Category Archives: Books

Portal

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時空幻境 3

Portal is a 2007 single-player first-person puzzle-platform video game developed by Valve Corporation.

The game primarily comprises a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and simple objects using “the handheld portal device”, a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes.

By Kaini [CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

The game’s unique physics allows momentum to be retained through portals, requiring creative use of portals to maneuver through the test chambers.

— Wikipedia on Portal (video game)

2012.04.21 Saturday ACHK

明不明白, 2.1

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這段改編自 2010 年 3 月 20 日的對話。

我以前提過，有一本書叫做「I am a Strange Loop」。書內研究的其中一個要點是，怎樣才為之「明白」？

作者發現，在很大程度上，「明白」就是「比喻」。

（安：什麼意思？）

你試想想，我們學習新東西時，在什麼情況下，才有「明白」的感覺呢？

第一種情況是，把新東西表達成舊東西。例如，「3 乘以 2」為什麼會等如「6」呢？

那是因為「乘」的意思是，把同一個數，加很多次：

3 x 2 = 3 + 3 = 6

第二種情況是，把新東西反覆背誦和運用，令到自己對它熟練到，成為一個習慣為止。那樣，即使沒有任何實質的理解，你也會有「明白」的幻覺。例如，小時候你背誦了「乘數表」，所以你覺得自己明白，為何「九八七十二」。

9 x 8 = 72

但是，你之所以「明白」，並不是因為，你曾經把「9 x 8」化成加數，真正如實地運算「9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 9」。

第三種情況是，把新東西類比成熟悉的事物。例如，如果你教一個小孩「物質是由粒子組成的」，他可能會一頭霧水。要他「明白」的話，你可以試試這樣說：

物質，是由一些超微小的彈珠（波子）組成的。那些超微小的彈珠，叫做「粒子」。

（安：第三種情況，可以看成第一種的一個特例，因為它都是把未知的東西，翻譯成已知的事物。）

可以這樣說。但是，第一種中的翻譯，是「解釋」；而第三種的，是「比喻」。或者我這樣分比較好：

第一種「明白」，是通過「解釋」而得來的。

第二種是通過「熟習」。

第三種是用「比喻」。

我現在想集中討論的，是第三種情況。

— Me@2012.03.13

2012.03.13 Tuesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Douglas Hofstadter

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Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American academic whose research focuses on consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is best known for his book Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, first published in 1979, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and the National Book Award for Science.

Hofstadter has said that he feels “uncomfortable with the nerd culture that centers on computers”. He admits that “a large fraction [of his audience] seems to be those who are fascinated by technology”, but when it was suggested that his work “has inspired many students to begin careers in computing and artificial intelligence” he replied that he was pleased about that, but that he himself has “no interest in computers.”

— Wikipedia on Douglas Hofstadter

2012.03.10 Saturday ACHK

Meta-teacher

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Meta 1.2 | Recursion 9.2

如何拯救眾生 3

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Now, the common paradigm is that the teacher-student ratio is critical — fewer students means higher-quality teaching. But if you turn your students into teachers, you gain leverage. You move the fulcrum over.

– The 8th Habit p. 32, by Stephen Covey

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2008.10.24 Friday ACHK

Index notation

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Symmetries are the result of a redundant, but useful, description of a theory.

In fact, one of the main uses of index notation is just to manifest the symmetry.

— Fields

— Warren Siegel

Siegel authored an extensive (885pg) textbook called Fields, now in its 3rd edition. It is notable in that it follows a very modern approach and incorporates many topics (including string theory) not found in other field theory textbooks. He advocates a “symmetry-based” approach and uses this in his Quantum Field Theory I&II classes. The textbook is also notable in that it is completely an “electronic book” and can be downloaded for free from Siegel’s website.

— Wikipedia on Warren Siegel

2012.02.05 Sunday ACHK

種子論起點 7

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網誌時代 11.2 | Writer’s block 3 | 缺乏寫作靈感 3

這段改編自 2010 年 3 月 20 日的對話。

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我發現，發表文章作品的滿足感極大，即使我的所謂「文章」，往往也只是引用他人，精警的一兩句。2007 年 4 月，我在 WordPress 開設了自己的網誌。雖然根據點擊率的統計，閱讀我網誌的人很少，但是，地球上只要有一個人用心研習，我就不算是浪費時間。還有，只要我的網誌一路存在，就一路有機會，吸引到新的讀者。

到了去年（2009）十二月，我企圖開始寫一些，長一點的文章。但是，我覺得困難非常。一方面，我不知道寫什麼題材較好。另一方面，即使指定了某一個題材，我都不知道應該從何寫起。幸好，我想起以前看過的一本書，名叫《Succeeding》。作者是 John T. Reed。

該書提過一個機械程序技巧，就是把你想講的東西，先講給一位朋友聽。對話時記住錄音。然後，只要把那些錄音，筆錄成文字，你就「自動」創作了很多篇文章。這個方法有起碼兩個好處。第一，我的文章選材問題會，自動消失。第二，由錄音抄錄而成的文字，通常也較憑空寫成的文章通順，因為，如果你的講話內容中，有唐突的地方，你的朋友會當場指正。

我在今年年初開始，就用這個「錄音抄錄」方法，重新啟動我的 Google Blogger 網誌，定期發表文章，定期寫信給未來人。

我這個故事的重點是，我並不是由一個，原本完全不寫網誌的人，突然間變成一位，定期寫網誌的博客。那其實是一個，循序漸進的過程。我剛「開始」寫網誌時，我並不意識到「我正在寫網誌」。我亦沒有這個意圖。相反，我當時覺得「寫網誌」是，浪費時間的東西，應該盡量避免。如果你問我，究竟我在哪年哪月哪日，開始「正式」寫網誌，我根本不可能有，所謂「正確」的答案。

另外一個重點是，這個事情的發生，之前需要有自己和別人，在不知不覺間，埋下無數的伏線。如果我年輕時，沒有收集句子的習慣；或者，如果我在生日會上，沒有戲言；或者，如果我的學生，沒有叫我「寫一點東西」；或者，如果我沒有看過 John T. Reed 的《Succeeding》，學會「錄音抄錄」的方法；或者，如果你今年沒有找我，問我一些哲理問題，令我有機會錄下自己的說話，我的網誌就，從來不會存在。

— Me@2012.01.19

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2012.01.19 Thursday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

And Yet It Moves

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And Yet It Moves is set in a world reminiscent of a paper collage. The game focuses on rotating the world around the player character in order to surmount walls too steep to climb or maneuvering around complex objects.

