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Tsinghua University may soon top the world league in science research

Source: https://www.economist.com/china/2018/11/17/tsinghua-university-may-soon-top-the-world-league-in-science-research?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/tsinghuauniversitymaysoontoptheworldleagueinscienceresearchseizingthelaurels

In China, its rapid rise is not unique

TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY was born out of national humiliation. It was founded in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion—an anti-foreign uprising in 1900—and paid for with the reparations exacted from China by America. Now Tsinghua is a major source of Chinese pride as it contends for accolades for research in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). In 2013-16 it produced more of the top 1% most highly cited papers in maths and computing, and more of the 10% most highly cited papers in STEM, than any other university in the world, reckons Simon Marginson of Oxford University (see chart). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) still leads in the top 1% of STEM papers, but Mr Marginson says Tsinghua is on track to be “number one in five years or less”.

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Why Software is the Ultimate Business Model (and the data to prove it)

I often say that if Warren Buffett were 30 years old, he’d only invest in software. Here’s why…

1. The Demand for Software is very strong and stable — Spend on software has grown at ~9% for about a decade. Looking forward Gartner estimates show that the Software category is expected to grow 8–11% versus the U.S. economy at 2–3% and broader technology spending at 3–4%. Software is a GOOD neighborhood to live in.

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Why the French don’t show excitement

Source: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181104-why-the-french-dont-show-excitement

Not only is ‘Je suis excité’ not the appropriate way to convey excitement in French, but there seems to be no real way to express it at all.

  • By Emily Monaco

5 November 2018

When I was 19 years old, after five years of back-and-forth trips that grew longer each time, I finally relocated officially from the United States to France. Already armed with a fairly good grasp of the language, I was convinced that I would soon assimilate into French culture.

Of course, I was wrong. There’s nothing like cultural nuance to remind you who you are at your core: my Americanness became all the more perceptible the longer I remained in France, and perhaps no more so than the day a French teacher told me his theory on the key distinction between those from my native and adopted lands.

“You Americans,” he said, “live in the faire [to do]. The avoir [to have]. In France, we live in the être [to be].”

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Dynamic programming and memorization: bottom-up vs top-down approaches

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6164629/dynamic-programming-and-memoization-bottom-up-vs-top-down-approaches

rev4: A very eloquent comment by user Sammaron has noted that, perhaps, this answer previously confused top-down and bottom-up. While originally this answer (rev3) and other answers said that “bottom-up is memoization” (“assume the subproblems”), it may be the inverse (that is, “top-down” may be “assume the subproblems” and “bottom-up” may be “compose the subproblems”). Previously, I have read on memoization being a different kind of dynamic programming as opposed to a subtype of dynamic programming. I was quoting that viewpoint despite not subscribing to it. I have rewritten this answer to be agnostic of the terminology until proper references can be found in the literature. I have also converted this answer to a community wiki. Please prefer academic sources. List of references: {Web: 1,2} {Literature: 5}

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Middle Kingdom meets Magic Kingdom

Source: https://www.economist.com/business/2010/08/26/middle-kingdom-meets-magic-kingdom

A Western media company offers a product the Chinese can’t resist: education

Welcome, future mouseketeer

ON A Tuesday at 6pm, children begin arriving at a bland commercial building just as the office workers are leaving. A small storefront leads to an English-language school run by Disney. It is not much of an entrance, squashed between a dusty drugstore and a fast-food joint. This being China, many passers-by assume it is a fake. But word is spreading through the pushy-parent network: this is the real thing.

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Be Afraid of Economic ‘Bigness.’ Be Very Afraid.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/opinion/sunday/fascism-economy-monopoly.html

In the 1930s it contributed to the rise of fascism. Alarmingly, we are experimenting again with a monopolized economy.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, an urgent question presented itself: How can we prevent the rise of fascism from happening again? If over the years that question became one of mostly historical interest, it has again become pressing, with the growing success of populist, nationalist and even neofascist movements all around the world.

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What are the biggest myths about owning a business?

Source: https://qr.ae/TUhgHS

As someone who has owned over 30 different businesses in speciality retail, fast food and hospitality, here are some of the biggest myths that I have discovered in relation to owning a small business, especially in the early stages:

Myth 1: That owning a business means that you can work whenever you like.

  • The truth is that you don’t own a business … it owns you. If it is right for the business to serve its customers 24/7, then it is up to you as the owner/manager to staff that need, even if it means staffing it yourself – which it usually does. It’s not uncommon for people that own their own business to commit 80–100 hours a week to its survival and success.

Myth 2: That you will make a fortune when you own your own business.

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Know Your Limits: The Law of Grandiosity

Source: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/know-your-limits-the-law-of-grandiosity/

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Robert Greene’s new book, The Laws of Human Nature.

We humans have a deep need to think highly of ourselves. If that opinion of our goodness, greatness, and brilliance diverges enough from reality, we become grandiose. We imagine our superiority. Often, a small measure of success will elevate our natural grandiosity to even more dangerous levels. Our high self-opinion has now been confirmed by events. We forget the role that luck may have played in the success, or the contributions of others. We imagine we have the golden touch. Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last. Look for the signs of elevated grandiosity in yourself and in others—overbearing certainty in the positive outcome of your plans; excessive touchiness if criticized; a disdain for any form of authority. Counteract the pull of grandiosity by maintaining a realistic assessment of yourself and your limits. Tie any feelings of greatness to your work, your achievements, and your contributions to society. 

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