I just finished reading another book on biology. What is left behind, as always, is "Amazing."
Life is so amazing...
"Ars moriendi is the ars vivendi: The art of dying is the art of living."
Ai cũng phải chết.
Nhưng mỗi khi nghĩ đến cái chết, trong mình luôn có một cảm giác tiếc nuối, bất lực trước số phận, và thoáng qua cái mong ước "khoa học sẽ tìm ra phương pháp để kéo dài tuổi thọ lên 120, thậm chí 150 tuổi trong thời gian mình còn sống..."
Được sống, là một điều kỳ diệu.
Phải mất đi điều kỳ diệu ấy, thật không cam tâm.
Nhưng đọc How We Die của Sherwin B. Nuland, mình không còn cảm giác tiếc nuối nữa, ý nghĩ về cái chết cũng nhẹ nhàng hơn, nhất là khi đọc xong những dòng cuối của sách.
Suy cho cùng, ta chết đi, là ta mang lại sự sống mới, như cách ta đã được sinh ra...
"There is a ripeness of time for death, regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is reasonable we should drop off, and make room for another growth. When we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another."
"Give place to others, as others have given place to you."
"Mankind, for all its unique gifts, is just as much a part of the ecosystem as is any other zoologic or botanical form, and nature does not distinguish. We die so that the world may continue to live. We have been given the miracle of life because trillions upon trillions of living things have prepared the way for us and then have died—in a sense, for us. We die, in ture, so that others may live. The tragedy of a single individual becomes, in the balance of natural things, the triumph of onging life."
"All of this makes more precious each hour of those we have been given; it demands that life must be useful and rewarding."
"The dignity that we seek in dying must be found in the dignity with which we have lived our lives. Ars moriendi is the ars vivendi: The art of dying is the art of living. The honesty and grace of the years of life that are ending is the real measure of how we die. It is not in the last weeks or days that we compose the message that will be remembered, but in all the decades that preceded them. Who has lived in dignity, dies in dignity."
(Excerpts from an Elsevier post written by Lesley Thompson, Ph.D
Full post: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/when-being-wrong-is-a-good-thing-for-science)
"We often think of science as a fixed truth or a guaranteed fact. But it’s not.
... Science is and always has been an iterative process. Facts held true today — such as the Earth being round or just another planet at the edge of a quite ordinary galaxy in a small part of the universe — would have once been thought of as ridiculous, so accepted was the scientific view back then.
... the answer is not to hide away from the fact that science and scientists can be fallible but to celebrate it — and explain why."
“Science can never solve one problem without raising ten more.” - George Bernard Shaw.
... When finding faults or questioning research, we often find new areas to explore and new reasons to keep looking. With so many truths across disciplines yet to be unlocked, we cannot hope to unearth these mysteries without making mistakes or reaching unintended outcomes."
My takeaway:
Be bold, and don't be afraid of being wrong!
The quote that I am obsessed with
“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”
Advice to "How to be a good scientist"
“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
“Imagination is the highest form of research.”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”
Advice to "How to be a good human"
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
“Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.”
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: Lessons from Laureates to Stoke Curiosity, Spur Collaboration, and Ignite Imagination in Your Life and Career
Nếu để chọn ra chỉ 1 "take-away" sau khi đọc xong cuốn sách này cho bản thân, nó sẽ là:
Great Things Take Time. Be Curious. Stay Hungry. :)
Nếu có thể thong thả ngồi ôn lại 11 điều hay của cuốn sách này, chúng sẽ là:
Curiosity and Passion: Curiosity, not ambition, should drive scientific exploration. It’s self-validating and more sustainable. Passion is great, but curiosity goes deeper and leads to resiliency.
Imposter Syndrome: It’s a normal feeling of inadequacy that can be managed through understanding and acceptance. Even Nobel laureates suffer from it.
Value of Patience: Science, like art, should be done for its own sake, not for accolades.
Soft Skills: Successful physicists have excellent communication skills and emotional intelligence. They recognize that physics is a human endeavor.
