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Showing posts from September, 2013

Grow your own house

It's so much work to build houses. Can't we genetically code a seed? You throw it in the ground, water it, and prune it. It grows into a house next year. "Let's plant our next house." "We need a seed that can grow on a rocky soil." "Our house is a bit crowded, we need a few new rooms" "Okay, I will let that few branches grow, it's going to be Lily's bed room. " "I want my own bathroom" "Sure, in a couple of months, your own suite will be read. You will have to walk a few more steps, honey." "Son, don't think it's time for you to grow your own house?" Biology is the answer. Let's play God. Huhhhh~ An't we the most efficient machine? adaptive to our environment; a machine can reproduce itself; self maintained; Self upgrade through giving birth to a slightly different version of us;

80000 hours for picking your career

I watched Peter Singer's talk: The why and how of effective altruism today. It somehow reminded me Steve Jobs. I have heard that Steve serious studied zen for a few years in his 20s. It is impressive. Steve must have resolved in those couple of years. Peter Singer mentioned this website: 80,000 hours . They have some great advice if you are wondering question:  where you can have the biggest possible positive impact

Everyone is doing their best, especially my daughter

My daughter has played piano for 10 years, she is working on her grade 9 pieces this year. They were hard, hard as rock. She would eat, drink, and go to washroom many times before she start her daily practice. Once started, it wouldn't took long for her to find excuses for a break. I pushed, reminded and offered to help. But I think, all I did was nagging: "you are not working hard enough." She screamed, cried, and smudged her snot all over the couch. She rolled up like a potato bug, just like what she would when she was that new born baby fifteen years ago. It was my fault. It was just like how many years I have been working myself, I needed to learn to see that effort, the struggle in everything. I didn't see how hard she was trying. I didn't see that. Today's lesson was for me. Everyone is doing their best.