Link of the day: Interview with David Botstein

I really enjoyed this interview of biology professor David Botstein. I found Botstein's discussion of university-level science teaching particularly interesting. Apparently, Princeton has a special curriculum to get undergraduates excited about science while giving them a strong foundation in ideas. Botstein is one of the leaders in this effort.

Quote of the day: Conventional wisdom (Freakonomics)

I've been reading the best-selling non-fiction book, Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. I found the following quote insightful:

It was John Kenneth Galbraith, the hyper literate economic sage who coined the phrase “conventional wisdom.” He did not consider it a compliment. “We associate truth with convenience,” he wrote, “with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem.” Economic and social behavior, Galbraith continued, “are complex and to comprehend their character is mentally tiring. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding.”

h number

What is the best quantitative measure of a person's quality of research? This is an interesting problem since tenure decisions are judged by many people who don't work directly in the candidate's field. It would be good to have something like an SAT score as a benchmark.

I learned today about one promising measure called h number. As Eugene Wallingford explains, your h number is determined in the following way. Suppose you have n publications. Your h number is determined by having h publications with >= h citations each and (n-h) publications with < h citations each.

I won't bother to calculate my own h number since I have a mere two publications...

Link of the day: BumpTop

I've written before about how paper is a great organizational tool since it's light, flexible, and easily piled.

The creators of BumpTop try to emulate that feel in software. It's pretty cool, but I wonder what the graphics requirements are!

Tom Brokaw's commencement speech

My sister mentioned Tom Brokaw's commencement speech at Stanford. So I decided to have a look.

It's basically a call for young people to embrace tradition and to steer away from seductive on-demand entertainment world of music, internet, and video.

There are some major problems with Brokaw's speech. Parents expect their children to matriculate at great universities (like Stanford) and more importantly, they expect a return on their investment. A college education is damn expensive and you can't exactly go galloping off to Africa to help poor people if your parents paid $120,000 for college. What is the ratio of parents who desire their children to become lawyers and doctors versus the parents who want their children to work in a relief organization? Brokaw himself (ironically) states that today's grandfathers had their college education funded by the GI Bill.

I also find insulting Brokaw's insinuation that the majority of young people walk around oblivious to the world -- constantly wired to a virtual world. I'm just a few years older than the class of 2006 and I don't feel corrupted. There is certainly an infatuation period with new technology but it doesn't last for long. Young people have always spent their time in ways that disappoint their elders.

And I find it arrogant that Brokaw spends all his time discussing examples of public service that are related to going abroad. What about raising good children, building a community at the workplace, or just giving your best? The "small stuff" is just as important, maybe more so. Personally, I find it really dissatisfying to run any large operation with an iffy purpose. I'd rather accomplish minor, focused objectives and do them well. I think it's better to start a small-scale operation, to improve yourself and those around you first.

Opera 9 released!!

The official update of my favorite web browser just got released. I haven't had much time to play with it, but I'll make a few comments.

The widgets are kind of cute, but I'm not sure how useful they are. There is a nice weather widget and a Pandora widget. Apparently, widgets are a big hit in Mac OS X.

I really like the fast forward command. By pressing "SPACE", the browser will automatically search for the most likely "next" page. This seems to work for some sites (e.g. picture galleries and Tom's Hardware articles), but unfortunately, not on New York Times articles. Though imperfect, it still beats clicking or searching for the link "next".

There is now a trash can so that if you accidentally close a tab, you can retrieve it. You can also open webpages in the background. This is especially useful if you're reading the news and want to quickly scan a page (like Bloglines) and open a bunch of articles but not leave the page you're reading. It saves a lot of "CTRL-TAB"ing. The command is invoked by either middle-clicking, CTRL+SHIFT+click, or CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER on a link.

You can also save sessions! This is useful if you want to save all the tabs you opened and don't have time to read them at the moment.

