This week I have seen some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen over my life. I had some interesting conversations and thoughts about language barrier and I once again got inspired by Steve Jobs, albeit “indirectly”.
The Beauty
A best friend of mine, H4X0R got inspired on Sunday from one of our friends T, who just went on a diet week, and decided that we kick off our days early with a bang: frühsport. I gladly accepted.
So on Monday morning zaviKling punctually broke off two guys sweet dreams at 7 o’clock and turned them into reality. H4X0R and I once again ride into the forests after a long time. But this time, unlike it in the winter where trees are on their bones, gray-ish and dead-looking, unlike it in the spring or summer where trees are different shades of green, it’s golden.
The golden fall, as we Beijingers describe the season, struck on me as never before: forest which is so tall and deep that light struggles to come through; trees are still with leaves, some green, most golden and some even deep red. And when you ride through, you feel the semi-softness and hear the melody orchestrated by the thick layer of leaves on which we went through, formed by tens of thousands of them, and they are golden colored.
By a corner alongside a small river I paused and was reluctant to move on. Running river, tall trees on a small rising hill, countless of golden, orange, yellow leaves on the ground, two guys on bikes. Accompanied with the early hour that we set off, this unbelievable beauty found only in oil paintings feels just unreal to me.
The Gap
As being a Chinese in Germany language barrier come up to my mind every once in a while. I now feel much better when I intensively talk to one or two Germans as a year and a half ago when I just arrived. When being with more people, however, it still feels to me as somewhat inconvenient.
I always wanted to join the conversation, but it’s hard. I can now understand what the Germans are talking about but under two conditions: I must pay full attention to it and after a delay. The first hurdle is easy to get over: I just concentrate. The second, however, is more serious. And if the topic is far from university, I may have something to say if I understand the topic and plus I happen to know the cultural background.
I realized the reason why it seems hard for me to join the conversation is that even though I realized what they are talking about, after the delay they have already driven deeper into the topic or moved on to the next. So when I feel like saying something to the topic, it was already passé. And then I get to realize the next topic but the übernext topic comes before I had a chance to talk. That can be really embarrassing when the topic happens to be humor or jokes.
But I also feel that even though I like to learn with some Germans and I always do learn from them, it’s not like this the other way around. I didn’t understand it until Thursday afternoon as I was invited by H4X0R to have some marvelous vegetables with him for dinner. I finally had the courage to ask about this concern.
And H4X0R said, after several minutes of silence, that when he learns with the Germans they have similar tempo, and more importantly they each have their own ideas about the subject and through exchanging the ideas they think deeper, correct the wrongs and make the correct richer. — And with me it’s more single-directional.
It inspires me. It may be the consequence of the different teaching philosophy of China. There is the old saying, “one day being teacher, the whole life being father”. And being father or parents means in the traditional sense, you must “xiaojing”, or “respect” him: obey him. So we don’t really discuss much; what the teacher says or how to get scores in exams is hold as the truth. Or it becomes increasing likely, with the coming of the Big Brother, it doesn’t even matter what the truth is. Things may be rectified, people get vaporized and truth become unidentifiable, so unidentifiable that people increasingly don’t try to identify them at all.
In short, you learn the truth as you are told.
But this post is not about blaming others. I’ve never liked this philosophy so much, but I have to admit through the years I am really influenced by it which is ungood.
And I think having your own idea, standpoint of subjects of study instead of reciting what other says not only helps you understand the subject deeper and more correct, it also motivates you to learn. I’ve always had my standpoint about life and co, now I have to extend it to study as well. So for those I may have already had my inner voice, I will now try to speak out; and for those I haven’t had, I will try to have one first and then to discuss.
As to the delay thing, I think in short, time+courage+sacrifice will remedy it.
The Steveness
I remember when Steve was my neighbor in Woodside, Calif., and he had no furniture. It struck me that there wasn’t furniture good enough for Steve in the world. He’d rather have nothing if he couldn’t have perfection.
And I jokingly said, “The difference between me and Steve is that I’m willing to live with the best the world can provide. With Steve that’s not always good enough.” And if you look at how he tackles building a phone, or building a laptop, he really is in pursuit of this technical and aesthetic perfection. And he just won’t compromise.
– Larry Ellison, Co-founder and CEO, Oracle
It really takes someone not so common to build products that are extraordinary. Every time I come across something about Steve, he inspires and motivates me. This time I ran across cette silhouette on CNN.com, as he is declared CNN’s CEO of the Decade.
No compromise. I used to be a guy pretty inclined on perfection. But now I can’t say that anymore. I am now more focused on balance, but even that I am not sure. I feel like I’ve gone mediocre; that proud, confident me is leaving. And that’s a sad thing. I’ve got to find what I am on this earth is about. I’ve got to get back that me courageous enough to tackle on something no one has done before. I’ve got to get that vigor back.
So that’s it for today. I will be coming back more often. What I set out to do, I must finish it.
