The good news is that you can be as brilliant as Tiger Woods, Warren Buffet, or even Mozart! The bad news is that you are probably a bit too late. But don’t despair, there is still hope.

Geoff Colvin’s book, Talent is Overrated (ISBN: 978-1591842941), repeated what Malcolm Gladwell mentioned in Outliers that there is a magical 10,000 hours for geniuses. Anyone can perform as brilliantly as a genius after about 10,000 hours of practice. In fact, many studies revealed that the majority of those prodigious geniuses — Tiger Woods, Warren Buffet, Mozart — did just that. The only difference is that they started early and so appeared to be childhood prodigies. If you trace their training history, you will find that they all achieved the “greatness” level after about 10 years’ training.

I knew one such genius myself. It was first grade. He surpassed me oh so effortlessly on every subject and clinched #1 in class ranking without a hint of studying. I was so jealous of his brilliancy. He was the darling of every mother. “Why can’t you be like him?” I wanted to hate him, but he asked me to play at his house, so I did.

As we played, his mother was tutoring his elder brother right next to us (we all live in small apartments, there wasn’t much privacy then). And I found out why he invited me. I was his shield, his excuse, and his escape. Without I being there, his mother would have drilled and tutored him at the same time — one effort for the benefit of two. Ha! He was no genius. In fact, poor guy, he was trapped by his under-performing brother so that he couldn’t play everyday as I. We became best friends and, uh, his grades declined quickly.

So, if you wish to play like Tiger, invest like Warren, or compose like Mozart, all you have to do is put in about 10,000 hours of practice. On average, that would take about 10 years. That’s the good news. The bad news is by the time you finished that 10 years, others would have done their 20 years. Where is the hope? In professional fields and business, most people don’t really get better with time and 2,000 hours of practice are enough to make you shine. If you would spend half a day every week, that’s 4 hours a week, you will be quite good in a year’s time. If you keep it up, you will be super in about 3 years. It may be hard to be a brilliant golfer, but it takes surprising less to be better than everyone around you.

Are you willing to do 4 extra hours of practicing every week for a year? I have given this advice to many people, almost 100% had their lives get in the way: family, friends, kids, entertainment, social activities, etc. In the end, no one put in those hours.

Sadly, I concluded you really don’t want to be a genius. You just want an excuse of not being one.

Who does not want to play with a trebuchet? A massive and powerful machine that fell castles and fortresses mysteriously. It takes many people to operate. When assembled, it lobs big boulders or fireballs over long distances. The movement, observed casually, seem magical. How can it work? No one knows.

Except for this kid obsessed with trebuchets. He built numerous trebuchets and figured out pretty much every detail. Then he entered this world-class technical university and met my kid. Years later, kid got a Christmas gift in the mail.

CalTech kids are pretty much all obsessed with one thing or another. One of them held the world-record for solving Rubik’s cube, blind-folded. Yes, he can do it blind-folded in a minute while I can only work out two layers in an hour. He lubricated his cube so that it will turn precisely a quarter turn with a slight flip of his finger. You don’t get to be world-record setting without paying attention to details.

Michael Woods crowd-sourced to fund his long-time hobby. Pledges from his Kick Starter project funded a laser wood cutter to mass produce miniature trebuchets (“trebuchettes”). Kid received her very own siege weapon as a gift. “Because he promised to build me one when we first met.”

Of course, I got to test its range and accuracy. More importantly, I now know how this medieval weapon works. You can try it too!

Recently, prominent internet players coordinated a protest against the government. And they won.

Wikipeidia shut down itself for 24 hours. Google put up a censorship protest sign. Several other sites took similar action. All because the US congress was considering two bills (PIPA and SOPA) sponsored by the media industry that claimed the internet industry is killing them. They said over $500 million a year is lost due to online piracy. This has to stop!

Really? Else what? Would society lose their artists and entertainment? Would there be no programs on TV, no music on the radio, no movies in the theater, no shows on Broadway? Conversely, what if the laws pass? Would artists make more money? Would I have better music, movies, or shows?

Let’s trace money and incentives. Simply: who pays? who gets paid? who really cares?

