Pecking Order of Academics

1. Psychologist wants to be social scientist. 
2. Social scientist wants to be economist. 
3. Economist wants to be chemist.
4. Chemist wants to be physicist.
5. Physicist wants to be mathematician. 
6. Mathematician wants to be God. 

Freedom

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual toward freedom."

–Albert Einstein

Flaws of Stock Chart Reading (Stock Technical Analysis)

Quoted from the book "Security Analysis" (1951, third version) by Benjamin Graham, et al. On page 653, he remarked about the Chart Reading (Market Analysis):

... Security analysis and market analysis are alike, therefore, in the fact that they deal with data that are not conclusive as to the future. The difference, as we shall point out, is that the security analyst can protect himself by a margin of safety that is denied to the market analyst. [margin of safety refers to buying way below the intrinsic business value of the stock]

.. human impatience plus the exigencies of the chart reader's profession impel him to draw more frequent conclusions from less convincing data.

... The stock speculator does suffer, in fact, from a well-nigh incurable ailment. The cure he seeks, however, is not abstinence from speculation but profits. Despite all experience , he persuades himself that these can be made and retained; he grasps greedily and uncritically at every plausible means to this end.

The plausibility of chart reading, in our opinion, derives largely from its insistence on the sound gambling maxim that losses should be cut short and profits allowed to run. ... But in this conclusion there lurks a double fallacy. Many players at roulette follow a similar system, which limits their losses at any one session and permits them at times to realize a substantial gain. But in the end they always find the aggregate of small losses exceeds the few large profits. (This must be so, since the mathematical odds against them are inexorable over a period of time). The same is true of the stock trader, who will find that the expense of trading weights the dice heavily against him.
...

Excepts from the Book "A new kind of science" by Stephen Wolfram

In the end the Principle of Computational Equivalence encapsulates both the ultimate power and the ultimate weakness of science. For it implies that all the wonders of our universe can in effect be captured by simple rules, yet it shows that there can be no way to know all the consequences of these rules, except in effect just to watch and see how they unfold.

Free Will: What makes us think there is freedom in what a system does? In practice the main criterion seems to be that we cannot readily make predictions about the behavior of the system. It seems likely that the individual steps in each train of thought follow quite definite underlying rules. And the crucial point is then that I suspect that the computation performed by applying these rule is often sophisticated enough to be computationally irreducible -- with the result that it must intrinsically produce behavior that seems to us free of obvious laws.

Second Law of Thermodynamics: No reasonable experiment can ever involve setting up the kind of initial conditions that will lead to decreases in randomness, and that therefore all practical experiments will tend to show only increases in randomness. But it may not be universally valid, some celluar automata can exhibit self organization.

Ultimate mode of universe: I strongly suspect that the vast majority of physical laws discovered so far are not truly fundamental, but are instead merely emergent features of the large-scale behavior of some ultimate underlying rule. Could it be that underneath all the complex phenomena we see in physics there lies some simple program which , if run long enough, would reproduce our universe in every detail?

Data compression: all the compression methods can be thought of as corresponding to fairly simple programs.

Cryptography: using celluar automaton to generate encryption key.

Quotes from An Ancient Book

<<长短经>>

养失而泰，乐失而淫，礼失而彩，教失而伪。

察于刀笔之迹者，既不知理乱之本；
习于行阵之事者，既不知庙胜之权。

儒以文乱法，侠以武犯禁。

兵胜于外，义强于内。

欲不可纵，志不可满。

式于政，不式于勇；
式于廊庙之内，不式于四境之外。

Most Favorite Quotes

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living. - Henri Poincaré 

Live with your century, but don't be its creature. - Friedrich von Schiller 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. - Robert Frost 

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations. - George Bernard Shaw 

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. -Helen Adams Keller 

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching. Sing like nobody is listening. Live like it's Heaven on Earth. -author unknown-

“There is only one liberty, to come to terms with death, thereafter anything is possible.”

