Wednesday is gone now. I have been doing experiments but the measurement is remote and automated so I just need to watch the progress while discussing the result with my collaborators. I also prepared a presentation for a conference in Taiwan on Friday. My presentation was recorded and I will be there for just Q&A. Hopefully it goes all smoothy.
Yesterday, I was asked to write a recommendation letter for someone who will be get promoted in China. I think he is going to be in a professor position. I am happy to be asked to write. For my career, I still think I am just a young and early career but it seems I am already in the position to write a recommendation letter. As been helped by other scientists like my previous boss, I am thankful to them. I am glad to do something helpful to other people. I will do my best to write a good recommendation letter.
I just listen to someone talking about the benefit of reading books, and watching movies. What do you actually get from these experiences? The answer is not much. One thing you can get is reminding your past experience. If the experience reminded your past experience and you learned from it, maybe you can have benefited from the experience. But other than that, it is not actually much. Why? He claims you need to take on some action after that, otherwise, you can’t get anything. For example, if you watch the movie some guy who was poor and did hard work to succeed in the movie, maybe you can be moved. But if you don’t do any action based on what you have learned from that movie, you are not actively learning. It is a simple truth but this was a good reminder. If you watch a DVD that teaches you Karate, after watching you might have felt you became stronger, but it is actually not. You have to practice to get stronger.
So we have been experiencing a lot through many forms of virtual experiences like books, movies, Youtube movies, presentations, SNS, and so on. We need to take active action to learn from it otherwise we are not getting much. So let’s try something if you want learn from them. For me, as a scientist, let’s keep doing experiments so I can actually learn something by doing something, not by reading textbooks or papers.