Artists or creators do not get much of the money. Most goes to those middlemen that distribute the art. This used to be a fair deal. Creating music costs comparably little. Most of the risks in this business lie in distributing and promoting creative content. Therefore the distributors and promoters should be rewarded.

But Internet changed the dynamics. Internet distribution costs nearly zero. People purchase based on reviews and referrals, and less on promotion. An unknown artist remains unknown until he or she has acquired fame and fans. Since consumers do not take promotion seriously, the best, and probably the only, way is to distribute the works freely. For established artists, they can charge much less for the music if they cut out the middlemen.

The production costs for TV programs and movies are still prohibitively high for them to be given away free. If everyone pirates and does not pay, these industries die. Consumers understand this point and are willing to pay reasonable prices. The media industry, however, resisted this option.

Hulu, major TV network’s portal, or cable operator’s portal offer a subset of the TV programs or movies. Some programs, particularly the popular ones, are simply not offered. Others appear 48 hours later and stay for only a short period of time. For this impatient and technically savvy generation of viewers, going directly to piracy is more reliable, more available, less restriction, free of charge, and of the same quality.

I use Comcast’s “catch-up” feature quite frequently. If I missed a TV show, I will go to “catch-up” and watch the same program on-demand. I don’t mind watching the commercials, but am annoyed that they don’t show up consistently — sometime 2 days later, sometime not ever. I have already paid the cable bill. I could have DVRed the program anyway. I don’t feel guilty doing a bit of searching and downloading.

Online and on-demand viewing is the new model. Soon, only sports programs will be watched live. People are willing to pay. But media companies forced them to pirate. More laws on anti-piracy are clearly not the solution.

Embrace the new world and create a new business model. If they don’t get the “Google generation,” they will just die.

Want to become a US citizen? Tired of waiting in the tedious visa application process? No problem. For the low low price of half a million dollars (and you can get it back in a couple of years, plus interest), you can become one today!

This is the “Immigrant Investor Visa” called EB5 that grants anyone who would create 10 new jobs in the US, with about $500,000 of investment, permanent residency. According to The Economist and Seattle Business Magazine:

95 would-be immigrants, mostly Chinese, have invested nearly $48 million in a company set up to buy bonds funding the replacement for the aging State Route 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington. If the deal receives final approval, the 95 would be eligible to apply for green cards to live and work in America. The innovative deal is believed to be one of the first times the federal government’s Immigrant Investor Program, also known as EB-5, has been used to fund a public infrastructure project using municipal bonds anywhere in the United States.

I have long lamented the idiocy of US immigration policies. They are based on an ideal of fairness and justice, instead of pragmatic thinking about what’s good for the country. There are over 10 million illegal immigrants in the country, the majority of them are from Mexico and in the low-wage service industry. Yet USCIS refuses to grant even visiting visas to senior executives, engineers, or wealthy tourists.

I once attended a conference in Europe where over half of the attendants were from Silicon Valley. I asked the organizer why she didn’t just hold the conference in San Francisco. The answer was startling: “There is no way to guarantee that critical attendants can get visas into the US.” It turned out that the US requires an in-person interview to obtain a visa and the queue can be several hours long. The official reason for such policy? Part Homeland Security and part concern that they might “jump ship” and stay in the US. Those senior executives, among the elite of their society, just wouldn’t bother. They would take their money where they are welcome, instead of being suspected as a criminal.

Honestly, which country you have visited required you to interview in person to get a visa?

Other countries, most noticeably Canada, take a very simple approach: they welcome those who can make Canada better. Anyone can get a Canadian green card by buying a house that is more than $500,000. Many believe that was a key driver to Vancouver’s and Toronto’s real estate market.

Wall Street Journal estimated that a $500,000 income would put one nearly at the top 1% of the US population. Washington state now has 95 new residents who are at the top of the US income scale. Keep them coming. Each and every one of them will spend money, lots of it, in the state. And we like that. Right?

周瑜和諸葛亮的競爭,是三國中的個小插曲. 最後,周瑜長嘆,認輸了.

