Nov.12 entrance slip

One thing that made me stop was that people are literally saying "It didn't happen" or "It was a fluke" when new observations occur, out of one's expections. It is common for human beings to avoid new knowledge because they want to fall back to their own comfort zones. It feels good to stay where you are and not bring in new surprises to the "old comfort world". However, this is not the scientific spirit. We should also teach our students to explore the world beyond their previous expectations and norms and tell them that it's okay to do so. It's okay to challenge ourselves and to challenge the "experts" as long as the idea is well-justified. Another thing that made me stop was that ""If not now, when?" IF the undergraduate years are devoted to getting the grades to get into graduate school, and .....and the first several years of this assistant professorship are devoted to getting tenure, then are you going to do original work you believe in?" I think this is a very practical question. In real life many people are struggling to reach the standards and requirements to get into the next level, due to the pressures of life. However, how many people still remember to do their own work that they believe in? Since in the academic world, it is no different than the real world outside: "Cecillia presented evidence that the cosmos was made up principally of hydrogen. When her thesis supervisor questioned this, she accepted these doubts and published that her estimate is 'improbably high, and is almost certainly not real.'" This is another stop I had. It is true that sometimes we yield to the "experts' opinions" and doubt our own discoveries despite it's true. It is the same as yielding to the boss's requirements even though we might think our original idea is better. However, sometimes our own ideas are actually the truth and the world will prove that later on. So it is really important to stick to our own ideas despite of the outside forces and be able to say to the world that "my idea is well-justified". It should not be easily ignored.

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