Every now and then, I think one should revisit some of the major decisions you have made in the past and rant about it in light of new information presented to you in the present. Sure there's no use crying over spilled milk but sometimes there are things/principles that can be learned from our mistakes or failure to decide appropriately when it is time for it. A couple of days ago, that was such a time.
The rankings for US universities for graduate study was just released so out of curiosity I decided to check to see who's on top. So I wandered into the usual categories of math, physics and computer science and all was still within normal ranges. Then when it came to it's sub categories of math, more specifically applied math, I was kinda surprised to see that New York University was on top and on par with MIT. That was particularly interesting because I knew New York was pretty good for applied math but never really though that it would still maintain its position at the top with MIT. When I was applying to the States for PhD programs, I applied to New York University as an afterthought even though I knew then that it was on par with MIT back then. I kinda didn't believe it and thought it was just an anomaly/outlier in the rankings. And of all the unis I applied there, only NYU came back to me with an offer but to do Masters. I rejected it for two reasons, it was not the course that I wanted and that it's located in one of the most expensive places around. Little did I know that that was normal for an international student but never mind. Clicking a few more links and I find myself in what would have become the faculty that I would be spending most of my time in NYU, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Looking at the subjects taught in the Masters level and the few more subjects needed in the PhD level, that's when I really needed to scream. The subjects were waaaay more interesting and they even cover some of my research interests in greater detail than the rather boring one that I was doing here in Melbourne. Sure it would have taken a lot longer to get a PhD there than in Melbourne but I'd do it anyway.
Armed with this knowledge completes the rub-salt-on-wound scenario. Of all the unis I applied to outside of Melbourne (and bear in mind that back then I had no intention to stay in Melbourne for further studies), the ones that got back to me with offers were the universities that I applied as an afterthought (yes, Cambridge too). Both unis are at the top of their respective games and both had research topics that far interests me than any where else. And yet I rejected both of them for the same two reasons highlighted before not knowing that for both of them it is completely normal and there are many ways around it. Significant financing can some how be found one way or the other and with good results in Masters, I can be fast tracked to the PhD course. Woe is me who never knew of such things. Oh the pain.
But wait, I'm not crying over spilled milk. What have I gained now that I've remained in Melbourne, doing something completely different (to an extent)? Meeting, observing and supporting awesome people I've met in the past 2 years. Being involved in a great deal of things that I can never imagine myself doing with them makes the apparent sacrifice not so bad after all. Hence a great deal of good came out of this "ordeal".
So what have I found under this big rock of the past? Don't underestimate the things done as an afterthought. And neither should you underestimate the events following the mistakes. They might come as a surprise to you, and a pleasant one I might add. Also, it is even more apparent now, like great war strategy principles, knowing is half the battle. Information is vital to decision making. Do whatever you can to obtain information early before deciding. That was probably the biggest mistake I made then.
I like to think of the timeline of major decision making as a bit like getting your hair cut. When the time comes to have your hair cut, you sometimes get a good cut and sometimes you get a bad one. And sometimes you think you like the cut but seconds later after stepping out of the shop, you hate it again and vice versa. But then as weeks go by, your hair grows back until it's time for another hair cut and the process repeats. The next time you have your hair cut, all worries, rants and lamentations on your previous hair cut are nowhere to be seen, only the prospect of the new hair cut. The result of our decisions may result in good or bad outcomes or times where I've made the wrong choice but hey look what I found or I think I made the right choice and it's giving me pain now. Regardless, time will pass by until we are faced with another major decision to make, even the good ones or the blessing-in-disguise ones will just pass by like it didn't matter (well, it kinda does but that's for another time). Life goes on and to see how the next decision plays out and not the previous ones made.
So cheesy/corny/full-of-nonsense right?
KHAAAAAANNN!!!!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
at
2:05 AM
I have been interested and a big advocate for proper science and math education for a long time and I have to say that this man has probably done more about the advancement of how we think about education than anyone else in the world. And all he did was just do an online version of educational videos. Then everything exploded. From a fairly low tech teaching tool of just a pen, tablet and screen capturing tool to a full blown website chock full of features to help teachers devote more time and attention to the students who are really in need. This really is the future of education where the world is just one big classroom. Full of Youtube videos. And the best thing is that, his videos are not restricted to science and math. But I have to say it works exceptionally well for science and math.
His teaching methodology and principles however are not something new or at least for me. While the use of education videos are probably as old as television itself and his principle of humanizing the classroom has been around for awhile now, it's the marriage of the two that makes his work so profound. On hindsight, I got a glimpse of that when I was in A-Levels in the form of my two Further Mathematics teachers. While they still gave lectures, spending most of their time giving a roughly one-size-fits-all lecture and marking papers, their teaching methodology was very similiar to what Salman had done (except without the videos). They intuitively knew who were the ones that needed help and spent the remaining spare time helping them than those (myself including) who were just a tad bit slow in understanding, say differential equations and proof by induction. Because they knew the other people who got it fast can help the slower ones. The math exercises were by the bucket full but it was necessary for us to keep on the bicycle, so Salman uses the metaphor, until we understood. Of course back then it was rather infeasible to do what Salman and his academy did but essentially my teachers did it.