― Albert Camus

One is only happy in proportion as he makes others feel happy and only useful as he contributes his influences for the finer callings in life.

— Milton S. Hershey

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

― Albert Einstein

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Favorite Quotes

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. -Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. -Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness. -Joseph Campbell Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing. -Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) Our sincerest laughter \ With some pain is fraught; \ Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. -Shelley Life is life--whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage. -Sri Aurobindo When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] "Love does not consist in gazing at each other but looking together in the same direction." The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth. -Chinese proverb If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and alway serious money, that can be intellectually stimulating s will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with. We shall never cease from exploration \ And the end of all our exploring \ Will be to arrive where we started \ And know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment of knowledge always pays the best interest. -Benjamin Franklin I like simple, if it's complex then I don't understand it. -Seymour Cray, inventor of the Cray supercomputer Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf. -Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet (1861-1941) some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can't control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible. accomplishing what can be accomplished and abandoning unproductive worry over what cannot. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. -Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) The way I see it, if you want to be entirely by technology or replaced by a machine. The repetitive work that people used to do in factories is being done by machines or robots. You look around the world and almost any job thatt rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. -Dolly Parton If words are to enter men's minds and bear fruit, they must be the right words shaped cunningly to pass men's defenses and explode silently and effectually within their minds. -J.B. Phillips During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk. When once the risk has really been taken, then the greatest danger is to risk too much. -Soren Aaby Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813-1855) The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality. -Robert Pirsig The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity. -William Butler Yeats [The Second Coming] Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference. -Voltaire The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade. -Anthony Trollope The illusion that we are separate from one another is an optical delusion of our consciousness. -Albert Einstein There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. -James Thurber When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. -Francois de La Rochefoucauld It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) ****************************************************************** Eleanor Roosevelt wrote: Many people will walk in and out of your life, But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. To handle yourself, use your head; To handle others, use your heart. Anger is only one letter short of danger. If someone betrays you once, it is his fault; If he betrays you twice, it it your fault. Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. He who loses money, loses much; He who loses a friend, loses much more; He who loses faith, loses all. Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. Friends, you and me.... You brought another friend... And then there were 3... We started our group... Our circle of friends... And like that circle... There is no beginning or end... Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. ****************************************************** The accusations are familiar. We of the West are accused of sexism, racism, and imperialism, institutionalized in patriarchy and slavery, tyranny and exploitation. To these charges, and to others as heinous, we have no option but to plead guilty -- not as Americans, nor yet as Westerners, but simply as human beings, as members of the human race. In none of these sins are we the only sinners, and in some of them we are very far from being the worst. ***************************************************** You look around the world and almost any job that is worth having - that can earn serious money, that can be intellectually stimulating - requires a fairly sophisticated kind of thinking. That's exciting in one sense because it means that people don't have to look forward to jobs that are drudgery. It's also scary in some cases, because if you don't develop analytical skills, there aren't too many jobs left for you. I am not sure I can describe to you what being creative is, or why you feel good when you've created something, but I just know it's important. It's exciting. You feel energized when you create something. I think it is a big deal to give students a set of skills and an analytic background that allows them to create things, to invent things. By Deans Kamen ***************************************************** Advice to young person from Leo Breiman Take statistics, but remember that the great adventure of statistics is in gathering and using data to solve interesting and important real world problems. ****************************************************** ****************************************** Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching. Sing like nobody is listening. Live like it's Heaven on Earth. -author unknown- ****************************************** Don't live as if you will never die. Don't die as if you have never lived. ******************************************************** I hope you never lose your sense of wonder, You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger, May you never take one single breath for granted, GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed, I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens, Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance, And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance. I hope you dance....I hope you dance. I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, Never settle for the path of least resistance, Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin', Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin', Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter, When you come close to sellin' out reconsider, Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance, ***************************************************************

One is only happy in proportion as he makes others feel happy and only useful as he contributes his influences for the finer callings in life.

— Milton S. Hershey