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对于科学研究来说，学数学就如同挣钱，而做研究就如同买东西。如果没有钱，当然什么都买不到；但是光有钱不会花，也照样买不到合适的东西。这就是为什么所有伟大的物理学家都精通数学，而许多满腹经纶的数学家却成不了真正的科学家。从这个通俗的角度来看，应用数学家就是科学里的商人，把合适的数学用到合适的地方。

 

对于科学编程来说，底层的语言例如Fortran, C等，就如同传统的农业，农民必须亲历亲为地掌握每一个细节：哪天在哪里施的肥浇的水，若干天一个周期，等等等等；而高层的语言如Matlab, Maple等，则如同工业化生产，买来一个大机器，操作者只要设计好宏观的指令，这个月在西面田按A流程、东面田按B流程，然后下个月互换，等等，而不必对具体的细节过多操心。我没有贬低底层语言的意思，因为不论从哪方面来看，底层语言都比高级语言更有效率，当然了，这个效率上的优势得到体现的前提是程序的各个环节都要经过周到的设计，这也是为什么许多科学家宁愿浪费一些效率，而使用高级语言。举个例子，你可以花一天写一个C程序，然后电脑运行程序10分钟得到结果，你也可以花几十分钟写一个MATLAB程序，然后程序运行好几个小时。当然了那个精心设计的C程序运行效率更高，但是，谁的时间更宝贵？电脑的，还是你的？当然了，一旦算法被证明有广泛应用价值，需要重复利用，那么再花几天时间把程序移植到C里面，是非常必要的了。

 

对于数学家来说，这个世界上的学科只有两种：数学和非数学。数学是唯一没有错误的学科，因为所有可能的错误都在公理中被假设为正确了。而任何非数学的学科，都充满了错误，任何科学都建立于一定的实验基础之上，而实验则来源于我们对外部世界的观察，而观察本身不可能是完整的、完全精确的，因此一切规律也不可能是完整无缺的，这就是为什么在物理学发展历史上经常有先前的规律被推翻的例子。

 

对于我来说，数学是赋予我智慧的学科，请注意是智慧，不是知识。知识本身是可以积累的，但是却带不来智慧。数学因其复杂严密的逻辑体系，能激发大脑最大的潜力，前提是没有PHD(Permanent Head Damage)。

“那是最美好的时代，那是最糟糕的时代；那是智慧的年头，那是愚昧的年头；那是信仰的时期，那是怀疑的时期；那是光明的季节，那是黑暗的季节；那是希望的春天，那是失望的冬天；我们全都在直奔天堂，我们全都在直奔相反的方向--”——查尔斯.狄更斯《双城记》

 

昨天315，高中同桌的生日；想起亲爱的高中时代，突然觉得狄老的这段经典是如此贴切。来美国都两年了，总是觉得，自己一切智力和灵感的源泉，都来自于那隔了数年的高中。不论是智商、还是个性。总是习惯性地在数学课上等待老师犯错，每每教授开始演绎一段优美的证明，在我的脑海中，却总是先建立起无数反例，来反驳哪怕是一丁点的疏漏。请不要惊讶，从不知哪年起，我就养成了这个坏习惯——当然了，我也知道，我不是一个人在战斗，因为我记得，这一切都来自于理科寝室——

 

我们一知半解地记下了微积分和行列式的用法，虔诚地好似习武之人突然捡到了葵花宝典；我们通悉古汉语字典的附录、只是为了给同学取个好听的别名；我们合力让象棋第一高手精神崩溃、退出江湖；我们挑战自我、喝汤无极限；我们无视课堂、另辟蹊径。我们无聊、又快乐着，我们个性迥异、却严丝合缝。

 

当所谓的现实一点点地吞噬每个人的激情和希望，如果你经历过这一切，你就会拥有信仰——你相信自己走的路，而不在乎别人怎么说；你相信一切的挫折都只是成功之前的铺垫——只要努力，就一定可以。

IT seems as if a great deal were attainable in a world where there are so many marriages and decisive battles, and where we all, at certain hours of the day, and with great gusto and despatch, stow a portion of victuals finally and irretrievably into the bag which contains us. And it would seem also, on a hasty view, that the attainment of as much as possible was the one goal of man's contentious life. And yet, as regards the spirit, this is but a semblance. We live in an ascending scale when we live happily, one thing leading to another in an endless series. There is always a new horizon for onward-looking men, and although we dwell on a small planet, immersed in petty business and not enduring beyond a brief period of years, we are so constituted that our hopes are inaccessible, like stars, and the term of hoping is prolonged until the term of life. To be truly happy is a question of how we begin and not of how we end, of what we want and not of what we have. An aspiration is a joy for ever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity. To have many of these is to be spiritually rich. Life is only a very dull and ill- directed theatre unless we have some interests in the piece; and to those who have neither art nor science, the world is a mere arrangement of colours, or a rough footway where they may very well break their shins. It is in virtue of his own desires and curiosities that any man continues to exist with even patience, that he is charmed by the look of things and people, and that he wakens every morning with a renewed appetite for work and pleasure. Desire and curiosity are the two eyes through which he sees the world in the most enchanted colours: it is they that make women beautiful or fossils interesting: and the man may squander his estate and come to beggary, but if he keeps these two amulets he is still rich in the possibilities of pleasure. Suppose he could take one meal so compact and comprehensive that he should never hunger any more; suppose him, at a glance, to take in all the features of the world and allay the desire for knowledge; suppose him to do the like in any province of experience - would not that man be in a poor way for amusement ever after?

