Outliers

Rating: 1.5/5.0
Am reading this book by Malcolm Gladwell
I don’t care if it’s the #1 national bestseller
I want my money back.

He is trying to convince the readers that people don’t rise from nothing. Instead of asking what (intelligence, innate talents, ambition, passion, guts) makes an expert/outliers…ask how. In particular, success is facilitated by:

  • A series of incredibly lucky events or accidental opportunities..
    i.e. “it just so happened that…..”
  • Hidden advantage /cumulative advantage
    e.g. relative age in a kindergarten class
  • Circumstances, surroundings, cultural legacies, parentage, networks……..
    —>that could allow him/her to work hard/prepare/improve until he/she could acquire mastery in a field. Otherwise, much individual potential is remain uncultivated in society.

Wait…but who doesn’t know it already?! I don’t have to be convinced.
It’s more like a ‘matter of fact’ to everyone that timing/luck is determining.
Why reiterate this obvious portion of success with bland examples from Bill Gates and other richest men on earth? *yawn*

His conclusion is, think twice on whether the successful people deserve the praise we give them. They may not deserve that much personal appreciation coz their achievements are largely determined by all these external factors (opportunities x legacies) as well. Well right, there are opportunities, but what differentiates them from normal ppl is also their sharp acumen to recognize the existence of such chances around…and their perseverance to take advantage of them wisely.

I am surprised this book on success didn’t even mention innovation, uniqueness and charisma at all. And how could he overlook the chain of failures and unfortunate events that makes a person a legend? Crisis handling? EQ? Dynamic revision?

Anyways…this topic on how-to-be-successful is just too conceptual and broad to be generalized into one exhaustive rule.

Maybe after all readings like 嘉亨灣的保安員 impress me more…ha.ha.ha.

FAQ

有人問我，
“industry的人到底是真的很尊敬academia的人还是觉得这些人都是在胡扯？不太理解的應該會覺得胡扯。”
類似問題我已經聽過太多次了。
my conclusion is，無人咁得閒鄙視你 or 真的很尊敬你….
只要道不同的人，都沒辦法完全justify對方在做totally different goal 的事情。
And it’s totally fine, chill…everyone has his/her own pursuit and reasons behind right?

道不同不相為謀，人各有志。大家都盡力保衛自己的觀點。我明白但不代表我同意，不必浪費唇舌爭取對方認同。

Finance Non-finance
F
  • 我要提高父母的生活水平，報答親恩是我的責任。在未來當我有sizable capital時就有足夠影響力回饋社會。
  • 我努力賺錢的目的，就是想讓我爸媽就算退休後，為自己買東西的時候能给我買東西的时候一樣乾脆。
  • 整個industry都很dynamic，不是每個人都可以deal with這樣fast-paced和長時間的磨練。要挑戰自己努力，就要襯年輕。
  • 要花十年時間青春讀書，如果最後不是加入研究行列or 當教授，是不可理喻的。
  • 研究經費／所花的時間其impact是否justified？研究的motivation是甚麼？為研究附上偉大的理由after all 只是為了自我感覺良好？
  • 你這麼high level的theoretical知識，到頭來is it needed by society？累積到甚麼樣的real life的experience呢？
NF
  • 功利，物質主義。為錢犧牲健康時間，不可理喻。
  • 做的事情只是playing with cash flow。一味做no-brainer 的工作，有甚麼skill set可言？
  • 而且高風險，過幾年一個金融風暴，你們一個二個通通揸兜。
  • 可以在自己真正感passionate的field裡面工作甚至留名，是intellectual challenge。我發夢都在解題。
  • 我不功利，犧牲小我，為academia，為世界貢獻. We are the ones who are making a real difference to the advancement of the world.
  • Unlike you guys，grad school 是有意義的生活體驗，人生苦短，對世界留下的change/legacy/inspiration是首要，monetary compensation是次要。
“我宁愿当时妈妈没有送我出来，农村家里有一个儿子是很重要的，如果我当时留在农村，或许我一直不识字，但我父母或许不至于饿死。”
－ 1998年诺贝尔物理奖获得者、崔琦。
出生在河南农村，家里的独子，10岁到香港去读书，这一走成了他与父母的永别，父母在后来的大饥荒里都活活饿死了。

Mean Reversion

“Good Afternoon.”
他禮貌地以posh到不行的British accent點頭道別。

“……See ya.”
說罷我當堂打了個冷震。
原來有人還會用一句”good afternoon”說再見？簡直像BBC News新聞報導完畢作結一樣。可能在美國呆久了比較敏感，但自從跟這位劍橋大學英國男孩共事，英式社交禮儀由此可見一斑。又或者他完全不算posh，但身處這個頹廢的國度，他就猶如外星人。一發音一舉手一投足， 就算隨便幫女同學推個門，都特別優雅，溢出英倫紳士風情。

Anyways，看到這位交換生才憶起，year 1 初來報導時的種種不習慣。（1）填表格時，一定會看清楚MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY（2）身為工程學院的學生，大多都是單位問題。香港英制教育下，採用SI制，時代新趨勢。做problem set的時候，平生倒是從來沒有deal with 過tons/miles/yard/ounces這些陌生新奇的單位。（3）初初還糾結了一下，到底陌生人突然對你what’s up ，售貨員來句 how are you doing today？應該要怎樣回答才好。最後做了一年student office的front desk worker 就變得fluent in 這些美式寒暄了。（4） 美國的紙幣全部一式一樣，同一顏色，就算連硬幣都差不多模樣。但當連賣汽水的vending machine都可以刷銀行卡付帳時，就漸漸習慣不帶現金傍身了。（5）過馬路，車一定會為你停下來。Only applicable to here though, 在香港照樣肆無忌殫過馬路定必死無疑。

一直都只當這4年是很長yet temporary的旅遊體驗，unfortunately完全沒有意欲要留下來發展或者落地生根。Well，literally“臨別秋波”，開始回顧這些無聊細節，不好意思。Good Afternoon everyone.