Perseverance: Real winners never give up. They’re tenacious and insatiable.
Criticism and Bias: Being data-led helps avoid confirmation bias. Criticism should be expected and can be motivational.
Learning from Failure: Succeeding is not the goal of an experiment. Learning is. It’s important to admit when you’re wrong.
Teamwork: Accept what you can’t do and use your team to fill in the gaps. Collaboration, not credit, should be the goal.
Risk-taking: Take bigger risks and try out new ideas.
Maintaining Curiosity: The educational system often dampens curiosity. Maintaining it is key to achieving big rewards.
Humility: No matter what you’ve achieved, your best days lie ahead. Even Nobel laureates are ordinary people facing the same insecurities and challenges we all face.
Nếu có thời gian để xem lại tất cả những highlights từ cuốn sách này, thì chúng ở đây:
- Those who go left when everyone else goes right will find themselves in new territory
- Science is not about knowing the answers; it’s about asking the right questions
- The imposter syndrome is just a normal, even healthy, dose of inadequacy. We can never overcome or defeat it, nor should we try to. But we can manage it through understanding and acceptance.
- Virtue of patience: Science has a great deal in common with art, and the value in doing something for its own sake rather than to receive accolades and attention.
- Perhaps most importantly, successful physicists all have excellent soft skills – How to communicate and lead, often through trial and error. People usually say mathematical ability or lab skills. Wrong and wrong. Communication skills and emotional intelligence are the two most important tools among the greatest minds (in the author’s field, which is physics).
- The laureates in this book have the ability to recognize humanity and that physics is ultimately a science that can only be done by human beings.
- Real winners never lose because they never give up. They’re tenacious and insatiable.
- Stay curious – Ambition alone won’t sustain you. Science is a lot of fun if you’re driven by your own curiosity and passion. We do it because we want to know the answers.
- If you are driven purely by ambition, that requires constant external validation and approval. Curiosity, on the other hand, is reinforced internally – it is self-validating. Your curiosity is unique. Only you can have it. And it is a good fuel to drive you to the stars. Following your curiosity is also a way of choosing yourself. It doesn’t guarantee you a job, but it’s much more sustainable and will provide you with much more resilience than constantly relying on external validation can.
- Be audacious. If your work is irritating people, that probably means it’s worth doing. It might not mean you’re right, but it’s a sign that you’re asking the right questions. Just make sure to be judicious and ask questions in moderation.
- Beware that you can be more easily fooled than you think
- Being data-lead, whether in science or anywhere in life, is the best way to avoid confirmation bias.
- “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Richard Feynman
- It’s reproducibility that leads us to think we are on the right track - and that defines what is special about science.
- Whatever you do for a living, you have to expect criticism. You shouldn’t let the accolades go to your head, and you shouldn’t let the criticism go to your heart. Expect, as a human being, that obstacles will appear on your path. As bestselling author Ryan Holiday pointed out, obstacles show you the path. They point to the direction of your goal. In this way, earnest criticism can be motivational.
- Nobel Prize is not an IQ test or a ranking or great physicists. It’s for people who, for the most part, were lucky that they were in the right place at the right time and contributed to a discovery.
- The best-guiding light from science, physics, and everything I’ve experienced is to be curious.
- True success is reserved for those curious enough to ask challenging questions and bold enough to attempt to answer them.
- Success does not depend on whether your path is straight or meanders but whether you’re accumulating skills every step of the way. No matter your field – and this is even true outside of work, in relationships, in hobbies, in your avocations – problem solvers succeed, especially those who approach problems with imaginative solutions.
- Generally, I [only] give up on experiments when I convince myself if won’t work.
- A scientist learns something each time. Succeeding is not the goal of an experiment. Learning is.
- Don’t be too defensive. Better to admit you’re wrong and accept help than to stand alone while clinging to false beliefs. Even the founding father of the field (physics), Joe Weber, was not immune to some of the pitfalls all scientists should be aware of. Not having enough ability to be self-critical is the fundamental trap he fell into.
- In science and in all endeavors, the inability to be self-critical is disastrous.
