Daily Archives: January 21, 2011

Intolerance for ugliness

Posted on by

.

Intolerance for ugliness is not in itself enough. You have to understand a field well before you develop a good nose for what needs fixing. You have to do your homework. But as you become expert in a field, you’ll start to hear little voices saying, What a hack! There must be a better way. Don’t ignore those voices. Cultivate them. The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it.

— Paul Graham

.

.

.

2011.01.21 Friday ACHK

魔間傳奇 2.5

Posted on by

這段改篇自 2010 年 3 月 25 日的對話。

（CN：但是，我仍然想對人好。）

千萬不要對任何人都好。你對壞人好的話，就相當於對好人壞。縱容壞人做壞事，等於傷害無辜的好人。例如，第二次世界大戰時，你對希特勒好，不制止他的話，就會令到在集中營的猶太人，繼續受到殘害。

正確的態度，應該是用孔子的「以德報德；以直報怨」，而不是老子的「以德報怨」或者一般人的「以怨報怨」。

「以德報怨」和「以直報怨」有很大的分別。例如，有一個壞人破壞你的椅子。「以德報怨」的意思是，你不單不追究，而且還（例如）給他金錢上的獎勵。「以怨報怨」的意思是，你同樣破壞他的椅子，以作報復。「以直報怨」的意思是，你不會破壞他的椅子，但你要求他為他的行為負責，即是道歉和賠償。

「以德報德」，會鼓勵好人繼續做好事，應該執行。「以德報怨」，會鼓勵壞人繼續做壞事，不應執行。「以怨報怨」，會破壞社會，而且還會令到自己變成壞人的一份子，所以不應執行。「以直報怨」，可以維護公平，而且還會制止壞人繼續做壞事，所以應該執行。

— Me@2011.01.21

What you demand, you get. What you tolerate, you encourage.

— John T. Reed

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

— Edmund Burke

Habit 4: Think Win-Win or No-Deal

— The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

— Stephen R. Covey

— Me@2011.01.19

2011.01.21 Friday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

M-theory 5

Posted on by

Nomenclature

There are two issues to be dealt with here:

    * When Witten named M-theory, he did not specify what the “M” stood for, presumably because he did not feel he had the right to name a theory which he had not been able to fully describe. According to Witten himself, “‘M’ can stand for either ‘magic’, ‘mystery’, or ‘matrix’, according to taste.” According to the BBC/TLC documentary Parallel Universes, the M stands for “membrane”. Other suggestions by people such as Michio Kaku, Michael Duff and Neil Turok in that documentary are “mother” (as in “mother of all theories”), and “master” theory.

Cynics have noted that the M might be an upside down “W”, standing for Witten. Others have suggested that for now, the “M” in M-theory should stand for Missing or Murky.

2011.01.21 Friday ACHK