Tian

Tian

Orpheus in the Underworld

In the right occasions, Beethoven’s sonatas change to feathers, sucked into me through my ear canals, tickling a part of my brain, teasing it, titilating it, licking it, and fading away without a fair explanation. I cannot turn it off…

Sailors

Sometimes I am not sure what I am training myself for. Why did I come for a master’s program? To learn to be a good writer. Am I a better writer? No, I am a much worse writer. What is…

“The Right Level of Oppression”

I was watching a snippet of Žižek’s comment on cinema today for a sheer lack of passion in reading anything serious. He caught me with these words, “the right level of oppressions.” In this snippet, he spoke about something I…

United by Gopnik

One song by the Eurovision contestant Tommy Cash saved my unfortunate squandering of 2 hours on that program. A Chinese understands the post-soviet cynicism combined with the emergence of consumerist frenzy more than anybody else. Well, the population from the…

赛马

中国人喜欢天才,喜欢将个人成功归结于偶然的,基因性的突变,或是天时地利人和导致的异状。芸芸众生是正常情况,而做出一些成绩的人往往在人们眼中是高不可攀的超人。 这在中英互联网的论坛中就可以看出。有时,我会搜索一些学者在中文网站的材料,来看看学者的中文名字,以及自己是否以前就通过翻译作品了解过此人。通常,中文语境中的这些学者或知名人物,在人们口中,在百科全书中,都被写成奇人:天才中的天才,神童,非凡。仲永才是大家膜拜的对象,这似乎是一种对神的追求,而因为没有公认的神,因此大家在人中狩猎神的影子。 这样一来,一旦某人被贴上了超人类的标签,ta就很容易借力真的成为超人。当然,这在每个文化中都多少有所显现,但中国人对神人的推举还是更为明显。既然神人已现,那众生的能力就体现在是否能辨别出神人,为了证明自己的识人功夫,众人又更乐意将自己选中的神人吹捧得更高一等。这倒和赛马有异曲同工之趣。 自然,人天赋有别,总有人在某一处做得特别好,这是正常情况。而一旦将这归功于天才,天选,那就将众生和天才中间隔了一堵墙,这也方便地成为划分群体的方法。有的人天生不同,所以他们能做某事。这对于激发一种长久的、非激情所推动的、寻常的创造力有阻碍的作用。成绩总归不是靠一时兴起能做成的,压抑中的爆发不是长久的创造之力。每个人都应当有一种自知,即自己有某种天赋,而自己的努力,前半生是将它发现出来,后半生是使用它,驾驭它,完成自己被赋予的工作。 也有很多情况是,某人的天赋与ta希望从事的事业有别。这样的情况下,此人也许在自己愿做的领域无法达到擅长领域那样的成绩,但长远来看,不论是成就还是个人幸福,都远大于短期让其做擅长但不热爱的事来得好。不仅好,而且善,这是对人的仁慈。

Transferability

A good thing of studying at the university is that you enter into a universe of terminologies and structures, which are transferable from discipline to discipline, and gradually you can take advantage of the existing materials in your brain and…

信息锅的光荣佩戴者

每当学习的时候,如果耳机里没有传来中文的音乐,我会觉得自己好像已经经历完了我被配给的所有轮回,在最终的审判过后,被扔进了外国的虚无。 所有不是我的语言所讲述的东西,都停止了打动我的能力。它们曾蛰伏在我的机体之内,等待着一个征服我的机会,盼望着一种文化的交流能把我升华为一位骄傲的世界公民。然而,在我一头撞进这文化的沧海中,它们窒息着我的松果腺,把我的活力淹没,给我贴上了文化交流者的标签,把我原本合身的外套取下。 有时我会因为这种痛苦而哭泣,但是这样的宣泄好像又与我个人无关。远方的家人在衰老,对这件事我无能为力。我生活在一个温柔的小窝里,身体的舒适让我感到前所未有的痛苦。连这舒适都是一种外国的舒适。这样的悲伤像是掉进了深井,你知道井里也有井里的活法,甚至,那井是多么的安全!它那么深,把风雨遮挡在外。可我知道,井是不对的。 我训练着自己用正规的文法写作,我明白,那是一种与机器学习相同的算法。只有那样,这种苦行才有着继续的能力,靠着理性的伟大动力,向前,向前。我自愿在头顶戴上信息锅,吸取那富有魅力的宇宙信号。它们将我装饰得前所未有地高尚,并剥夺了我做一个人的权利。

Simple vs Complex Questions

I am often amazed at how the simple questions of a subject are far more difficult to answer than the complex ones. By simpler ones I mean the ones that a layman would ask to a professional. This is true…

The Cultivation of Intuition

All experts in a subject needs an intuition to be extrordinary, instead of being just skilled technicians. This discussion has some more relevance today as artificial intelligence is threatening to invade the cognitive arena. It’s certainly true that a collation…

Musical Tyrant

If a piece of music is composed with an emotional scheme, then the playing should be more strictly controlled. For this kind of music, I prefer the ones with passion to the ones with sorrow, which has something to do…