It was ultimately because of them that I had this immense love of mathematics, something rather rare among Asians beyond getting through an exam in high school or first year uni math and of course the reason why I pursued my undergraduate degree (and potentially a PhD) in mathematics. Had I not have the wonderful tutoring of the two teachers, I might have wound up in a completely different area, something more mainstream, something more Asian. And I'd probably be a bit less appreciative. A by-product of their teaching was the revelation of bringing that same style of teaching to educate others that science and math isn't that hard to get and that is OK to love science and math. I've always been a firm believer that most people would love science and math if taught properly or had a good teacher. As evident from his academy, awesome tools that help teachers and students get the most out of understanding these difficult subjects is also a big plus point. But the technology by itself cannot replace the human aspect of the teacher in the classroom, as in we cannot learn effectively from just the internet or, in the near future, robots. For some unknown higher level cognitive/psychological reason, we learn the best when there's human presence around as found out by some human development psychologists researching on language in babies. The goal of humanizing technology (crudely speaking, making ourselves cyborgs) where we learn and interactive with technology on a daily basis but still maintain our relational human identity seems to be the general trend for today and tomorrow's people.
By the way, it is because of this man that I learned what really went wrong during the financial crash of 2008 from his videos. And since then I've been rather interested in the economics of a crash and brought me to the beginnings of behavioral economics. So I have experienced first hand what this guy is capable of, teaching wise.
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Basis 2.0
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
at
1:49 AM
Double post!
One my first memories of loving awesome bass lines had a lot to do with Disney cartoons. I had a VHS tape that was basically a mix tape of famous pop songs integrated into various snippets of Disney cartoon shorts when I was like 7 I think. As a big fan of old Disney shorts, I played that tape to oblivion. One of the songs that I absolutely love from that tape was the 1967 hit duet from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell called Ain't No Mountain High Enough. And of course much later I found out that the bassist behind that song was none other than, as one announcer put it, the greatest bass player in the world, James Jameson. It's hard not to bust a move listening to this song. Simply brilliant.
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Basis
at
12:49 AM
There has been a lot of bass influences throughout the years that I've attempted at bass, anywhere from bass legends like James Jameson, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller etc. but if there's one person that has pushed me to actually take up the bass, it's this guy. David Labruyere (or DeLa to some people). Few people know him in comparison to who he played for, John Mayer. Back when No Such Thing was the hit song from the then emerging John Mayer, the first thing that caught my attention to the song was the opening bass lines just opened up a whole new level of possibilities for bass playing. Before I used to think that great bass playing was mostly restricted to jazz, funk and motown, great stuff but something that it is a bit out there, not achievable to this musically handicapped man. But when great bass lines came to acoustic pop via DeLa, that was when the jaw hit the floor and great bass seemed accessible. How on earth can a two man team, a guitar and a bass, be adequate? Or how is it that funky bass lines exist outside the realms of jazz, funk and motown? Listen to the bass lines of the videos and try not to listen to the singing or the guitar, crank up the subwoofer, whatever and you might discover something that usually goes unnoticed by others. John Mayer's music, to me, will always be about the bass (as evident by DeLa and Pino Paladino) first then John Mayer himself. Just like how I got into his music all the way back in 2001.
For the record, I took up bass in late 2002.
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First of the Last
Saturday, March 5, 2011
at
6:19 PM
So week 1 of the final semester has just gone by. As always, the first week stuff is pretty boring with all the administration stuff and the general introduction of the courses. But one thing is pretty clear from all of the first impressions of the subject, I am going to die this semester. Probably not as bad as my honours year but I'd probably rate it pretty close to it. Not only do I have a lot of stuff to do this semester, I also have to start thinking about applying for jobs and obviously trying to get some sort of a work visa or temporary residency. Then if not, then I have to reevaluate my options again. Lots of work to do.
I am pretty excited for one subject on Game Mechanics and Game Play Programming. It is pretty much one big project to do which is obviously to construct a game and to fine tune it for proper game play. Super interested about it but I shudder at the work that is to be done even though we are all in teams of 4-5. That's another thing that I didn't quite like about this semester is group work. I've never been a fan of group work partially because of all the horror stories of group work from other people. That said, I've been pretty sheltered from these horror situations since the first and only time before this semester I've only been in one group project work and that group was pretty good. It seems that this group may turn out to be a good group after all but the true test is when we are hard pressed to get our game out for submission. There's another subject that I have to do group work but I don't know much about it so will see how. Still not looking forward to it.
