rote-learning. Or perhaps I assume that lessons are in fact very useful. I’m assuming wrongly, lessons aren’t useful. Many teachers don’t teach properly, they don’t give enough information, they don’t explain and enlighten. Nowadays there’re “peer-teaching”, “discussions” (useless unless it’s lit), creative and “thought-provoking” videos and slides which seem educational but never convey new insights or information. Lessons aren’t that spoon-feeding anymore too.

I’m ranting. It shouldn’t matter whether there’s teaching, there’re lessons or lack thereof. I just have to accept things and move on.