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”？
"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
Stages in Mastering Anything
• 诚->静->空
• 诚
– 《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
– 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”,
空
• 空：了解后丢掉称为空
• 空：无执着， 能随意变通，能从很多的角
度看问题请
• 佛家： 本来无一物，何处惹尘埃
• 道家： 水
• 儒家：从心所欲不踰矩
• 基督教？
执着
• 执着于怎样在以最少的付出，得到最大的
成果
• 执着于怎样才能让老板高兴
• 执着于那个方向最热， 那个大牛做什么
• 执着是创意的最大敌人
• 出发点不对，无法至诚
个人修养与科学研究
• 都是对真理的一种追求
• 会要求心境提升的人，会以同样的态度提
高科学修养
• 科学研究也可以从个人修养中得到灵感
– 太级生两仪，两仪生四象，四象生八卦，八卦
演万物
– 万物分而不分，there are always similarity and
dissimilarity
• 25岁往回望，你满意吗？
• 35岁往回望，你会满意吗？
总结
• 天命
• 诚->静->空
• 个人修养与科学研究
感恩
• 感恩能生长在一个穷困但健康的家庭
• 感恩能生长在新加波
• 感恩能有很多的好朋友，好同学， 好同事
和我一起走过这段路
• 懂得感恩就懂得惜福就更懂得努力