There's one subject that I honestly don't believe I have to sit through. The subject itself is pretty fundamental and potentially be very interesting. But so far the people I've met for the whole subject is just one facepalm after another. For starters, the lecturer stresses the importance on being able to do some math in this course but during a short test that he has devised for the students to gauge whether they have the necessary skills in programming and math, nearly all the math questions that he set gave the wrong answers or had the wrong concepts. And the errors were errors in addition and other simple things that probably should have been checked first. Second, some of the students attending the course are so noisy, complain on a whim, terribly immature, and sorry to say this but stupid on some occasions. There are some bright students in the course no doubt but there so many of the former that you just want to stab yourself. Third, the tutor I got was someone I knew since the first year even though he was never my tutor. He's a very nice guy but as a tutor he's quite lacking. And it's a bit hard to decipher his thick Scottish accent. Granted that this is just the first week so things might settle in to things a bit better later on. But it is really terribly difficult to sit through the 4 hours of lecture, tutorial and labs with the above mentioned. Had I taken this subject earlier in the degree, I'd probably be a bit more forgiving. Meh.
It's back to OCF once again and it's been great to see some of the people back again. The new comers this time around are quite little in comparison to other years so that is one thing that I worry a bit but I'm sure God will provide. I've been shifted to a fundamentally different group this time since I'm not Bible study leading this year and I have to say I feel not at ease with this group. There have been times where I felt like an alien in OCF especially these past few years but this group makes me feel like an alien to that alien in OCF. There are so many things that I cannot relate to them and not to mention very hard to talk to. Whether God is telling me to get my butt out there and just do it and lay aside whatever bones I have with them or not, it is certain that I've been thrown to the deep end of things. Oh help.
On a lighter note, buying stuff is tempting me to greater levels now. Things to buy: a new bass, medium format film camera, laptop (when I get to work) and many more. If I had $6000 to waste on something rather useless but cool (who hasn't bought something based on those?) there's this. A pendant of a full functioning turbine crafted from military specification G5 aerospace grade titanium. Iz sic.
I am pretty excited for one subject on Game Mechanics and Game Play Programming. It is pretty much one big project to do which is obviously to construct a game and to fine tune it for proper game play. Super interested about it but I shudder at the work that is to be done even though we are all in teams of 4-5. That's another thing that I didn't quite like about this semester is group work. I've never been a fan of group work partially because of all the horror stories of group work from other people. That said, I've been pretty sheltered from these horror situations since the first and only time before this semester I've only been in one group project work and that group was pretty good. It seems that this group may turn out to be a good group after all but the true test is when we are hard pressed to get our game out for submission. There's another subject that I have to do group work but I don't know much about it so will see how. Still not looking forward to it.
There's one subject that I honestly don't believe I have to sit through. The subject itself is pretty fundamental and potentially be very interesting. But so far the people I've met for the whole subject is just one facepalm after another. For starters, the lecturer stresses the importance on being able to do some math in this course but during a short test that he has devised for the students to gauge whether they have the necessary skills in programming and math, nearly all the math questions that he set gave the wrong answers or had the wrong concepts. And the errors were errors in addition and other simple things that probably should have been checked first. Second, some of the students attending the course are so noisy, complain on a whim, terribly immature, and sorry to say this but stupid on some occasions. There are some bright students in the course no doubt but there so many of the former that you just want to stab yourself. Third, the tutor I got was someone I knew since the first year even though he was never my tutor. He's a very nice guy but as a tutor he's quite lacking. And it's a bit hard to decipher his thick Scottish accent. Granted that this is just the first week so things might settle in to things a bit better later on. But it is really terribly difficult to sit through the 4 hours of lecture, tutorial and labs with the above mentioned. Had I taken this subject earlier in the degree, I'd probably be a bit more forgiving. Meh.
It's back to OCF once again and it's been great to see some of the people back again. The new comers this time around are quite little in comparison to other years so that is one thing that I worry a bit but I'm sure God will provide. I've been shifted to a fundamentally different group this time since I'm not Bible study leading this year and I have to say I feel not at ease with this group. There have been times where I felt like an alien in OCF especially these past few years but this group makes me feel like an alien to that alien in OCF. There are so many things that I cannot relate to them and not to mention very hard to talk to. Whether God is telling me to get my butt out there and just do it and lay aside whatever bones I have with them or not, it is certain that I've been thrown to the deep end of things. Oh help.
On a lighter note, buying stuff is tempting me to greater levels now. Things to buy: a new bass, medium format film camera, laptop (when I get to work) and many more. If I had $6000 to waste on something rather useless but cool (who hasn't bought something based on those?) there's this. A pendant of a full functioning turbine crafted from military specification G5 aerospace grade titanium. Iz sic.
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