A minor annoyance: I get confused now because to open a new tab, you use "CTRL+T" instead of "CTRL+N". I guess the change is to put Opera in line with other browsers like Firefox.

For more information about the new Opera 9 features, see this link.

Link of the day: Paper airplane building

This article sounds like a fun diversion on a rainy day.

Song of the day: "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens"

A lively and jazzy fun piece!

One night Farmer Brown,
Was takin' the air,
Locked up the barnyard
With the greatest of care
Down in the henhouse
Somethin' stirred
When he shouted "Who's there?"
This is what he heard:

There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So calm yourself,
And stop your fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
We chickens tryin' to sleep,
And you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble
With your chin

There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
You're stompin' around
And shakin' the ground,
You're kickin' up an awful dust
We chicken's tryin' to sleep
And you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble
It's a sin

Tomorrow
Is a busy day
We got things to do
We got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig
And worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin'
Gettin' chicks to hatch

There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself,
And stop your fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
Kindly point that gun,
The other way
And hobble, hobble hobble off and
Hit the hay

Tomorrow
Is a busy day
We got things to do
We got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig
And worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin'
Gettin' chicks to hatch

There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself,
And stop your fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
Kindly point that gun,
The other way
And hobble, hobble hobble of and
Hit the hay

"Hey boss man
What do ya say?"

It's easy pickens,
Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Tech: Text editor "Cream"

I'm an emacs user (not a particularly proficient one), but I'm interested in learning vi, the longtime archrival to emacs. Supposedly, most people use vim nowadays as it is a modern update to vi (VIM stands for "Vi IMproved"). Today I learned about a new text editor which is supposed to be a more user-friendly version of vim, called Cream -- available for Windows, GNU/Linux, and FreeBSD! For more details, see this article.

Song of the day: "Free" by Stephen Sondheim

I love the wit and thoughtfulness of this song. It was written in the 1960s just when Sondheim was starting to write his own musicals. The quality of this song shows what a genius Sondheim was, even back then.

From A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

PSEUDOLUS:
I often thought,
I often dreamed how it would be--
And yet I never thought I'd be--
Once again.

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
But when you come to think of such things,
A man should have the rights that all others--
Can you imagine what it will be like when I am--
Can you see me?
Can you see me as a Roman with my head unbowed?
Sing it good and loud!

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
Like a Roman having rights and like a Roman proud?
Can you see me?

HERO:
I can see you.

PSEUDOLUS:
Can you see me, a reformer fighting graft and vice?
Sing it soft and nice!

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
Why, I'll be so conscientious that I may vote twice!
Can you see me?
Can you see me?
When I'm free to be whatever I want to be,
Think what wonders I'll accomplish then!
When the master that I serve is me and just me--
Can you see me being equal with my countrymen?
Can you see me being Pseudolus the citizen?
Can you see me being--give it to me once again--

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
Yes!

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
That's it!

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
Now, not so fast!
I didn't think--
The way I am,
I have a roof, three meals a day,
And I don't have to pay a thing.
I'm just a slave and everything's free.
If I were free, then nothing would be free!
And if I'm beaten now and then, what does it matter?

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
Can you see me?
Can you see me as a poet writing poetry?
All my verse will be--

HERO:
Free.

PSEUDOLUS:
A museum will have me pickled for posterity.
Can you see me?

HERO:
I can see you.

PSEUDOLUS:
Can you see me as a lover, one of great renown?
Women falling down--

HERO:
Free?

PSEUDOLUS:
No.
But I'll buy the house of Lycus for my house in town.
Can you see me?
Can you see me?
Be you anything from king to baker of cakes,
You're a vegetable unless you're free.
Such a little word, but oh, the difference it makes!
It's the necessary essence of democracy,
It's the thing that every slave should have the right to be,
And I soon will have the right to buy a slave for me.
Can you see him?
Well, I'll free him!
When a Pseudolus can move, the universe shakes,
But I'll never move until I'm free.
Such a little word, but oh, the difference it makes!
I'll be Pseudolus, the founder of a family,
I'll be Pseudolus, the pillar of society,
I'll be Pseudolus the man, if I can only be--

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
Sing it!