One who goes touring on foot with a single volume in his knapsack reads with circumspection, pausing often to reflect, and often laying the book down to contemplate the landscape or the prints in the inn parlour; for he fears to come to an end of his entertainment, and be left companionless on the last stages of his journey. A young fellow recently finished the works of Thomas Carlyle, winding up, if we remember aright, with the ten note-books upon Frederick the Great. "What!" cried the young fellow, in consternation, "is there no more Carlyle? Am I left to the daily papers?" A more celebrated instance is that of Alexander, who wept bitterly because he had no more worlds to subdue. And when Gibbon had finished the DECLINE AND FALL, he had only a few moments of joy; and it was with a "sober melancholy" that he parted from his labours.

Happily we all shoot at the moon with ineffectual arrows; our hopes are set on inaccessible El Dorado; we come to an end of nothing here below. Interests are only plucked up to sow themselves again, like mustard. You would think, when the child was born, there would be an end to trouble; and yet it is only the beginning of fresh anxieties; and when you have seen it through its teething and its education, and at last its marriage, alas! it is only to have new fears, new quivering sensibilities, with every day; and the health of your children's children grows as touching a concern as that of your own. Again, when you have married your wife, you would think you were got upon a hilltop, and might begin to go downward by an easy slope. But you have only ended courting to begin marriage. Falling in love and winning love are often difficult tasks to overbearing and rebellious spirits; but to keep in love is also a business of some importance, to which both man and wife must bring kindness and goodwill. The true love story commences at the altar, when there lies before the married pair a most beautiful contest of wisdom and generosity, and a life-long struggle towards an unattainable ideal. Unattainable? Ay, surely unattainable, from the very fact that they are two instead of one.

"Of making books there is no end," complained the Preacher; and did not perceive how highly he was praising letters as an occupation. There is no end, indeed, to making books or experiments, or to travel, or to gathering wealth. Problem gives rise to problem. We may study for ever, and we are never as learned as we would. We have never made a statue worthy of our dreams. And when we have discovered a continent, or crossed a chain of mountains, it is only to find another ocean or another plain upon the further side. In the infinite universe there is room for our swiftest diligence and to spare. It is not like the works of Carlyle, which can be read to an end. Even in a corner of it, in a private park, or in the neighbourhood of a single hamlet, the weather and the seasons keep so deftly changing that although we walk there for a lifetime there will be always something new to startle and delight us.

There is only one wish realisable on the earth; only one thing that can be perfectly attained: Death. And from a variety of circumstances we have no one to tell us whether it be worth attaining.

A strange picture we make on our way to our chimaeras, ceaselessly marching, grudging ourselves the time for rest; indefatigable, adventurous pioneers. It is true that we shall never reach the goal; it is even more than probable that there is no such place; and if we lived for centuries and were endowed with the powers of a god, we should find ourselves not much nearer what we wanted at the end. O toiling hands of mortals! O unwearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it seems to you, you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado. Little do ye know your own blessednes; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

我是傻了还是怎么的。

 

今天和导师MEETING，还有另外一个教授，卡在一个问题上了，大家聚精会神严肃地在讨论。当然了，导师严肃的时候也就只有神情严肃，手里却还把玩着一支小笔。我也不知道怎么的，不小心就瞥到他在转笔，还一副悠然自若的表情，好像得意地在说：“哈哈，小CASE，小CASE，不就小笔一支么。”坏就坏在这一瞄，正巧他手一滑，笔就淘气地掉落下来。顺着笔掉落的轨迹，我悄悄向上瞄，看到他略显狼狈的表情，哪像一个教授，简直无辜地就和对门的小宝宝在滑滑梯时候的样子有得一拼。这时候他也发现我在瞄他，四目对视。我突然忍不住大笑出来。

 

还好笑了一小下之后，总算忍住了。尴尬啊。。。希望导师不要以为我在嘲笑这个项目太简单。真的是我当时傻了，靠。

 

p.s. 1) 小恭喜nemo一下~~小有成果，再接再厉，哈哈。发了就可以毕业啦，小牛变大牛中。

      2) 迪达倒下了，米兰也倒下了，小伙子，你还站得住吗？

      3) 百度一下“数学没用”，居然出来第一个网址是我写的“数学本身是没有用的”，郁闷，本意并非如此么。。。

          哎，百度的搜索算法不好估计，乱收敛，收敛到我这里来了，TMD。

看球看多了，听来个说法叫第二年综合症，说的是许多新球员在刚来到一队时，经常表现出色，然而往往到了第二年，就趋于平庸了。原因在于第一年的时候，初来乍到，对一切都充满新鲜感，动力十足，而过了一年后，一切都熟悉了，习惯了，然后就懒散了，提不起精神了，训练水平下降，表现自然就差了。

