The Quantum Pontiff

A Reminder To Myself

Posted by Dave Bacon on September 18, 2008
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This blog post is for me, not for you. Brought to you by a trip down memory lane visiting my adviser at Caltech.

Do something new. Do something exciting. Excel. Whether the path follows your momentum is not relevant.

Don’t dwell. Don’t get stuck. Don’t put blinders on.

Consider how the problem will be solved, not how you are going to solve it.

Remember Feynman: solve problems.

Nothing is not interesting, but some things are boring.

Dyson’s driving lesson: forced intense conversation to learn what the other has to say.

Avoid confirmatory sources of news, except as a reminder of the base. Keep your ear close to the brains: their hushed obsessions are the next big news.

Learn something new everyday but also remember to forget the things not worth knowing.

Technically they can do it or they can’t, but you can sure help them do it better when they can.

Create. Create. Create.

Write a book, listen to Sandra Tsing Loh, investigate Willow Garage, and watch Jeff Bezos to understand how to be a merchant.

Create. Create. Create.

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Comments

  1. #1 Koray
    September 18, 2008

    Watch Jeff Bezos for public speech, too. The guy is excellent.

  2. #2 David
    September 19, 2008

    I just read Sandra’s commencement speech. I am a little jealous of the people who got to meet and interact with Feynman.

  3. #3 Dave Bacon
    September 19, 2008

    I’m jealous of those who got to listen to Sandra Tsing Loh’s speech.

  4. #4 Jonathan Vos Post
    September 19, 2008

    “Remember Feynman: solve problems.”

    Words to live by!

    “I’m jealous of those who got to listen to Sandra Tsing Loh’s speech.”

    I am SO glad that I was at her Commencement Speech last year — first one given to Caltech by a Caltech alum. And that I saw this year’s Commencement speech by Robert Krulwich.

    So did you see any of the Infrared, Mcrowave, Terawave seminar going on earlier this week on campus? I looked at the Poster Session, got some free magazines and ballpoint pens and mints at the vendor tables, grabbed a cold Classic Coke, and drove off for some graduate classes at Cal State LA (towards my full-time high school teaching certificate and maybe Doctorate in Education).

    Love that campus. Love the community, and won’t let go.