書中描述周瑜是個文武雙全的美男子. 他娶了美女小喬. 又是吳國軍方第一把. 也就是說,他是天之驕子,世界上該有的:名,利,外表,內涵,權勢,美妻,他都有了. 幹嘛還跟諸葛亮爭什麼爭呢? 因為”贏”的追求是個無底洞,永遠不會滿足的.

赤壁之戰,周瑜大勝. 但幾次他要殺諸葛亮都沒成. 徣完東風後,諸葛亮飄然而去. 周瑜知道這下不好搞了.

一氣周瑜是諸葛亮巧取南郡,稱周瑜鬥曹:”用計策，損兵馬，費錢糧＂他趁虛而入圖了個現成. 再氣周瑜是有名的”賠了夫人又折兵”. 用美人計不成,反賠了個孫權的妹妹孫尚香.最後,諸葛亮識破周瑜”假途滅虢”計,又大敗瑜於荊州.把周瑜氣到巴丘而亡. 成了三分天下.

周瑜如果誠心聯劉破曹,是有成功的機會的. 但他一心想先吃下劉備,壯大東吳後,再攻曹操. 這策略也不能說是錯了. 畢竟聯軍不如自己一國方便. 何況劉備羽翼未成,乘弱先吃也好. 不幸栽在諸葛亮手下,大計不成. “既生瑜,何生亮”,遺憾而亡.

當年北京一個個黃髮垂髫小女孩們,不但已嫁了一群,幾個還當媽了. 感嘆真的老了. 電郵恭賀這個,閒閒扯出了中國的剩女話題. 這詞指的是越來越多的過了適婚年齡的女性同胞. 諧音的聖女,暗指這些高齡女子,都不好”搞定”,男人望而卻步. 成了娛樂界的熱門談笑話題.

其實,中國不過是跟著個世界模式走罷了. 當然,中國的規模,會比別的”先進”國家大幾倍.

現代都市女性,高薪高學歷,學歷,資歷,工作能力不亞同齡男子. 女孩家心細周到,說寫溝通能力普遍較強.上台一般亮些. 近十年來,她們發現,除了要找個伴侶,她們並不需要個丈夫. 要同時做賢妻良母,還得不輸巾幗,不大容易. 許多決定一個人過日子,簡單些.

中國都市女性結婚的首要原因是”孩子得有個爸”. 西方國家連這都放棄了,她們不婚生子的比率越來越高. 男性的角色和種牛差不多.

剩女是個社會的抉擇. 女性逐漸遠離她們的傳統角色,男性沒有這轉變,所以要求對方不變. 現代社會在經濟上沒有任何要結婚的壓力或誘因. 雙方漸行漸遠,不但剩女多,光棍更多.

光棍和剩女的唯一差別是他們的生育力. 中國女性不願未婚生子. 她們得”找個歸宿”或犧牲母性. 可能既有家庭幸福,又有成功事業嗎? 剩女問題是要既主內又主外壓力下的副產品. 絕大部分的婦女,知道做不到,但不能抉擇,一拖幾年,悔恨光陰不再,就成了剩女了. 其實男性幾千年來早搞清楚了,這是極難事. 他們的解決方案是”討個好老婆顧家.” 只是這招對女流不管用.

In the 1930s (before the first computer was constructed), one Alonzo Church introduced Lambda Calculus to the field of mathematics. In short, this obscure field of math introduced a structured way to substitute symbols.

Imagine you can give a set of symbols a shorthand and can selectively replace part of the symbols with something else. For example, you can call a complicated construction of fabric and other materials “shirt.” Then you can substitute the color of the “shirt” with “blue.” Voila, you have a blue shirt.

λ-calculus also defined a way to reduce a long set of symbols into a much shorter one; such as the set of symbols “3 + 2″ can be “reduced” to “5.”

This sound too geeky to you? Sorry, but computers are dumber than you think. With symbol substitution and reduction, all computation can be performed mechanically — the mathematical theory behind computation. Without λ-calculus, there would be no mechanical computation, without that, there will be no computers, without that, there will be no iPad, cell phones, or MP3 players.

A separate thread of developments was also going on at the hardware side of the computer science. Cut to the chase, one Alan Turing (founder of computer science) invented the Turing Machine that can execute λ-calculus. Then one John von Neumann turned that into a real computer, from which ENIAC was built, in the 50s.

