Half way through
回想半截人生：译天
资, 天命, 胜者心态与
感恩
Anthony K. H. Tung, 邓锦浩
National U. of Singapore
atung@comp.nus.edu.sg
I was not the first choice for all this
because I am always the slowest in
class. But I work the hardest on
• Mostly
a blur
now,
whatever
task that
is given
eventually
three
whenbut
others
fail, I things
took over and
succeed.
stand out:
Early years
I always
start behind
What –
drove
me? Parent
and
others
grandmother
who came into the room
to cane
when Iwant
forgotto
some
– me
I always
winof the
dance steps!
– I always manage to
improve and go to
the front
• Examples:
The trend continued…
• Primary school ranking
– 1978: 14/40
The year I got
– 1979: 10/41
caned because
– 1980: 8/40
my marks was
lower than
– 1981: 5/39
previous year!
– 1982: 1/37
– 1983: 1/37
• Secondary school ranking
– 1984: 9/40
– 1985: 10/40
– 1986: 6/42
– 1987: 2/42
By the time I was 16, I learn that…
• I am probably average (天
资有限) but that can be
overcome with a winning
mentality (胜者心态)
• Winning Mentality(胜者
心态)
– The desire to overcome
challenges and meet
targets that one set for
oneself regardless of one’s
limitation
Choices
• One have no choice on whether one is born
rich or poor, handsome or ugly etc. There are
too many “no choices” in life
• But one can choose to be nice, to be
hardworking and to have a winning mentality
• Life is beautiful because of these choices
among the “no choices”
BSc, MSc, Phd…
• Subsequently, it was
always the winning
mentality that get me
through..
• 1992-1996: BSc. (2nd
Upper)
• 1997-1998: MSc.
• 1998-2001: Phd.
– Completed by sleeping 5
hours on the floor of the
lab. everyday
Career after Phd.
• Measured in term of number of SIGMOD/VLDB
papers
6
5
5
4
4
3
3
Series1
2
2
1
1
0
0
0
1
2
3
0
4
5
• Again starting with nothing…
6
7
8
So what really is you life about?
• 子曰：吾十有五而志于学，三十而立，四十而
不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳顺，七十而从
心所欲不踰矩
• Mission from heaven(天命)
– Use to sound superstitious to me
– But it is really a question of what you can do to
maximize the impact of you talents and the
opportunities that are given to you
– one never know exactly what exactly it is. you should
just do your best with a winning mentality to find out
– How about starting with “立志”？
Who should join us?
"I
have a lot of respect for people, not because of their
talent but for what they do with their talent and how
they get the maximum from their talent. What do you
do to get talent? You have the right genes, or the right
parents. But what you do with that talent is down to
you. I have met many people who had lots of talent,
but they never did anything."
--- Arsene Wenger on "talent", Sep 2007
Not necessary the smartest, but need to be sincere and
want to do something with their talents.
Advises
• Easy come, easy go
– pick an easy topic to go into means others can easily go into
it as well
• How can you distinguish yourself from others when
you graduate?
• Focus
– sincerity (诚) -》 peace (静) -》 emptiness (空)
– 子曰：吾十有五而志于学，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天
命，六十而耳顺，七十而从心所欲不踰矩
Stages in Mastering Anything
• 诚->静->空
• 诚 (Sincerity)
– Sincerity bring out the best in a person so much so that he can
bring out the best in the universe
– 《中庸》 第二十二章 : 唯天下至诚，为能尽其
性；能尽其性，则能尽人之性；能尽人之性，则能
尽物之性；能尽物之性，则可以赞大地之化育
• 静 (Peace)
– The highest form of sincerity bring peace
– 故至诚无息。不息则久，久则征，征则悠远，悠远
则博厚，博厚则高明。博厚，所以载物也；高明，
所以覆物也；
– 无”自心”, Losing yourself
Emptiness(空)
• 空：Throw away after learning
• 空：A free mind，see things from many
angles and many things can connect.空=通
• 佛家(Buddhism)： 本来无一物，何处惹尘埃
• 道家(Taoism)： To be like water 水
• 儒家(Confucianism)：To be able to act freely
without doing wrong 从心所欲不踰矩
• 基督教(Christianity): Everything is given to
God anyway.
Examples
Sincerity
Peace
Emptiness
Football
Fall in love with
football
Keep watching and
keep practicing
Forget all about the
techniques, do things
as they come. Feel
your teammates
without looking
Learning a Song
Fall in love with a
song
Keep listening
and keep singing
Sing the song
with your own
style
​ Attachment(执着)
• Attached to paying the least to get the most
• Attached to how to make the boss happy
• Attached to which direction is the hottest and
which big name is doing what
• Attachment is the biggest opponent of
creativity
• Sincerity is not there with the wrong
motivation
Freeing the Mind
Physics
Real World
Poetry
Languages are
descriptive
interfaces (always
contain information
loss)
Computer
Science
Morality
Biology
Mathematics
(Statistics etc.)
Personal Cultivation and Scientific Research
• Both are a search for Truth(真理)
• Students are encourage to seek the Truth about
themselves with the same passion as seeking for
scientific Truth. (会要求心境提升的人，会以同样的态
度提高科学修养)
• Scientific research can be inspired by personal cultivation
– 太级生两仪，两仪生四象，四象生八卦，八卦演万
物 (I-Ching)
– 万物分而不分，there are always similarity and
dissimilarity
• At 25, when you look back, are you a better person?
• Will you be a better person when you look back at 35, 45,
55, 65?
Sub-Mission of the Group
Honesty
Scientific
Research
Belief in the Truth
Society
Maturity
Open Mindedness
Character building
through scientific
research
Gratitude(感恩)
• To be born in a healthy family with loving
parents
• To be born in Singapore
• To have many good classmates, friends and
colleagues along the way
• 懂得感恩就懂得惜福就更懂得努力