Enjoying Cooking

I'd like to cook my experimental tomato soup. It'll have tomatoes and potatoes and carrots. I'll also like to buy some bread so I can make eggs-in-a-hole. This dish is quite simple and I learned it from my Texan friend Stefan. You take a piece of bread and fry it on a pan. Hollow out a circle in the middle and put an egg inside. This way, the egg will be fried and confined within the bread and it will join together with the toast.

Cooking is fun when I see it as a game where I can try different things to make different dishes. When I'm the only one eating food, there doesn't seem to be much motivation. Tomato soup requires a combination of corn flour and water to give it the thick feel. In other words, a combination of corn flour and water increases the viscosity of the fluid. You first put in tiny chopped pieces of tomato in the pot along with small pieces of garlic and cook at a low heat with water.  Add in small pieces of cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables such as onions, cucumbers and scallions (spring onions). Put the top on and boil at low heat for 20 minutes. Add in the eggs when the tomatoes are no longer solid. At the end, if the broth is not thick enough, add in corn flour and water.

My Rocket Journey

My journey towards my dreams is like a multistage rocket heading out to space. First, I set my coordinates and then the path to get there. I made sure that my dream was higher up than many so that my trajectory would be more inclined towards the vertical than the horizontal. I would like my rocket to spend most of its journey heading up instead of horizontally.

Unfortunately, over the last years, I have uncovered that one of my rocket engines on the second stage are failing. A failed second stage prevents the third stage or any stage after that from firing. The spectators believe this is since I haven't fired my engines with full thrust. Since they are not the chief engineer in charge of the rocket design, they don't know that one of my engines is misfiring in the opposite direction of flight. Tired of trying to explain and not seeing continued results, I informed the spectators that I'll be taking a break from test launching rockets.

Instead, I retreated to my machine shop and thoroughly examined the malfunctioning engine. Previously, quick fixes were applied to satisfy the launch dates set by spectators. Now, I decided to work on my own schedule and repair the engine as much as possible before continuing. In the coming months, I hope to recover it well enough that I can once again launch.

Literature: Reading Taste

I just spent some time reading some short stories by Mulk Raj Anand, a famous 20th century Indian writer. There are many accomplished writers from other cultures that I do not read much. These authors, though appreciated by the literary critics and those who studied liberal arts, are under-appreciated by the public at large, even by those who read a lot. Nowadays, if I read fiction, I find myself mostly absorbed in science fiction or fantasy. They're typically very entertaining but not very deep or intellectually fulfilling. It's like eating ice cream or candy compared to eating rice or meat.

When I was younger, I delighted in reading kid's magazines such as Highlights, Boy's Life, and Cricket. I especially liked Cricket since it was a kid's literary magazine with stories, cartoons, and assorted articles. As I grew older though, my taste changed and the magazines I read shifted towards more worldly concerns such as the Economist and Times. However subtly, I relinquished my zeal of reading well-written meaningful literature and opted instead for news, politics, business, and science fiction.

企业家的必有：智商（IQ）和情商（EQ）

昨日我妈给我发了一篇新闻讲英国的一个叫Nick D'Alosio的高中生卖了他的软件给雅虎公司，一下子就得到估计三千万美元，并且立马成为雅虎的一位雇员。当我读了New York Times^的新闻报告之后，我对他的背景起码有了初步的了解，尤其注意了他同时拥有智商和情商。他的智商必定很显然，能编出算法可以缩短长篇信息给读者轻易的读是需要高等的技术。可使他可以在十五岁就拿到风险资本家的支持是因为他有充分的情商，知道怎么跟人家说明他的想法并且可以使人家对他有信任。Brian Wong，之前世上最年轻收到创业基金的企业家，说Nick D'Alosio没有任何犹豫或不安全感，明确表达了他对Summly软件的目标。

在科技世界里同时拥有智商情商的人并不多，往往技术人员缺少情商而商人却缺少科技智商*。当我在学校时上有关商业课时，我发现学商业的学生打扮外貌和表达能力远远超过工程学生的。出了校园在各种活动上我发现并没有太多的区别，在跟某个陌生人在某个会场沟通时，我一般可以猜测这位是否是工程师或科学家。我建议缺少情商的人该把自己放到不太舒服的社交环境里，逼自己实验怎么跟外人交流！同时我也建议缺少智商的人该花时间学些技术性的知识或技术，多读读科技的报纸很文章，试试编写一些简单的程序，或做些简单的实验，这样说不定在脑子里会突然冒出个千万美元的主意！

^http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/business/media/nick-daloisio-17-sells-summly-app-to-yahoo.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1364394786-sLelxUMGe6Xfywh43ep8uQ

*在这里，我指的智商是对科技有关的知识和技术。

Self-Improvement: Skills and Knowledge/技术和知识

Someone told me recently that highlighting my skills is better than pigeon-holding my role to that of aerospace. In other words, my skills can be transferable across multiple disciplines whereas my knowledge typically cannot. Skills is the how while knowledge is the what.

While doing research though, much of what happens initially is not developing skills but rather building a foundation of knowledge. The knowledge give you the bricks that can form a house and the skills give you the tools to put the bricks together. Without knowledge, just having skill is not enough while with skill and no knowledge, you have to learn a lot.

My mother is a good example. When she switched from forestry to oncology (cancer research), she had to quickly build her knowledge of the human body. Previously, she only knew about plant cells so she had to learn about human cells from the bottom up. However, since she had the skills of a molecular biologist, she could still do research while learning about how the human cells work.

If you only have skills and knowledge, you can be a good scientist or engineer but not an excellent one. The last element you need is creativity. This will be discussed in another short essay later.

今早当我在洗澡时，突然想起来一月前修改简历的事情。一个在石油行业的家伙打了电话给我提议我的简历需要修改因为我在上面提到太多次“太空”这个词，说我因该强调我的可以多种行业运转的技术。

但是，当在做研究时，不少一开始发生的不是发展技术而是建立知识基础。知识会给你可以建好房子的砖块，技术可以给你工具拼合砖块。两项不能缺少一项。

我母亲是个好例子。当她从林学转到肿瘤学时，她之前只懂植物细胞，没研究过人体细胞。但是因为她有分子生物学的技术，当她在学人体细胞是同时可以做研究。

要是你只有技术和知识，你可以是个不错的科学家或工程师但不可能是个优秀的。最后需要的成分是创造力。这在以后的短篇散文再提吧。