— Wikipedia on And Yet It Moves

2012.01.13 Friday ACHK

Braid

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時空幻境

Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer Jonathan Blow.

The game features traditional aspects of the platform genre while integrating various powers of time-manipulation.

Blow designed the game as a personal critique of contemporary trends in game development. He funded the three-year project with his own money.

— Wikipedia on Braid (video game)

2011.12.28 Wednesday ACHK

Quantum probability and Classical probability, 2

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… the telltale difference between the quantum and the classical notions of probability is that the former is subject to interference and the latter is not.

— The Fabric of the Cosmos

— by Brian Greene

Classical probability does not allow more than one eigenstates co-exist at the same time. (superposition)

— Me@2011.12.02

2011.12.11 Sunday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

魔間傳奇 9

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魔間傳奇 7.2

這段改編自 2010 年 3 月 6 日的對話。

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結論是，千萬不要害怕孤獨。更加不要因為害怕孤獨，而在情感或工作上，依附他人。

正如 Stephen R. Covey 在《The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People》所述，dependent 的人，不能與人有 interdependence；只有 independent 的人，才能與人有 interdependence。

依賴別人的人，不能與人真心相處。只有獨當一面的人，才能與人衷誠合作。

— Me@2011.12.08

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2011.12.08 Thursday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

協同效應

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這段改編自 2010 年 5 月 18 日的對話。

Balance is not “either/or”; balance is “and”.

— based on First Things First

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你這樣問，是因為你假設了甲乙兩件事是互相排斥，不可以兩樣都做好。你以為如果要做好甲，就沒有足夠時間完成乙。

不一定是這樣的。很多時候，甲乙兩件事並不是二擇其一，兩個只能活一個。有時，甲乙甚至可以互相幫助，加快對方的進度。甲乙互相合作的成果，會大過各自成果的總和。例如：

甲 = 用左腳走路

乙 = 用右腳走路

你總不可以說，如果我用左腳走路，就沒有時間用右腳走路。

你的情況是，你覺得（例如）英文和數學不能兼顧。實情是，如果你的英文好，你看數學課文和數學題目時，都會看得快一點。還有，你要留意，面對數學題目時，你一個字也不能看錯。理解題目稍有差池，你所得的算式就會不同。你隨時一分也拿不到。所以，要數學成績好的話，你的英文功力一定不能太差。

反過來，數學也可以幫助英文。數學的訓練，主要用來提升你思考的清晰度。只要你的思路清晰，你的文章自然傾向簡潔易明。

— Me@2011.11.29

2011.11.29 Tuesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Wikipedia 2.0

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Encyclopedia Galactica 2

我的百科全書 2

More open alternatives to Wikipedia.

Deletionists rule Wikipedia. Ironically, they’re constrained by print-era thinking. What harm does it do if an online reference has a long tail of articles that are only interesting to a few people, so long as everyone can still find whatever they’re looking for? There is room to do to Wikipedia what Wikipedia did to Britannica.

— Startup Ideas We’d Like to Fund

— Paul Graham

— July 2008

2011.11.28 Monday ACHK

Dungeons & Dragons

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Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a role-playing game (RPG) in a fantasy setting originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR).

D&D’s publication is widely regarded as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry.

— Wikipedia on Dungeons & Dragons

2011.11.11 Friday ACHK

種子意念 7

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Over the years, I’ve learned that the first idea you have is irrelevant. It’s just a catalyst for you to get started. Then you figure out what’s wrong with it and you go through phases of denial, panic, regret. And then you finally have a better idea and the second idea is always the important one.

— Arthur van Hoff

— Founders at Work

2011.10.24 Monday ACHK

何必偏偏玩謝我

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Charlie Kaufman

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Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier my hair wouldn’t be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I’m a walking cliche. I really need to go to the doctor and have my leg checked. There’s something wrong. A bump. The dentist called again. I’m way overdue. If I stop putting things off I would be happier. All I do is sit on my fat ass. If my ass wasn’t fat I would be happier. I wouldn’t have to wear these shirts with the tails out all the time. Like that’s fooling anyone. Fat ass. I should start jogging again. Five miles a day. Really do it this time. Maybe rock climbing. I need to turn my life around. What do I need to do? I need to fall in love. I need to have a girlfriend. I need to read more. Improve myself. What if I learned Russian or something, or took up an instrument. I could speak Chinese. I’d be the screenwriter who speaks Chinese and plays the oboe. That would be cool. I should get my hair cut short. Stop trying to fool myself and everyone else into thinking I have a full head of hair. How pathetic is that. Just be real. Confident. Isn’t that what women are attracted to? Men don’t have to be attractive. But that’s not true. Especially these days. Almost as much pressure on men as there is on women these days. Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence? Maybe it’s my brain chemistry. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. Bad chemistry. All my problems and anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance or some kind of misfiring synapses. I need to get help for that. But I’ll still be ugly though. Nothing’s going to change that.

— Adaptation.

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2009.06.24 Wednesday ACHK