When it came to how to program that machine, the world quickly divided into two camps: one to program it as closely as how the machine was built, and the other based on λ-calculus. The first camp invented Fortran and COBOL. Both were terrible. Then they kept on tweaking and changing until the world had C/C++, Java, Python, PHP, etc. The λ-calculus camp came up with a language called Lisp. Lisp has pretty much stayed the same since the 50s and has had very few variations. (Scheme is my favorite.)

Lisp had its glory in the 80s as the premiere choice for artificial intelligence. It has pretty much retreated into academia as a teaching tool. In my opinion, all programmers should begin their training with Lisp that gives the solid foundation of λ-calculus. They will become much better software engineers with this foundation. Many shared this belief and therefore many schools insisted on a heavy dosage of Scheme for all computer science freshmen.

John McCarthy, inventor of Lisp, died at 84 on Oct 24, 2011. From The New York Times, “Dr. McCarthy, who taught briefly at Stanford in the early 1950s, returned there in 1962 and in 1964 became the founding director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, or SAIL. Its optimistic, space-age goal, with financial backing from the Pentagon, was to create a working artificial intelligence system within a decade. Dr. McCarthy had begun inviting the Homebrew Computer Club, a Silicon Valley hobbyist group, to meet at the Stanford lab. Among its growing membership were Steven P. Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, who would go on to found Apple. Mr. Wozniak designed his first personal computer prototype, the Apple 1, to share with his Homebrew friends.”

Life is relatively simple if you distill it down to just three basic questions.

• What do you expect of yourself? Do you want to be a billionaire, happy hippie, Olympian, world-renowned artist, movie star, family person, corporate tycoon, or what? By the time you reach 30 years old, you should already know yourself enough.
• What are you willing to sacrifice to reach that goal? Look at anyone that has been there. All of them sacrificed beyond normal: complete devotion to work for decades, zero social life, years of tremendous stress, risking all personal fortune in a gambit, moved to far away places, etc.
• What do you have that is unique, or differentiating enough from your competitors? Yes, that’s everyone in the same race you are trying to win. If you are not trying to win, or deny that you are in any race, read no more. Since your answer to first question was the end of the this quest.

All competitions are now on a global scale. It is no longer interesting to be more productive among your peers. You must be more productive than all those who will take your job in the world. I learned that after the Civil War of the US, the southern states were poor and suffered low wages for decades. Then the northern states moved their factories south to take advantage of the low labor costs. Today, workers in Beijing, ShangHai, and Bangalore see their jobs moved to ChengDu and Hyderabad; maybe tomorrow to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It feels daunting to face such fierce competition. We all expect things to get cheaper and better every year. Would that come without competition?

You have 6 to 10 years after college to exit from “basic training” in which you first learn how things are done normally, then the politics of the organization. Who has power, how many parties are competing, how are wars waged, how to choose sides or mentors, how not to be a casualty of those wars? Don’t do politics first. That will kill you. Now you have acquired the basics. Answer those three questions.

Find a mentor or coach. Keep in mind that your competitors have also emerged from the same “basic training.” The game only begins now.

Really? It came out?

January of 2005, yes, more than six years ago, I saw Solaris 10 released to the world. I was so proud to be associated with that release. I loved Solaris 10. Every machines that call itself a server should run this OS. I was also very proud of its Trusted Extension. I can talk about it all day and bore everyone to death on the fine points of multi-level security.

We vowed never to commit to a release number again, so we called the next version of Solaris “Nevada.” (Austin Yeats, I believe, should get the credit for that code name.) Soon, Nevada became the source for OpenSolaris. I loved OpenSolaris. I believed that it will change the world and tried to be one of the helpers. I made many friends in that cult and was sad to see its demise.

Many of the Solaris heavy hitters left Oracle. I read the press release and felt sadly removed; that was such a big part of my life then that it almost defined me. I have fully converted into the Microsoft land. Everyday, I outlook email and Excel spreadsheets, like many of the corporate drones. I am at peace with this, since I no longer think the choice of desktop OS, or applications, defines individuality.

It is simply nostalgia to see Fowler on stage. I miss ERI and MPK, but they are no more.