 

感觉挺有道理的。希望自己不要得，呵呵。

 

上周末算是劳动了一把，从外面扛回来一张巨大的桌子，居然除了桌面之外全是铁做的，室友和我把吃奶的力气都用上了，拼命抬到三楼，发现桌子太大，进不了门，拿卷尺一量，一算，怎么着都进不去了。只好去实验室搞工具回来，拆了桌角，分别扛进去再装上。还买来个书架，也是要自己装的，郁闷的是横着三块板居然都没有打过孔，却要上螺钉，搞得又去拿了钻头自己量距离打孔，再拼装。美国人的东西，和他们人一样，那个重的啊。两个PHD就这么做了一天苦力。噢，是两天，前一天还搬了三张床，现在搬起来都轻车熟路了，靠，变成熟练工了。不管怎样，总算把房间整理好，现在感觉好多了，大床大桌子大书架，都不想去学校那个又小又破还有个每天震动若干次的空调的办公室了。哎。本来应该庆祝一下的，老早以前写的文章，还是本科的时候，总算发表了，苦力做下来也没感觉了。只想睡觉。

 

这周开始项目从四面八方就来了，挡也挡不住，怪只能怪自己好奇心太强，什么都要去搭，搭上了要脱身就难啦。不过也好的，把时间排得满满的，就没有机会偷懒，也没有机会得第二年综合症了，呵呵。希望米国的哥们也都忙一点啊，不要留我一个人忙，多无聊，哈哈~~

不是学习忙，而是那些生活琐事：搬家、整理、买车。特别是买车。总算在周末前一切都搞定了，安安心心过了个七夕。实在要感谢父母还有美国的朋友们，给了那么多建议，让我少走了许多弯路，还有xixi，一直都支持我所有的决定即使是有些幼稚不成熟的决定，感动得不得了。车是买得贵了点，让我变成月光加啃老了，呵呵~不过心里踏实了，一块石头落地。最近多练练，争取早日看哥们去，离得最近的条、老葛、门。

事业上，只要努力，就一定可以成功；一帆风顺固然可喜，但挫折和磨难更能带来最后成功时的成就感。

爱情上，再努力，也有可能要失败，并且越失败，越努力，恶性循环之后万劫不复，运气和感觉更重要。

男人本来就不靠直觉吃饭，所以要重事业，轻情感，好歹成功一样么，有没道理的？

刚看到的笑话，分享一下吧。摘录自新华网发展论坛http://forum.xinhuanet.com/。

你听过吗？前世500次回眸才换得今生的擦肩一过，1000次回眸才有缘今生相视一笑，像咱们这样的朋友，上辈子没干别的，光回头了。

鸭子和螃蟹赛跑，同时到达终点，难分胜负，裁判说：你俩来石头剪子布吧！鸭子大怒：黑哨啊！算计我，我一出就是布，他一出总是剪刀！

农夫要杀公鸡却逮不着，于是抓起母鸡对公鸡说：再不下来让你当光棍儿！公鸡说：你以为我傻呀，我下去她不就成了寡妇。

 一次军事演习中，一颗炮弹偏离很远，派去查看的士兵发现：炮弹落在农田里，田中正站着你，你衣衫破碎满面漆黑饱含热泪地说：偷颗白菜犯得着用炮弹轰？

清早起来，公鸡把母鸡好顿揍，别人为其拉开，问母鸡：公鸡为何打你？母鸡说我也不知道。便问公鸡，公鸡说：气死我了，它今天早晨起来下了个鸭蛋！

农民赶驴进城，遇到无赖，无赖：吃饭没？农民说：吃了。无赖：我问的是驴。农民一听，转身对驴扇两耳光：妈的，城里有亲戚也不说一声。

20年前妈抱着你在等车，人都笑话孩子长的难看，妈哭了，一个卖香蕉的老大爷拍拍妈妈说：大妹子别哭啦！把香蕉给你家猴吃吧！真可怜都饿的没毛了。

过去是美好的，未来是光明的，小伙子永远是那个小伙子——每天按时起床按时吃饭洗澡按时看电视按时发脾气，然而小伙子周围的哥们姐们，换了一批又一批。

 

那么，作为曾经或者现在生活在小伙子身边的那个你，请把那些珍贵的时光与我们分享吧！

 

特此最后一次为小伙子语录征稿，截至到8月底吧，开学前。来稿请一律发送到此邮箱，不论时间地点一概收录，当然了大学以前的目前无从考证，附照更佳。如实在不好意思或者任何其它原因无法直接投稿请由班长转述。谢谢！