Category Archives: world highlighting | 反白論

受難曲 1.2

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這段改編自 2010 年 4 月 3 日的對話。

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（安：那會不會是你的錯覺？市面上，有很多你所謂「平庸」的人，都是找不到對象的。）

但是，我持續觀察到的現象是，只要稍為偉大一點，就有較大機會孤獨終老。

例如，歌星梅艷芳無論在歌唱、演戲，還是慈善事業，都有非凡的成就，但就偏偏最終也找不到結婚對象。而她是非常希望成立自己的家庭的。

又例如，填詞人林夕的愛情歌詞，觸動無數心靈。但是，作為愛情專家的他，自己卻找不到對象，暫時。我希望他最終會找到，如果他想找的話。

— Me@2013.05.10

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2013.05.10 Friday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

受難曲 1.1

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這段改編自 2010 年 4 月 3 日的對話。

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教學方面，我有一點點「點石成金」的能力。如果我不向這個方面發展，就好像對不起世界，又對不起自己。但是，如果我不是自僱，而是從事受僱工作，即使那份受僱工作是在日校教書，可以傳授學術知識和讀書心得的機會近乎零。那樣，我就白白荒廢了「點石成金」的能力。

如果我從來也沒有這種能力，那就不用那麼大壓力，生活可能好過很多。據我的觀察，沒有理想追求，不太思考，而又不會關心別人的人，反而較容易過到「幸福」的生活。平庸的地球人，好像自然會找到安定的工作，自然會找到另一半。然後，自然會有自己的子女。

（安：那會不會是你的錯覺？市面上，有很多你所謂「平庸」的人，都是找不到對象的。）

— Me@2013.05.06

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2013.05.06 Monday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Noam Chomsky

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Man: Mr. Chomsky, I’m wondering what specific qualifications you have to be able to speak all around the country about world affairs?

Noam: None whatsoever. I mean, the qualifications that I have to speak on world affairs are exactly the same ones Henry Kissinger has, and Walt Rostow has, or anybody in the Political Science Department, professional historians — none, none that you don’t have. The only difference is, I don’t pretend to have qualifications, nor do I pretend that qualifications are needed. I mean, if somebody were to ask me to give a talk on quantum physics, I’d refuse — because I don’t understand enough. But world affairs are trivial: there’s nothing in the social sciences or history or whatever that is beyond the intellectual capacities of an ordinary fifteen-year-old. You have to do a little work, you have to do some reading, you have to be able to think but there’s nothing deep — if there are any theories around that require some special kind of training to understand, then they’ve been kept a carefully guarded secret.

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Compare mathematics and the political sciences — it’s quite striking. In mathematics, in physics, people are concerned with what you say, not with your certification. But in order to speak about social reality, you must have the proper credentials, particularly if you depart from the accepted framework of thinking. Generally speaking, it seems fair to say that the richer the intellectual substance of a field, the less there is a concern for credentials, and the greater is the concern for content. One might even argue that to deal with substantive issues in the ideological disciplines may be a dangerous thing, because these disciplines are not simply concerned with discovering and explaining the facts as they are; rather, they tend to present these facts and interpret them in a manner that conforms to certain ideological requirements, and to become dangerous to established interests if they do not do so.

— Noam Chomsky

2013.03.18 Monday ACHK

大世界 6

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R4

Idiot 3

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Your world is your world.

– Ludwig Wittgenstein

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你的主觀世界, 並不是客觀世界的全部.

– Translation, Me@2009.09.16

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愚蠢的人以為自己的主觀世界, 就是客觀世界. 所以, 他們不知道自己的愚蠢.

聰明的人知道自己的主觀世界, 只是客觀世界的一小部分. 所以, 他們可以真切感受到自己的愚蠢.

– Me@2009.09.17

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2009.09.18 Friday (c) ACHK

Writing and Speaking

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I’m not a very good speaker. I say “um” a lot. Sometimes I have to pause when I lose my train of thought. I wish I were a better speaker. But I don’t wish I were a better speaker like I wish I were a better writer. What I really want is to have good ideas, and that’s a much bigger part of being a good writer than being a good speaker.

Having good ideas is most of writing well. If you know what you’re talking about, you can say it in the plainest words and you’ll be perceived as having a good style. With speaking it’s the opposite: having good ideas is an alarmingly small component of being a good speaker.

I first noticed this at a conference several years ago. There was another speaker who was much better than me. He had all of us roaring with laughter. I seemed awkward and halting by comparison. Afterward I put my talk online like I usually do. As I was doing it I tried to imagine what a transcript of the other guy’s talk would be like, and it was only then I realized he hadn’t said very much.

— Writing and Speaking

— March 2012

— Paul Graham

2013.01.25 Friday ACHK

The Dark Knight Makes Sense

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Magic | Science, 2  

Nolan’s Batman movies’ are created by making sense out of the nonsense, turning fictional elements into their corresponding reality-based versions. 

As long as you keep removing unreasonable elements, replacing them with reasonable ones, you can get a good story.

只要你把不合理的情節刪除，換上合理的版本，故事自然圓滿，人生方能完善。

— Me@2013.01.03

2013.01.04 Friday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Fixed stars

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* Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. A meteor makes a striking effect for a moment. You look up and cry “There!” and it is gone forever. Planets and wandering stars last a much longer time. They often outshine the fixed stars and are confounded by them by the inexperienced; but this only because they are near. It is not long before they must yield their place; nay, the light they give is reflected only, and the sphere of their influence is confined to their orbit — their contemporaries. Their path is one of change and movement, and with the circuit of a few years their tale is told. Fixed stars are the only ones that are constant; their position in the firmament is secure; they shine with a light of their own; their effect today is the same as it was yesterday, because, having no parallax, their appearance does not alter with a difference in our standpoint. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth.

o Vol. 2 “The Art of Literature” as translated in Essays and Aphorisms (1970), as translated by R. J. Hollingdale

– Arthur Schopenhauer

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2010.06.06 Sunday ACHK

Negative reaction

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IsaacL 286 days ago | link

Maybe it doesn’t apply so much for visual design, but I often find that a negative reaction to a new concept or piece of software is better than a “meh” reaction. One example: I made a browser game a few years back, one of the early players posted a huge rant about how frustrating the game was, I fixed the design issues they raised, they grew to love the game.

So I tend to think that a negative reaction is often a sign you have something good, but flawed. You don’t want people saying “yeah, that’s kinda cool”, you want them saying “OMG THIS THING SUCKS I’M TRYING TO GET IT TO DO X BUT I CANT BECAUSE IT DOESNT HAVE FEATURE Y” – at least in the second case you know you have something they want, and you know how to fix it.

— Hacker News

2012.08.13 Monday ACHK

Good runners

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Good runners still get tired; they just get tired at higher speeds.

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If you feel exhausted, it’s not necessarily because there’s something wrong with you. Maybe you’re just running fast.

– Paul Graham

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2010.03.13 Saturday ACHK

Until it’s obvious

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Feynman’s Blackboard, 3

You don’t truly understand it until you think it’s obvious.

— Chris Oliver

This is akin to how a society comes to understand something and why genius ideas sometimes take so long to become accepted. I believe “context” is the underlying principle here.

Arthur Schopenhauer said, “All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; Third, it is accepted as self-evident.”

If you present a truth to someone whom doesn’t have sufficient context for what you are saying, it may seem outrageous and ridiculous to them because the gap between their understanding and the insight you presenting is too great.

They would have to build up their understanding of the context around it until it expands to a point where they find a connection to what they already know. Then they can start to relate to it and eventually they may see it as self evident.   

— espeed 254 days ago

— Hacker News

2012.04.26 Thursday ACHK