The "Reduction to Absurdity" approach
I remember (not fondly) the 2 years of engineering school prep-class I spent in Math. Sup M and Math. Spe M*, more than 13 years ago now. We were fed, or rather filled, with mathematical and physics theories 40 hours per week. These theories had hardly any application in our everyday’s world, for most of them. And then, there were the gems; these approaches so universally applicable that they balance two years of painful learning conjectures that had no other direct application than the exam we would pass every other week, as one of our professors put one day. Some of the most applicable lessons were a set of very general approaches to resolving problems.
Today, I will just touch on one of these methods: The resolution of problems by “reduction to absurdity”. This approach is basically saying, because we know that a statement cannot be true and false at the same time, if a situation can only be either A or B, and I can prove to you that it cannot be B because fundamental theories would , then it is A.
Anna Quindlen - American University Graduation Ceremony Speech
… sharing with you a most meaningful speech -
This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.
“I’m a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don’t Ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.
People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter’s night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve received your test results and they’re not so good.
Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and they to me.
Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre at my job if those other things were not true.
You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are.
So here’s what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay check, the larger house. Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast?
Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of our kids’ eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.
I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby’s ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived”.
Deeper than the ocean - The world that lives in us: the ingredients of the ‘champion mindset’
I found this book when I was in Singapore with Ting and Tara. Once back in the US, I could not find it, even on Amazon. It seems that it was released only in Asia, Australia and Europe, but not in the US. Nothing astonishing here. In the US, trying to “breed a champion” from a child would get laughs or on the contrary, very animated push backs. Such is not the case in Singapore.
Looking at this simple fact reminds me the bewilderment that filled me when I saw how busy these kids were, there. From direct experience in the US, Europe and Singapore, I feel that the US are the more lenient with, with less hours, shorter classes, less pressure to perform. Even more serious of consequences, the range of attitudes includes dedication as an exception to the general disinterest and the other peer pressures that come in the way. This probably comes from the fact that education is not seen as an element of success. People succeed without it, all around their eyes. And be it a Paris Hilton, who keeps “talking stupid” and making millions (at this point, her inheritance will probably not even matter), or the drug dealer around the corner, there is a certain disillusion in our kids minds, and this might waste a generation. To some extent, this despair has propagated to Europe, with the disappearance of the middle class and the consternation that even the kings highways like engineering schools only lead you at the bottom of ladder.
Such is not what I saw in Singapore.
at least till the bachelor (after there is competitive pressure from foreign students). My personal experience of school in France would set Europe as second, as I clearly remember longer days, longer classes, more homework, more abstraction, more demands in general (but less creativity and pragmatic discovery as a flip side). Now comes Singapore, heavy weight champion of education. I felt they bred champions like chicken lay eggs when I met Ting and her brother. She was accepted at Wellesley College after completing high school in Singapore, and decided to go to Brown for her MS, and her brother finished his MBA at MIT in a year or so… But now I understand. Kids are literally driven from school to after school, to artistic activities, to sport, to… well, that was a tad too much for me.
I guess this book aligns with this trend of intensity. but adds a dimension of humanity to this frenzy, which, in all honesty, does not seem to freak out the kids, because all these activities are made fun, entertaining, and as engaging as could be.
In a nutshell, I need to read this book, and you might want to as well. It covers not only the intellectual, but also moral and emotional development of a kid, inspires through great quotes, is well illustrated. I regret not buying it after reading it at the Singapore National Library.
On my search, I found MindChamps, which refers to the book, and could be full of good ideas for Tara. I also found a link at Singapore Polytechnic Library. It gives the publisher and ISBN 10 (9812613854) and 13 (9789812613851), which should be enough to place an order on Amazon Australia or something.