- You must know how to interact with, motivate, convince, and lead people.
- Do things because they are fun
- Where an experiment ends, whether it is successful or not, is not the thing in my mind. “Is it interesting?” That is the first question: am I going to do something which is interesting to me or even anybody else?
- Do not just say it is too hard. If you think there is something there, it is worth your time. Every five years, question if what you are doing is still interesting to you or if it has become a habit. At least ask yourself, “Am I getting what I like out of this? Is it still fun? Is this still interesting?”
- Glashow: “Personally, I prefer the useless sciences. Much of the research is in fact useless. Many of the wonderful discoveries that have been made will have no direct impact on our lives except the appreciation that we are understanding the world a little bit better each day.”
- In science, the more your theory is attacked and survives criticism, the stronger and more resilient it becomes. The scientific method teaches us to question our biases, seek criticism, and be less defensive in the name of a larger goal.
- “it turns out negative feedback contributes much more to learning than positive feedback does.”
- It’s important to question assumptions and look at things in new ways.
- Just as a pilot couldn’t learn anything new by flying to the same place with the same weather every time, in whatever you do, to grow, you must be testing and practicing in a variety of situations. You have to stretch. Growth involves pain and challenging yourself.
- Remember that struggle is progress.
- To be creative in science is basically where people look at some situation or question and simply find a way that’s different than how everybody else has been looking at it. It’s not bringing something new. It’s realizing things people already knew but did not really understand how to apply.
- It’s important to remember that the amount of time spent is not the best measure of what we have learned. We must seek out a variety of learning experiences and teachers in order to walk away with a more robust understanding.
- Work with what you’ve got - an imperfect tool is better than no tool at all
- Abstract and therefore imperfect tools, such as art and math, among others, have merit in helping us discern the world. Don’t let the lack of a perfect tool be the obstacle to reaching your goal. Persevere through other means – even if they don’t get you all the way to the finish line, they may get you closer than you think. Perfect is the enemy of good.
- Perseverance and tenacity may not get you everywhere, but without it, you won’t get anywhere
- When you’re blocked, reframe the problem or approach it from a different angle.
- Never trust anyone just because they’ve reached the highest position in their field. Likewise, never expect special treatment just because you’re at the top of your field.
- Don’t be too goal-oriented - Leave room for surprise and serendipity
- We should do basic fundamental research not for profit or a goal but for its own sake. We must remember not to be so goal-oriented. Breakthrough can’t be predicted.
- It is possible that human opinions can be indeterminate – can be wrong and right at the same time.
- Don’t fear failure or success – Just keep showing up.
- Unlike chess, you can never win science. However, like chess, science is comprised of many finite games which are winnable, like tenure or the Nobel. Ultimately, in the scientific community, you can never win. You might win a prize, but you can never beat Mother Nature.
- When you see something in your life that you deem important, that you think you can change or affect, or that irritates you because of its completeness, pay attention. Those are indicators of interest and eventual success. Further, it’s important to cultivate the kind of situational awareness that leads us to notice key indicators.
- Stay humble – Remember, and imagine, how much you don’t know
- The consequence of early success is confidence. And that’s extremely important to a research scientist. Confidence is pure gold. It allows you to think so much, and to believe you can take on big problems because you think you have a chance of doing better than other people who have done them.
- In your talks, people can’t absorb everything you’re going to say. So remember the three things you really want people to understand and make sure they get that part.
- To successfully mentor people, give them really hard problems, maybe impossible problems. Don’t tell them that they’re impossible, and let them figure them out.
- If you don’t persist, failure is all but guaranteed. Everyone who has succeeded had to persist. Whether or not something is impossible can’t be determined if you give up too soon.
- Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. If Einstein had just trusted Newton, we would never have heard of general relativity.
- It’s important to listen and respond to your critics, but it’s just as important not to internalize them.
- Accept what you can’t do – and use your team to fill in the gaps.
- Don’t be motivated by credit. Instead, set your sights on collaboration. “It’s amazing what you can't accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
- The only reason things get scary is if you are so comfortable in what you are doing, which probably means you aren’t pushing yourself or doing anything very interesting.
