Hello! My name is 蔡醒诗 or Xing Shi Cai in English.
(See here if you want to know how to say my name.)
Welcome to my new home on the Internet! (Here is my old home.)
I am a mathematician/computer scientist who is interested in probability, combinatorics,
experimental mathematics and programming.
In recent years I also got interested in applying AI to research and teaching.
Recently, I moved Kunshan, China for a position of
Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Duke Kunshan University.
Here are some things which I wish I had been told when I first went to college.
Sleep well should be your top priority. (Why lack of sleep is bad for your health and Why Bill Gates thinks sleep is important.) Exercise regularly for the sake of both your mind and your body. Learn how to beat procrastination. Avoid getting addicted to tech by practising digital minimalism. Get some tips for socialising successfully. Fail-safe your important plans. Ask yourself some life-changing questions. Don’t feel ashamed for asking for help when you need.
On Learning English
Whatever your life plan is, being able to use English smoothly will offer you many practical benefits, such as studying abroad, travelling around the world, making friends from another country, etc. But more importantly, it opens up an intellectual gateway which, if you choose to take it, will profoundly change how you see the world. Learning English is one of the best ways that you can invest in yourself.
How I learned English When I moved to Canada, my English was so bad that I had trouble to order food in restaurants. But I was already there and I planned to go to graduate school in half a year. So I had no choice but to get over English.
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Why am I (still) an Academic?
Some students asked me why I decided to leave IT industry and become an academic. I think the real question is whether I think it is a good idea to try to become a professor. And the answer is a firm no.
I must emphasize that I am not advocating for abolishing PhD programs. It is important for a society to push for advancement in science and humanity. What I meant is that for the vast majority of people, a career in academic is not a good choice.
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A Pledge for a Low Waste Life
A Reckoning In recent years, plastic waste has got some of my attention. BBC’s hit documentary Blue Planet II (2017) shows me the horrific plastic pollution in our oceans. From another documentary The Story of Stuff, I learned how how the oil and plastic industry intentionally made us addicted to plastics. I also learned from a podcast by NPR (National Public Radio) that plastic recycling is more or less scam to keep us feeling OK about keep using plastics because they cannot really be recycled on a large scale.
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Eat Sleep Sit
When I read the book Strangers Drowning, I was very much impressed by the work of Ittetsu Nemoto, a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, who dedicated his life to helping suicidal people. The book also briefly described his four-year extremely harsh ascetic training in an especially strict monastery. My interest was aroused. “Why does someone willingly go through such unimaginable hardship willingly?”
This is why I picked up Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan’s Most Rigorous Zen Temple by Kaoru Nonomura. At the age of 30, Nonomura left everything behind and enrolled in Eiheiji, one of the most rigorous Zen monasteries in Japan to train as a monk. The book is his memory of his time at Eiheiji.
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Sumer of 2021 in Montreal
Why modern Stoics should read some Peter Singer
I’d like to thank Dr. Gregory Sadler for helpful comments on this post.
Who is Peter Singer? Peter Singer at The College of New Jersey, Oct 2009. Bbsrock, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. I consider myself a follower of Stoicism philosophy. In recent years, I have read attentively ancient Roman Stoics as well as modern Stoic writers. Their inspiring words have helped me tremendously in dealing with everyday challenges.
However, many of my questions about how to live a good do not have answers in either classic or modern Stoic literature. Take, for example, what would be an ideal political system? As modern Stoic writer Massimo Pigliucci pointed out, the ancient Stoics do not have a consensus. Moreover, the world we are living in today is vastly more complicated than in ancient Rome. To live a virtuous life in our time, we must go beyond Stoicism and educate ourselves about how this world works.
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On Virtue Ethics by Rosalind Hursthouse -- Chapter 11 Objectivity
A summary of Chapter 11 Objectivity
Virtue ethics rejects the sort moral objectivity which Kant aspires to. The naturalism describe in the last three chapters also rejects the type of objectivity based on empirical facts accessible from a neutral point of view. However, it also does not assume our standard list of virtues is correct without need of validation. This is the type of objectivity naturalism can offer.
But the study of objectivity should also give an account of ethical disagreement.
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On Virtue Ethics by Rosalind Hursthouse -- Chapter 10 Naturalism for Rational Animals
A summary of Chapter 10 Naturalism for Rational Animals.
What Difference Does Our Rationality Make? Unlike animals, it is primarily our actions from reason that we are ethically good or bad human beings. In ethical naturalism, rationality makes a big difference. And adding rationality does not need to add the fifth end to the four other describe in the previous chapter.
What characteristics do human have? Comparing to animals, it is hard to summarize. We enjoy and suffer from so many different things. So it seems that naturalism cannot work for humans.
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On Virtue Ethics by Rosalind Hursthouse -- Chapter 08 The Virtues Benefit Their Possessor
A summary of Chapter 08 The Virtues Benefit Their Possessor.
Can we objectively justify which character traits are the virtues? We can only do this from some already acquired ethical framework, instead from some external neutral point of view. Doing so risk just rationalize what we already believe. But if we think critically, little by little we many radically change our entire ethical outlook.
The philosopher’s task was well compared by Neurath to that of a mariner who must rebuild his ship on the open sea. We can improve our conceptual scheme, our philosophy, bit by bit, while continuing to depend on it for support; but we cannot detach ourselves from it and compare it objectively with an unconceptualized reality.
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