职业与工作方法alumni.media.mit.edu
我希望曾有人教我的十堂课（1996）
Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
2011 — 2022，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是数学家 Gian-Carlo Rota 的一篇短文，列出他希望在学术生涯早期就有人教他的十条经验，内容涉及做报告、写论文、研究态度和学术生活，也谈到年龄增长带来的变化。文中穿插数学家的轶事与犀利观察。
为什么经久不衰：它短小、机智、坦率，既有对学术手艺的具体建议，也有对人生阶段的敏锐观察，因此跨年代仍被反复推荐。
HN 评论精选
对 Rota 关于衰老的观察深有共鸣，并指出“被视为机构”的建议在当代可能需要修正。
一直在我耳边回响的是 Rota 关于衰老的第 10 条。我常常是房间里最年长的人；事后回望，我完全能证实他的观察：这种转变一夜之间发生，仿佛过去的生活被简单抹去。我正在回想自己前半段的经历，想找出在成为“老人”之前可以改进的地方，但对衰老后半段的体验始终没有他总结得那么简洁。Rota 鼓励年长者享受被视为“机构中人”，但在机构与政府不断扩张的今天，被看成官僚机构的一部分往往给年轻人带来更多困难而非价值。补充：我一直在想，在“一夜变老”之前有没有更好的路。
retcon查看英文原文
It's Rota's 10th point, on ageing, that's ringing in my ears. I'm the oldest person in the room far too often (and the population growth of recent decades serves to increase the effect and maybe even accelerate its onset) and I can absolutely attest, with the benefit of belated hindsight, to Rota's observation that this transformation happened overnight in a simple erasure of a former life. I'm searching for any indication whether I can see how to formulate any potential insights from my recollection of my time prior to this moment, for the purpose of possible improvements in approach before this life event, but I'm rather lost in thoughts about my experience with the latter half of the ageing phenomenon which has never been so succinctly put. Rota encourages you in your increasing age to enjoy being regarded as a institutional being. Possibly this needs to be updated in countries where there's been institutional and government scaling creep, because being perceived as institutional and bureaucratic (which effects I could already create too long before qualifying for Rota's advice) in my recent experience creates more difficulty than value with younger folk. Edit: forgot now inserted that what I have been reflecting on is whether there's better ways leading up to becoming a overnight old aged institution .
借一张幽默的卡路里表，认为 Rota 的机智气质会很适合 HN。
我觉得 Gian-Carlo Rota 会很适合 HN：他贴出一张幽默的“卡路里消耗表”，例如写一行 C 消耗 10 卡、调试一行 C 消耗 300 卡、写一行 Lisp 消耗 2 卡、读新闻 1000 卡、完善 .plan 文件 39924 卡，等等。
nl查看英文原文
I do believe Gian-Carlo Rota would have fitted in quite well on HN: Activity Calories burned -------- --------------- Writing one line of C....................... 10 Debugging one line of C..................... 300 Writing one line of Lisp.................... 2 Debugging one line of Lisp.................. 20 Writing one line of Fortran................. 25 Reading e-mail.............................. 200 Writing e-mail.............................. -3 Reading news................................ 1000 Web-surfing ................................ 100 Working on thesis........................... 7 Answering officemate's phone calls.......... 432 Wondering about the future.................. 107 Speculating about life on other planets..... 371 Getting to know inner child................. 252 Perfecting .plan file.......................39924 Reading Wired............................... 15 Writing limericks in assembly language...... 924 Sleeping in chair........................... 15 Sleeping in chair, but leaning on desk...... 7 Sleeping on office floor (with pillow)..... 14 (without pillow)..... 257 Choosing a new CD to work to................ 333 Dreaming (at night)......................... 4522 Searching................................... 777 Sorting..................................... 222 https://alumni.media.mit.edu/~cahn/life/activity.html Edit: It's possible (likely?) this is Janet Cahn's (~cahn) activieties, not Gian-Carlo Rota's
认同 Ulam 对人生年龄转折的观察：从最年轻到最年长，没有过渡期。
我的已故朋友 Stan Ulam 常说，他的人生被清楚分成两半：前半段他总是群体里最年轻的人，后半段他总是最年长的人。中间没有过渡期。我同意。
justinzollars查看英文原文
> My late friend Stan Ulam used to remark that his life was sharply divided into two halves. In the first half, he was always the youngest person in the group; in the second half, he was always the oldest. There was no transitional period. Agree.
非数学读者也能从中受益，并学到新词 incunabulum。
即使对我这种非数学出身的人，其中也有不少精彩观点。我还学到一个新词：incunabulum（摇篮本/初期印刷品）。
simon查看英文原文
Some excellent points even for a non-maths guy like me. And I learned a new word: incunabulum.
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