- When you are indifferent to adulation, that frees you to focus more on the process, to do the work that would lead to adulation anyway.
- Take bigger risks – Don’t knock an idea before you’ve tried it out.
- Young kids – five years old, seven years old – are incredibly curious. They want to know everything. Somehow, in the educational system, we kill curiosity. We dampen our curiosity as we age. And we hamstring the achievement of big rewards when we think too conservatively.
- Conclusion: They (the Nobel Laureates) all admit the role of luck played, while simultaneously exhibiting the kinds of work ethic and determination that prove luck is never enough. While the public knows and occasionally envies these scientists, many among us still have not had the opportunity to appreciate the struggles they faced and hard work they put in. Further, they discuss their work and successes with a lack of flamboyance, arrogance, or swagger. Their modesty and humility encourage the rest of us that what matters most is activity of mind and hustle. Although we can’t emulate luck, we can match work ethic and philosophy. In these pages, they also reveal the secret sauce that fuels it all: curiosity.
- No matter what you have already achieved, your best days lie ahead.
- Passion versus curiosity: When curiosity drives you, you’ll always go deeper than a hobby could push you to. When you’re passionate about something, you engage in that subject matter to get a quick dopamine hit. But when you’re truly curious, that dopamine hit would never be enough. Curiosity triggers different reward mechanisms that are more sustainable, that lead to resiliency. It’s great to be passionate about things. You may feel passionate about more than a dozen things. But when building a career and legacy, put your time and effort instead into what makes you most curious. Further, if you can maintain curiosity – which is essentially an admission that there’s more for you to learn about a subject – then you will never fall into the trap of considering yourself an expert. And if you don’t see yourself as an expert, then you’re less likely to suffer from the imposter syndrome.
- The more I encountered these individuals [the Nobel Laureates] as human beings, the more I saw they were ordinary people, facing the same insecurities, challenges, struggles, and fears we all face.
- In the beginning of your career, nobody notices you, much less thinks you’re a charlatan. Therefore, in the beginning of your career, take advantage of that anonymity to master your craft. Then, once you have acquired the skills to be a master, remind yourself gently and often that everyone has the same self-doubts and destructive inner narrative. You must give yourself enough compassion to grow beyond these limiting beliefs, because the only person who thinks of you as an imposter is you – not your college professor, your peers, or your boss, and certainly not the Nobel laureates in this book who almost all suffer from the same condition. That gives me [the author] comfort, and I hope it does for you too.– Một cuốn sách hay – :)
Chào cả thế giới! :)
Đây là trang blog (mới) của Vũ Nguyễn.
Hôm rồi lang thang trên mạng, vô tình lướt phải blog của Sam Altman (CEO nổi tiếng của OpenAI) trên nền tảng blogging posthevan này.
Tò mò tìm hiểu thêm một chút, mình không mất nhiều thời gian để quyết định sẽ thử viết blog ở đây từ hôm nay (2024-3-24). Mình bị cuốn vào sự đơn giản của Posthevan, đơn cử như:
- Giao diện tối giản, dễ dùng.
- Có thể post nhanh chóng bằng cách gửi email.
- Dùng một năm trở lên thì trang blog sẽ tồn tại vĩnh viễn (theo như cam kết của người sáng lập).
Sau một vài năm thử viết blog trên một số nền tảng khác nhau (Wordpress, Hostinger), mình nhận thấy điều khó nhất của viết blog là duy trì đăng bài – một công việc đòi hỏi nhiều công đoạn.
Với posthevan, khi số công đoạn cần thiết để đăng bài là tối thiểu, hy vọng mình sẽ duy trì được việc blogging thường xuyên hơn.
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Ở post đầu tiên này, mình muốn đề cập đến một suy nghĩ gần đây: Cả Đời Hạnh Phúc.
Đa số mọi người đều theo đổi một cuộc sống hạnh phúc. Mình cũng vậy.
