I am currently reading “why nations fail”. Honestly, I have not followed the author’s claim so far. There are many cases are shown by author, such as French, Britain, Japan, China, the U.S., and so on. I could not see the consistency of what the author claiming. I think the centralization of power in the nation is key, but I am not sure that only this parameter can explain everything. I will have questions about this matter next several days, maybe weeks. I am thinking of reading related books about this matter.
I had heard from one of Physics journal. They sent me the referee comments on the paper I submitted in July. The comments are positive, I believe the publisher is willing to publish the paper. So, I am reading the critique for my paper as deeper as possible, I am planing to revise paper. The referee thought highly of the data, but he has some qualms about my paper, especially for interpretation of the data. I need to address my clarification to publish paper. This is good news. I hope this paper will be published.
To do writing homework for “Paraphrasing”, I was reading the article from the Economist called “No loopy idea”. This article described the possibility of next new train system, which run in large vacuumed tunnel in California area. Unlike the other Economist article, my impression about this article is “not well written”. I am not native reader but I felt so, so that the next question I have to answer is “why do you think so?” I need to have this sense, why this English is “good” or “bad”.
Why is the key. Someone said “The person who know how to do always has the job. The person who also know why is always his boss.” I could find this saying in the book “How life imitates chess” written by Garry Kasparov who is the strongest chess player in history. He explains that this “why” can make turn bad tactics into good tactics. Therefore, only the strategist who always ask himself “why” can have good tactics to his goal.
And now, I am reading books in University library. I like reading here, because they open until late and they serve coffee. I can just focus on my reading. I like it. The Univ. of Virginia has several library, they compete each other, most of them open until midnight, some of them open 24 hours. That is surprising. The university gives the student at least the opportunity to study hard. The students can ask themselves why they need to study hard, can’t they?