When a precocious yet nonconformist teenager asks why they need to learn calculus, what should you say? You know they will never use it in adulthood, outside of certain career choices. You could say, “It’ll help you get into college,” but then they’re left wondering why college cares if you know calculus. And once they’re in college, maybe you could say, “To get a good job,” but why would a potential hirer care how you did in multivariate calculus if your job doesn’t require any knowledge of calculus? ...

what is most diffcult is to love the world as it is, with all the evil and suffering in it. - Hannah Arendt They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. - Edgar Allen Poe

From BLM, I heard of James Baldwin. From the pandemic, I learnt Hannah Arenht. Both are writers. Baldwin left America for France because of racism in America. Arenht left Germany for America because of Nazism. Here, another name, Sophie Scholl, popped up. “The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.” - James Baldwin ...

There is going to have the first Dark ID (DID) design. The idea of DID dwelled in my mind for about two years. Now I can finally see its form. I am not sure how others receive it but it’s mine, unique to what I am. This reminds me of one thing that Jorge Borges said in Spanish. “Sólo perduran en el tiempo las cosas
Que no fueron del tiempo.” After translation, it is roughly as follows: Only things that were not of time endure in time. This I believe applies to not only time, but many other things such as life. What you are is what you are. ...

The Rolling Stones has a song, You can’t always get what you want. It simply tells us that no matter how much we yearn it we can’t always get it. The angst and the pain we have to go through, it is real. It shows us what we are not who we are. It should help us to puncture the illusion we have about who we are supposed to be. It should wake up the dreams we are in like Shakespeare said, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” ...

忽忽三年，红尘永隔；盈盈一水，青鸟难通，结想为梦，引领成劳。 异史氏曰：“花面逢迎，世情如鬼。嗜痂之癖，举世一辙。‘小惭小好，大惭大好’。若公然带须眉以游都市，其不骇而走者盖几希矣！彼陵阳痴子，将抱连城玉向何处哭也？呜呼！显荣富贵，当于蜃楼海市中求之耳！”

“Why are you looking around for help? Do you believe that help will come from outside? What is to come is created in you and from you. Hence look into yourself. Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.” — C.G. Jung

We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep. The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Divided and conquered. It is not just in America, it is quite everywhere?! Imagine that the whiteness is created by the rich for the poor, in America. Then the Redness is created by the power for the powerless, in China. Tim Wise Part 3 the history of whiteness

There is one commentary on politico.eu on Ukraine by Mariam Naiem. On June 6, a catastrophic event unfolded in Ukraine as the dam in Nova Kakhovka was destroyed, another war crime by Russia. I’d like to highlight the following paragraph. “To us (Ukrainians), it feels as though the world is anticipating yet another tragedy, as if we are simply characters in a dystopian series. Only when faced with a concoction of pandemics, floods, bombings, torture and rape can we receive help and support. And not only this, but we have to repeatedly prove to the audience that we are brave, honest, “civilized” and not wasteful. Prove again and again that no, we are not Nazis — contrary to what Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed. When making a moral case for support, that we are not irrational or too emotional.” ...