Để có cuộc sống hạnh phúc, chúng ta thường cố gắng mỗi ngày để theo đuổi những mục tiêu của cuộc đời: công việc tốt, địa vị xã hội tốt, có một gia đình đầm ấm, vợ đẹp con ngoan...
Những điều kể trên không sai, chỉ là chúng tương đối lớn lao, sẽ thường đòi hỏi nhiều thời gian và công sức bỏ ra mà chưa chắc ai cũng đạt được (hoặc chỉ đạt được một phần).
Tuần rồi, mình bắt đầu tập trở lại thói quen ngủ thật sớm – Lên giường lúc 8 giờ tối, cách ly với các thiết bị điện tử, đọc vài trang sách sao cho 9 giờ là bắt đầu vào giấc ngủ.
Mục tiêu là: sáng dậy trước 5 giờ để có mặt làm việc ở phòng nghiên cứu từ 6 hoặc 6 giờ 30 sáng.
Kết quả là, nhờ dậy sớm (nhưng vẫn ngủ đủ giấc):
- Mình có được 3 giờ bắt đầu ngày mới với đầu óc vô cùng minh mẫn
- Đó cũng là 3 giờ yên tĩnh, tâm trí không bị quấy nhiễu bởi bất cứ thứ gì (tiếng xe cộ ngoài đường, các email trong công việc, người A hỏi cái này người B nhờ cái kia...)
- 9 giờ sáng, khi mọi người đến viện và bắt đầu mở máy tính ra check email, mình đã hoàn thành được 1/3 công việc trong ngày.
- 5 giờ chiều, mình thấy một ngày trôi qua thật đẹp, công việc hiệu quả, và thoải mái đi về mà không có cảm giác "phải cố gắng hơn nữa".
Cũng là 3 giờ làm việc, nhưng làm trước khi mọi người đến (buổi sáng) và sau khi mọi người ra về (buổi tối), cho mình cảm giác trái ngược hoàn toàn. Một bên là cảm giác vui vẻ thoải mái, tự hào vì chiến thắng bản thân, một bên là cảm giác áp lực, khá mệt nếu về nhà thật trễ.
Mình thấy hạnh phúc hơn nhờ ngủ sớm, dậy sớm, và làm việc từ sớm.
Về đến nhà tầm 6 giờ, ăn uống, tắm rửa, nghỉ ngơi một chút, mình vui vẻ kết thúc một ngày bằng việc lên giường ngủ sớm!
Mình gọi đó là Một Ngày Hạnh Phúc.
Vậy, một ngày hạnh phúc nêu trên có liên quan gì đến Cả Đời Hạnh Phúc?
Sau một tuần ngày nào cũng ngủ sớm, dậy sớm, mình chợt nghĩ:
Đời người, dù dài hay ngắn, thì cũng đều là tập hợp của những ngày 24 giờ không hơn không kém.
Đời hạnh phúc nhiều hay ít, suy cho cùng, là được tính bởi số ngày hạnh phúc nhiều hay ít.
Vậy nên, để có một đời hạnh phúc, cách tốt nhất là cố gắng để mỗi ngày đều hạnh phúc.
Mà để có mỗi ngày hạnh phúc, thì cách tốt nhất, và dễ nhất (tốn ít năng lượng nhất), là xây dựng Những Thói Quen Hạnh Phúc.
Như:
- Ngủ sớm dậy sớm
- Vận động (thể dục thể thao thì càng tốt), ăn uống điều độ
- Vui vẻ với mọi người
- Làm những công việc mình thích (và có giá trị cho người khác)
Mình nói dễ, là bởi thói quen thì chỉ khó lúc ban đầu. Khi đã hình thành được thói quen rồi, nó sẽ vào chế độ tự động, ta sẽ thực hiện nó mà không còn suy nghĩ.
Nói ví von thì thói quen hạnh phúc cũng giống như bỏ tiền đầu tư để có thu nhập thụ động vậy.
Vậy đấy, bí kíp mới để có cả đời hạnh phúc của mình đấy! Đơn giản quá mà phải không?
:)