HERO:
Free!

PSEUDOLUS:
Spell it!

HERO:
F-r- double--

PSEUDOLUS:
No, the long way!

HERO:
F-r-e-e!

PSEUDOLUS and HERO:
Free!

Virtual checklist

It looks like quite a few people use checklists. There's even one online called Joe's Goals. You can grade yourself based on how many good habits you fulfill and how many bad habits you succumb to.

Rob Gonsalves paintings

I found this link of M.C. Escher-like, surreal paintings via Ramit Sethi's finance blog. The artist is apparently Rob Gonsalves and many of the images in the link are from his two picture books, "Imagine a Day" and "Imagine a Night".

Link of the day: Astronomy Picture of the Day

I've known about the "astronomy picture of the day" site for a while, but today I found out that it has an RSS feed!

It seems like a nice idea, the physics analogy of the "one-word-a-day" method to building vocabulary.

Physicists discuss tablet PCs

Following up on my previous mention of tablet PCs, Dave Bacon and Gordon Watts have posted blog entries describing their experiences with tablet PCs. It sounds like tablet PCs are a very neat tool, but not quite refined enough yet for mainstream use.

Quote of the day: David Milch, creator of Deadwood

The world does not begin or end with the expiration of any living thing. It just becomes an exercise in bitterness or self-congratulation.

- David Milch in response to the near cancellation of Deadwood

Future project: Memory skills

When I have time, I'd like to improve my memory skills, maybe starting with this book by Lorayne and Lucas.

Optimum level of cleanliness

How neat should you keep your desk/home? On one hand, a certain level of cleanliness is required so that you can be organized and find everything. I also feel like if you wake up in a clean bedroom, it sets a good tone for the day. On the other hand, you don't want to be obsessively cleaning all the time because 1) it becomes inefficient after you reach the level of "good enough" and 2) you want to leave things in the such a state that you can rapidly pick up where you left off. It's like a mental bookmark. You leave your book on the page you were reading and the relevant scraps of notes nearby. But you should not leave random piles of paper on your desk that have nothing to do with the project you were last working on. The idea is to always maintain the focus on what you want to do next. This is one of the ideas behind GTD: focus on one task at a time, but keep yourself organized enough that you see the big picture (by filing things properly and doing periodic reviews).

For some additional perspective, you can read Malcolm Gladwell's article "The Social Life of Paper," which I have previously mentioned in this blog.

Share your library online

Now, besides sharing your photos via Flickr and your links via del.icio.us, you can show off your book collection at LibraryThing! For more details, read this Christian Science Monitor article.

Review: Ultimate Gretzky

I really enjoyed watching a DVD documentary on Wayne Gretzky yesterday.

The story of the "Great One" was really inspiring. It really drives home the point that you have to be passionate about what you do to be the best, and also a little selfish, but hopefully not too selfish.

Gretzky is certainly a classy athlete especially for a hockey player.

I also really liked watching the footage of Gretzky playing hockey in front of the TV with his mother as the goal keeper. And apparently, his dad would have him watch TV while following the puck with a pen on paper. His dad said that his goal was to develop Wayne's peripheral vision and that he doesn't believe in talent -- he thinks you can learn these skills.

I like to think of hockey and physics as very much the same thing. They both require competitiveness, persistence, drive, and mental toughness. Just like there is a Wayne Gretzky in hockey, it is possible to be successful in a competitive job without being a jerk. You don't have to become the bigshot scientist who drives his/her grad students to insanity and walks over his/her rivals.

Link of the day: Are you a noisy complainer?

In this article from the Stanford alumni magazine (sent to me by my sister), two Stanford professors discuss how to manage an organization effectively. Check out the two tables at the bottom on the "attitudes and talents of wisdom."