The World is One's Oyster

Drawing By Edward Monkton

An African Proverb

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

- Taken from The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, pp 114.

There are some of us who want to take time off to smell the flowers and relax (after getting a nice, well-paying job as a graduate from some hot-shot, elite university). Some questioned the need to go for further self-improvement (since, he/she presumed he/she has 'arrived' after slogging out for 16+ years in school.)

I wonder how long more before they will fall by the wayside and starve to death. Management consultants, investment bankers, financial analysts notwithstanding.

If there is one thing I am thankful for - it is hanging out with peers who are very focused and driven; never resting on their past laurels. Always pushing for the next opening, the next opportunity that will give them the leg up for excellence. They instilled a sense of fear in me - the fear of being left behind. So I follow them and run.

Some may call this the rat-race, and desperately want to get out of it. Well, unless you come from a family rich enough to survive on your endowments, this is not really an option.

That said, I have been running since age 7 (Primary One). But my philosophy is to try to play fair and square, and to help my potential competitors if possible. Because I believe I gain too when my friends benefit. In one of my business school courses, the prof called it social capital.

Two-Body Problem revisited

loiseaurebelle quotes from Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being:

Being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground without the net afforded a person by the country where he has family, colleagues and friends, and where he can easily say what he has to say in a language he has known from childhood.

.............................................

In Prague she was dependent on Tomas only when it came to the heart; here she was dependent on him for everything. What would happen to her here if he abandoned her? Would she have to live her whole life in fear of losing him?

lr: This, I think, is the reason why your friends' gfs won't want to move.

tk: My ex's reason, other than her bond, was similar - what do u want me to do in the USA?

Edit (Jan 4): Kevin's case.

Kitchen vs. Lab; Men and Women as friends

From Ms.PhD:

Top ten reasons why I like my kitchen better than my advisor's lab

1. I decide what equipment there is.

2. The equipment is always available.

3. I can go almost any time of the year, with my own money, and get any supplies or additional equipment I want or need.

4. There is a dishwasher.

5. I don't have to repeat experiments. Whether they worked or not. Unless I feel like it. And even then, only when I feel like it, and not because they didn't turn out looking pretty enough.

6. I decide who is there with me.

7. If there is something I want to do that I've never done before, there are probably instructions somewhere on the internet.

8. It is not a competition.

9. If I bring my experiments to other places for people to evaluate, nobody asks, "Whose kitchen did you make this in?" before they decide whether or not they like what I've done.

10. I can cook if I feel like it, and if I don't feel like it, that's okay. We can always eat out.

and Gilbert Koh:

Men and Women Can't Be Friends

Now when I was a kid I watched a movie
called "When Harry met Sally" which I suppose
must be some kind of classic by now.
I think it was Harry who said to Sally, or
maybe it was Sally who said to Harry,
that men and women can't be friends
because sex gets in the way.
It's sad that this is true, because right now
as I sit and talk to you, I'm wondering
what you look like in the nude.
Because you look really sexy today.
My girlfriend would hit me if she knew,
and your boyfriend would hit me if he knew.
You would hit me too if you knew,
or maybe you'd be flattered.
But anyway the point is I can't stop wondering
what you look like in the nude.
I'm not going to kiss you or hug you or
touch your breasts or anything like that.
But I really can't or won't stop wondering
what you look like in the nude.
And maybe this is why men and women
can't ever be friends.

Ithaca

Elia's entry reminded me of this poem I first came across in a glossy Brown University Undergraduate Admisssions booklet almost a decade ago.

By Constantine P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.


Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

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Maybe that is why we still keep up with events back home despite having gotten out. We are the Singaporean Diaspora, and we know the downside of caring too much.

Standing at the Feet of Giants; or sitting on their Shoulders?

Been almost 3 weeks, and I still feel sad about the exit of Howard Lovy on nanobot. Quite a comprehensive independent blogger on nanotechnology issues, he was even featured in "Nanotechnology for Dummies".

Anyway, I digress. (Ed: His site is active again.) This entry is inspired by his opening sentences:

Did you ever get the feeling you're not exactly the most brilliant LED in the display? Nevertheless, here I am at Caltech, attempting to learn from the learned.

A giant of 20th Century Science and very likely, 21st too.

As a student in your younger days, have you ever stood outside your school gates, gaze in and wonder/marvel at the alumni who passed through them? Of ordinary folks who had gone on to greater things in life and had made a positive impact on society. Would you have felt overwhelmed or inspired? Or is there no school spirit at all?

The former would probably be "standing at the feet of the Giants", to be crushed by the pressure and end up performing mediocrely; while the latter would most likely make full use of opportunities (if they exist) in school to better their predecessors. In the case of Singapore, I still remember (as a young teenager then) walking through the hallways of my alma maters, looking up and seeing the honor rolls of ex-students who had gone on to be awarded [insert your list of prestigious PSC scholarships]. They did somehow ignite a spark in me, and made me want to join their ranks. For Country! For Honor! For Glory! Of course, now being older (and hopefully wiser) I know that bonded scholarships aren't necessarily good for one's career and aspirations in life. But anyway, I am sure you get my drift.


Prime Ministers had once walked past, will you be next?

Just as I thought JC would be the last time I would see honor rolls (or plaques), I was wrong. Universities the world over are always quick to stress out to both their students and visitors alike, ranging from the giants who have/had once strolled their grounds to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Some examples:

17th century bio-nanomicrotechnology


20th Century atomic science


They fought and died in a war that was supposed to end all wars.

Then there is the existence of Academic Genealogy Trees, of which most academics and grad students are in at least one.

I will stop here with a quote from John of Salisbury (1159):

"We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours."