Finale

Sequel sucks.

Not that I have fewer opinions on what's happening around, but the cost - both social and opportunistic ones - is too high to get my view expressed. For some quick and sensational comments (as well as good books that I read), I shall put them up on Facebook.

So, this is the end of my blog. As F.A. Hayek said in The Road to Serfdom:

If we are to build a better world we must have the courage to make a new start - even if that means some reculer pour mieux sauter.

Happy new year.

Player

Recently read: Ellery Queen 《The Player on the Other Side》（中譯本）

Name

Recently watched: 新海誠《你的名字》

Excellent plot and brilliantly excecuted - although if I were Makoto Shinkai, I would have make Miki Okudera turns out to be Mitsuha Miyamizu five years later.

Considerations

Although Abraham Wald did bring up an important and influential point, I must say I am not entirely satisfied the computation.

A few issues here. To begin with, the degree of protection is probably not directly proportional to the thickness of the armor - at some point there should be a plateau of the relation curve.

Second, it was assumed that the bullets were fired randomly and evenly, so that the density of bullet holes on each part of a surviving plain was inversely proportional to the vulnerability of that part. For obviously reasons we know that's not correct. To go one step further, with the data and knowledge of the survey, pilots of the adversary air force would try to focus more often on the vulnerable parts, resulting in a negative feedback.

Moreover, there are parts that are intrinsically protected and therefore have a lower chance of being hit by bullets. For example, the medial surface of the engine could not be easily hit. If you want an extreme example, the wheels and tire could hardly be hit because they are hidden inside the plane while flying. Alas, you won't put armor on the tire, will you?

Missing

My recent leisure reading is about the life and time of Abraham Wald, who was famous for, amongst his other contributions to mathematics and decision theory, the story of the missing bullet holes.

To put it simply, Wald was a mathematician born in the then Austria-Hungary Empire and moved to the States when Nazi took over his country (around the same time with Captain Georg von Trapp of The Sound of Music). He had most of his academic career at the Columbia University.

During World War II, Wald was involved in a project to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. In short, the US Navy conducted a study of the damage done to aircraft that had returned from missions. The original idea was to add armor to the areas that showed the most damage. In contrast, Wald argued that reinforcement should be made in the areas where the returning aircraft had least bullet holes, since those were the areas that, if hit, would cause the plane to be lost.

Simple, eh? The actual calculation is a lot more complicated. For fans of pure mathematics, you may like to go through Wald's original report, which is a 90-page text available at http://www4.ncsu.edu/~swu6/documents/A_Reprint_Plane_Vulnerability.pdf

Link

I end up solving my problem accidentally.

And it is easy. I create a conventional short-cut for the file that I want easy access, and then copy that short-cut to the Evernote page - in which it appears as an ordinary file with "lnk" as the extension. When it is double-clicked, the original file in the hard disk is opened by the usual program. (I try it on all Microsoft Office applications as well as SPSS files.)

The point is, if the original file is in Google Drive, it would then be synchronized automatically after saving. You can access the same file from different Evernote pages because you just put hyperlinks rather than the original file in the page. Moreover, if you are the rare species who works on two computers with the same Google Drive, the link would still work in both computers - as long as the filing structure (i.e. the path name) of the target file remains the same.

And it works equally well if the link is made to a foler rather than a single file.

Problem

Although there are two official ways to put a file in the page of Evernote, each has its own problem.

First, putting a file directly into the note page means that it is detached from the original hard drive folder that keeps many of the related documents. Although it is theoretically possible to put several files into the same page of notes and make it function as a folder, there is a size limit of the file and you lose the hierarchy of a folder system. Moving attachment files across note pages is also cumbersome.

(By the way, there is an "Import Folder" function of Evernote, which seems to be an attempt to take over the conventional folder function. It is absolutely hopeless.)

How about linking up with the Google Drive?

Not much better an option really. It is ridiculously difficulty to find the file you want to link up because the dialogue box does not follow the tree-like filing system. You need to define the program for opening Microsoft Office files need to be opened. And, above all, it doesn't work when you are off-line.

Evernote

Frequent visitor of this blog would know I use Evernote for information management. (For example, see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2011/01/evernote.html)

Over the years, the program improves drastically, and I use it now for almost every aspect of my life. It is my second brain to keep useful information, a filing cabinet to hold meeting notes, a program to keep track on all projects, a note pad to write down things to do and wild ideas, and what not.

Nonetheless, Evernote is not designed for file management. I still keep most of the files in Google Drive - photo, database, and many other documents - and there comes the problem. In short, it is not uncommon for me to shift directly from a note page (for example, one with some cursory notes that I made during a meeting) to an actual file. How could I do it?

There are two official ways: Move the file into the notes as an attachment, or, if the file is kept in Google Drive, attach the hyperlink of the file to the notes.

However, neither is entirely satisfactory.

Let me explain tomorrow.

Stethoscope

Christmas present I bought for myself - this is the fourth stethoscope in my professional life.

Merry Christmas.

MBA

Recently read: Steven Silbiger 《The 10-Day MBA》

Somehow I find it more difficult to understand than when I first read it 15 years ago.

Compete

Recently read: Hiroshi Mikitani and Ryoichi Mikitani 《The Power to Compete》

The best way that a son could pay tribute to his father.

Act

(Conversation overheard during a social dinner.)

A: Let me give you my name card.

B (looking at the card): Alas, you are the director of a troupe!

A (blushing slightly): Yes...

B: Do you go up to the stage and act ?

A: No need. I have ample opportunities - I act in my daily life.

結果

對於這次選舉的結果，許多老一輩的醫生都不無感歎。

事實上，在許多界别都可以看到，諷刺的現象是：年輕的一輩希望守衛香港的「核心價值」。然而，這個有點虛無飄渺的所謂「核心價值」，正是由那些他們要打倒的較年長的一輩所創立。

反過來看，較年長的一輩自從建立了香港的「核心價值」後，已晋身為有既得利益的建制階層。他們對年輕人的激進舉動感到大惑不解，只會說世界變了，卻不知道變的是自己。當年的初衷已變成後人的理想，而自己竟然是他們追求理想的絆腳石。

Know

Shortly after the result of the CE Election Committee was out, I had the opportunity to dine with a group of local doctors - from a few senior members of the College to some junior trainees.

As expected, the senior ones led the discussion. PL, a senior consultant who is also the most verbose one, began, "I am really surprised with the result. Being in the field for so long, and knowing so many people, I could only recognize five of the 30 doctors who win the election!"

We were silent for a moment. PL went on, "Szeto, how many of them do you know?"

"Hm... half of them, I suppose."

"How about you, JN?" He turned to a new fellow over the other side of the table.

"Two-third, I think."

"In other words, there is an inverse correlation between the age of a doctor and the degree of support to the successful candidates..." I said to myself.

Evernote

Recently read: Escor Huang《Evernote 100個做筆記的好方法》

May not be comprehensive, but absolutely practical.

功課

（真實對白）

老竇（對緊手册）：呢樣功課係乜？

阿女：唔……英文作句改正。

老竇（睇咗份嘢一輪）：改啲乜？

阿女：呢一句我唔記得完咗寫fullstop。

老竇：咁點改？

阿女（指住篇習作）：喺呢度加番一點。

老竇：吓！呢樣功課就係點一點！？

Books

On a recent occasion, I visited the office of my wife Vivian. To my surprise, she keeps a good collection of books that I read on her shelf.

Here is an incomplete list:

• 愛德華•霍克《鬼使神偷》
• 喬斯坦·賈德《蘇菲的世界》
• 愛笛絲．赫米爾敦《希臘羅馬神話故事》
• 米蘭·昆德拉《玩笑》
• 黃仁宇《萬曆十五年》
• 阿嘉莎‧克莉絲蒂《十三人的晚宴》
• 李伯元《官場現形記》
• Wayne A. Wickelgren《How to solve mathematical problems》
• Boris Kordemsky 《The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations》
• Peter Klein《Getting started in security analysis》

Circumstance

Following my argument yesterday, there is an important consideration that may skip your eyes.

In short, when should we aim to make sure our favorite candidate wins, and when should we change the objective and try to get rid of the ones we are against?

It is, in fact, simple. In a democratic environment and when everyone could have their own opinion, we should go for the former. In that circumstances, we should try to make our special voice heard.

On the other hand, when we are struggling under the mercy of tyranny and are in the minority, we should do the opposite. In this case, it is logical to unite everyone to fight against Lord Voldemort.

NB. I shall do away with the steps of logical deduction that bring us to this conclusion. Nonetheless, if you could not see how it comes along, you could see nothing.

Scenario

Following my discussion on the strategy of voting in recent days, is there any scenario that we really would want to vote for one but not all two candidates?

Yes, there is one.

Consider this: Suppose there is one candidate that you support, another you are neutral to, and the other 8 you are strongly against; one of the 8 is way ahead and would certainly win, the neutral one is in the second place with a marginal lead over your favorite candidate, who is third in the list In that case, voting only for the candidate you support would push him to the second and win.

You may argue: Although this scenario is uncommon, it is the only one that your vote makes a difference. I consider that a subjective judgment: Do we want the one whom we support to win, or those we are against lose?

Difference

You may ask: What is the difference between voting for candidates after they declared their choice of CE and having a group of representatives who do a survey and choose the CE according to the result?

Substantial.

You may realize the latter system is that used by the United States for presidential election. Although appears to be fair, it is in fact a winner-takes-all policy, and opinion of the important minority is neglected. In other words, a marginal dominance becomes a complete victory in a sector (or, a state in USA). It is therefore possible to have a candidate winning an election but would have lost if it is a general election: They win by the skin of their teeth in many sectors and lose terribly in a few sectors.

Donald Trump is the most recent example.

Comment

I must say I am so impressed by the reply that I lose my nerve.

To begin with, there is little reason for members of the Election Committee to explain to their voters the policy of every candidate running for the Chief Executive - who should explain his plan to the constituency directly. With the Election Committee as the intermediate, all messages become second-hand and are subjected to bias and distortion.

But, above all, if they vote according to the survey, there is little point to choose a bright or capable candidate, because their only task is to conduct the survey. In this case, the only criteria of choosing Election Committee members is integrity - that is, the risk of them to cast a vote against the result of survey.

I shall not elaborate further.

Reply

When asked whom he would vote for in the coming Chief Executive election, a candidate who runs for the Election Committee makes a remarkable reply:

**************************

愚見以為選委有責任向選民分析每一位特首候選人如何認識香港面對的眾多問題，又有何應對方略。

因此，廣博的視野(包掊香港在世界發展的角色、全球走向的大勢以至歷史觀)、敏銳的洞察力、多方面的認識(包括政治、經濟、民生和本科專業發展)和強大的邏輯分析能力都是選委必須具備的條件。偏頗和歧見、自我中心和排他思維都妨礙上述條件的發揮。

在未曾深入分析了解每位特首候選人之前就先作比較甚至選擇，不是負責任的做法。我不認為口號式地「堅拒投某某的票」，香港便會好了。

上述的分析和闡述尤為重要，須於特首選舉民調前開展。

最後，我承諾依從整個業界的民調結果投票。

**************************

I shall save my comments for tomorrow.

Strategy

Scenario #5 (following the logic of #2): If we support 1 candidate, are neutral to 2 others, and are strongly against the remaining 7, we should vote for the one that we support and, amongst the two whom we are neutral to, the one who has a higher chance to win. Again, the objective is to minimize the chance of those we are against.

Is there any scenario that we should cast only one vote? Let's consider this:

Scenario #6: We support 1 candidate and are strongly against the remaining 9.

Yes, in theory, we should only vote for the one whom we support and leave the other vote blank.

However, in real life situation, it is almost always possible to, amongst the 9 whom we dislike, find one that is least repugnant. Even if there is none, there may well be other social reasons that you would like to vote for one of the abominable nine - for example, one of them is your classmate or old friend. In this case, your spare vote serves a social rather than political function.

Vote

(...cont'd)

Scenario #3: If we support 1 candidate, are neutral to another, and are strongly against the other 8, we should vote for the one that we support as well as the one whom we are neutral to - so as to minimize the chance of those we are against.

Scenario #4 (following the logic of #3): If we do not support any candidate, are neutral to two, and are strongly against the other 8, we should vote for the two whom we are neutral to. Again, we want to minimize the chance of those we are against.

The motto is: Even though we have no particular one in mind to support, we should always vote.

More scenarios to come tomorrow.

Election

While we are considering who to vote for in the coming Chief Executive Election Committee Subsector Election, a classmate of mine said, "I could not find all 30 good candidates to vote for. As a result, I shall put up fewer votes so as to concentrate my support."

I must say I find this plan, to say the least, ingenuous.

Let's go through the considerations step by step:

***************************
Let's consider a simple situation: There are 10 candidates running for 2 posts, and we can cast 2 votes.

Scenario #1: If we support 2 candidates and are strongly against the other 8, we should certainly vote for the 2 that we support.

Scenario #2: If we support 3 candidates, we should vote 2 of them who have the highest chance of winning.

(To be continued.)

茶錢

（餐桌閑話。）

太座：你知道，我醫院的門診部每年都有聖誕聯歡，籌辦的護士和文職人員都會找高級醫生贊助。今年，她們更嘗試打一些受訓中的醫生主意。老郭知道後很不高興，黑着臉對她們說：「唔好攪啲細嘅！」他對年輕醫生倒真不錯。

（按：老郭是她們的部門主管。）

區區：我倒不這樣想。

太座：為甚麼？

區區：贊助活動是和她們打好關係的好辦法。你想想，護士等不會為難有資歷的醫生，因為她們心裡明白，難保自己或家人對這醫生有事相求。但是，對年輕、受訓中的醫生來說，可以和護士等打通關係的便不外飲食資助。長遠而言，對他們的發展是大有好處。

Resource

"Japan doesn't have abundant natural resources. Our people are everything... it is more important for us to invest in people," said Ryoichi Mikitani

I believe Hong Kong is no different.

筆記術

Recently read: 奧野宣之《活用一輩子的讀書筆記術》。

It may not be the best book of the topic. Nonetheless, it convinces me that we need to take notes along with our reading.

Again

Shortly after returned from Chicago, I took part in the licensing examination arranged by the Medical Council.

It was a tiring two-day exercise. In the last session, I had the privilege of pairing up with our external examiner, who has the habit of saying a very piece of epilogue to each candidate when the examination is finished: Thank you. See you again.

I kept a polite smile - because I fully understand a candidate would need to see their examiner again only if they fail.

************************
Towards the end of our session, we met a particularly outstanding candidate. (In this case, outstanding means if the candidate were a schoolchild and we teachers, we would certainly ask him to get out of the classroom and stand there for the rest of the day.)

While the candidate was marching out of the examination hall with the standard epilogue, I turned and tole my new friend, "For god sake, I having nothing to thank him, and I certainly do not want to see him again..."

負責

我的一位同學最近說:

「某某人講大話、誠信破產、蓄意破壞香港的法治，莫視民主、自由等核心價值和國際標準，因此萬萬不能選他，萬萬不能讓他連任！」 這話容易說，可以贏得掌聲、可以保證選票，但這些說話不外乎口號 -- 空洞沒有內容的口號。我不愛喊口號。

別再空喊口了！香港需要一個有遠見、有承擔、不怕開罪權貴和既得利益集團的領袖。我們的選民都有敏銳的眼光、獨立的思考、邏輯的思維，可以踢開口號，為香港、為業界選擇出最優秀的領袖。

*********************************

說的不錯。所以當有人用了幾年的時間，非但不能把問題改善，反而令社會撕裂、民怨載道，便是時候改變了。

按：有人會說，社會上的種種問題，有許多宏觀因素，並非某人一己的過錯。唔，這樣說的話，希特拉夷平捷克，並非張伯倫之過；而那個特別漫長的五月，也跟任何一位總理無關。

競選

致參加特首選舉委員會競選的各位：

請不要繕述你們的施政理念、宏圖遠景；也不用解釋你將用甚麼準則去決定投票給哪一個特首候選人。你只要老實告訴我你將投票給誰便成。我清楚知道我支持甚麼人做特首。你們只是代表我投票，請不要騎劫我的意見。

一名普通市民

Organized

Recently read: Daniel Levitin 《The Organized Mind》

Dark

Lovers of modern physics would have heard of the existence of dark energy.

In short, dark energy is an obscure form of energy that contributes around two-third of the total energy in the universe.

While watching Matrix again in Chicago, I suddenly suspect we are all living in hallucination within an experimental system created by highly intelligent extraterrestrials or computers - and dark energy is the force that drives the entire system. That's why we cannot explain it by the rule of physics within the system.

摩連奴

在芝加哥其間做了一樣久不為之的事：看電視英超聯足球直播。（實情是晚上睡下着又只能做些不太用腦的事。）

這次是曼聯對阿仙奴。

看着，忽有遐想：其實摩連奴（Jose Mourinho）個樣好似戇豆先生（Rowan Atkinson）。

茹絲葵

不記得從甚麼時候開始，每次到美國都要到間正統的扒房吃一次。今年我在芝加哥，酒店位於「河北」，吃的便是一箭之遥的「茹絲葵」（Ruth Chris）。

其實這個連鎖品牌香港也有兩間分店，位於尖東的那間更曾光顧數次。（還記得第一次是同事王醫生帶路。彼私人執業多年，如今只偶然在雜誌上看到他的消息矣。）也好，質素可以比較。

正因為是每次留美的指定動作，菜色也幾乎一樣：蟹餅前菜，8安士肉眼扒，椰菜苗（brussel sprout）伴碟。

茹絲葵上桌的碟極熱，看着食物仍滋滋作響，是其各店特色。相較香港，芝加哥河北這間裝碟顯得隨便，食味卻是一貫水準。肉眼扒叫了medium rare，火候準確，只嫌肥膏稍多，肉質便不如Morton等同業。但蟹餅香嫰、椰菜苗也爽口惹味，是較其他品牌優勝。埋單百二美金，偶一為之也不妨。

Chicago

新電腦安裝不久，便起程往芝加哥參加美國腎科學會年會。

芝加哥到過多次，不過要數次留得最久。直航機，中午出發，當地中午到達。年紀大了，時差反而比從前厲害。不過已學會順其自然。睏了便睡，睡不着便起床工作，反正幾日後又返港了。

其實自己一直對芝加哥的觀感不太好。為的是第一次路過此地是十六七年前一次國際會議，由阿根廷返港於此轉機。由於有半天空閒時間，便和同事乘火車到市中心吃早餐順便逛逛。時為四月初，天色昏沉，氣温不過十一二度，到處寒風陣陣。要命的是市內到處掛上海報，原來是慶祝大地回春的花節。當時心中已下結論：連你們覺得值得慶祝的天氣也如此不堪，此地實不宜久留矣！

Idiot

Frequent visitors of my previous blog may remember I have a rooted belief: It is usually impossible to tell an ingenious crook from a complete idiot.

(For example, see: http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2010/01/consent.html)

But, now I see light.

First, from a simple epidemiological point of view (alas, that's the physician's jargon of by chance), ingenious crooks are a rare species, while idiots are of abundant supply. It is therefore almost always the latter case.

And, since you can predict the action of neither (as you cannot put yourself into their very special shoes), and, to us, their detrimental effects are identical, we should treat them as all but the same species.

Idiots.

Softwares

You may ask: How about other softwares?

Simple - for I need very few. Yes, there is Microsoft Office. (I must say I tried Open Office and Google Document, but neither is satisfactor.) And there is Acrobat Reader and Evernote - and the latter takes another night, as I put all my reading notes, reference, and scan documents here. I also use FastStone Image Viewer for figure editing, Google Keepand XMind for the construction of complicated charts.

That's all.

Well, I used to install Cute PDF Writer but it has very little use nowadays. I also have SigmaPlot for the preparation of scientific charts in my desktop computer, but I shall spare it in my laptop (which is not meant for detailed figure construction anyway).

Again, the KISS principle applies.

Update

When my wife Vivian first heard that I bought a new laptop, the first question she put up was: How long does it take for me to install everything back into the new computer?

Thank goodness, not much.

The reason is simple. I am a loyal Google user and put all my working files in Google Drive. To me, the only use of Microsoft Internet Explorer is for the downloading of Google Chrome. Once I sign into my Google account, all my internet bookmarks are back into place. The next step is to connect with Google Drive and let all files download back to my laptop hard disk - which I just leave the computer to work over night.

PS. However trustworthy the Google Drive is, I still keep a backup copy of all my working files in a separate portable hard disk - just in case - and I have this backup drive updated every month.

Tablet

One consideration that deters me for a long time from buying a new laptop computer is my tablet.

In other words, why do I need a laptop computer? I have my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 with me most of the time. With the leather cover, it is still nothing more than 300-g in weight. Although used primarily for reading journal papers and Kindle books during travel, it is good enough as a web browser, scanner (by its Evernote document camera), and word processor (especially for its capability of recognizing hand-written Chinese). When used with my blue-tooth keyboard, it is almost a miniature computer - with the advantage of being easy to carry.

Nonetheless, I finally conclude that a laptop is needed, for travel as well as home office during the rare incident of long holiday. However powerful a tablet is, I could only have all my files at hand in an ordinary computer. With a tablet, it is not convenient for writing long papers or working on Excel sheets, and an even worse idea to create charts. Powerpoint slides prepared in a tablet usually need extensive editing when transfer back to an ordinary computer. The two gadgets are, therefore, complementary rather than one replacing the other.

Thinkpad

I bought a new laptop computer recently.

Frequent visitors of my blog may recall I bought my last one in early 2011 (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2011/02/made.html). It actually works well until recently, when the touchpad and the screen cursor seem to go mad every now and then.

To follow my consideration at that time, Hang Seng Index remains around 22000 lately (that is, no change in the past five years). It was a Fujitsu Lifebook at a price of HK$11,000 last time, and now it becomes a Lenovo Thinkpad X260 at HK$7500 only.

I bought this new toy from the Lenovo on-line store directly - another new experience for me. The model is not top in the series, but is the one recommended by the computer officer of my department. It is not as expensive and suite my purpose well enough. In fact, X1 Carbon - the most advanced model - is a trace too big for my backpack.

測驗

（真實對白。）

幼女升小一後第一次測驗。第一日是中文科。放學時我問她：「今天的測驗怎樣？」

她說：「今天中文堂沒有測驗。」

「呃……！？」

「但是很奇怪，英文課時老師卻給了我們一份中文的題目，內容和昨天的試卷並不相同。下課時老師又把這份題目收回了……」

我想：天呀！我昨天給你練習的是姐姐小一時的測驗卷，當然和今天的不同。

翻譯

常常覺得香港的地名音譯英文並不妥當。有許多用意譯更為貼切，也更有詩意。例如：

紅磡: Red Pier （磡，碼頭也。）

石硤尾: Rocky Gap

荔枝角: Lychee Court

樂富: Tiger Rock （樂富原名老虎岩。）

黄大仙: Huang's Temple

天后: Queen's Temple

太古: Swire

彩虹: Rainbow

牛頭角: Cow Head Corner

油塘: Oil Pond

將軍澳: General's Bay

調景嶺: Hanging Height （調景嶺原名吊頸嶺。）

Quality

While talking about the academic qualification of prospective medical students, there is a related consideration that involves a deeper water.

Let me explain in a convoluted manner.

To begin with, you may recall some medical schools, such as ours, and contrary to our sister institute across the Victoria Harbour, emphasize the humanistic quality of future doctors. In addition to having a reasonable and all-rounded intellectual capability, they should show personalities that are (believed to be) important for good doctors: honest, empathetic, good team workers, and eager to help anyone in need.

But, hold on. Do we not expect the same characters in our country leaders, backbenchers, lawyers, nurses, and - seriously - cashiers of the McDonald's nearby?

In other words, these are qualities we expect for every (ideal) citizen in a modern society. For the general public, such an expectation is psychologically projected to doctors because, unfortunately, not all ordinary citizens are in the possession of these desirable characters, but doctors should be able to do a bit better. And, for the administrators of medical schools, such a declaration is a blind. It pleases the general public, and it serves other realistic purposes.

I shall not elaborate further.

Relevant

A common opinion is prospective medical students should have a sound basic knowledge in biology and chemistry.

That argument, unfortunately, does hold water. In many countries (notably the States), secondary school teaching on neither chemistry nor biology is necessary for the admission to a medical school. For visitors from my institute, you may like to know our founding professor of ophthalmology got his MD from a renown medical school in America. His first degree was, notably, on music, and his knowledge on chemistry and biology was as good as Sherlock Holmes' on the solar system.

The logic is simple: As long as the candidate is smart and hardworking enough, he could always pick up missing background basic knowledge on any subject. And, if you consider chemistry or biology essential, there are so many other subjects that could prove relevant for the study of medicine: psychology, statistics, sociology, economics, computer science - just to name a few. Another remarkable example, also from our own university, is our previous professor of endocrinology. After A-level examination, his application for studying medicine was accepted because of his exceptional knowledge in Latin.

Alas, and that turned out to be enormously helpful - when he began to study anatomy.

Criteria

A recent hot topic within our circle is the new admission criteria of new medical students to our sister medical school.

The idea is simple: The calculation of scoring becomes more flexible. Some allowance is given to applicants who do not do quite well in Chinese or Liberal Studies (or, at least on paper, any other subject) in the DSE Exam, as long as the performance in other subjects is good enough.

There is much concern - mostly by the alumni of our sister university - that the standard of medical students (and therefore that of future doctors) would be compromised. In this regard I am sure they are barking on the wrong tree. The hidden message of their dean is simple: The performance in DSE Exam does not reflect the actual Chinese or general capability of the students.

Nonetheless, there are other related points that worth discussion on this matter.

I shall elaborate tomorrow.

釋

釋，對一般人的意思是解釋。

但在另一個宇宙裡的意思是釋放。例如一隻老虎，自古以來都被關在籠裏，大家只是不知道而已。現在把它釋放出來，使把人們咬個措手不及。

法

立法: 從今以後你要遵守這項法律。

釋法: 這項法律自古以來已經存在，你們過去和將來都應當遵守。

2020

Presidential election of USA, 2020.

帶領

（河邊故事繼續。）

自此以後，人群的歷屆首領都不再叫人過河，大家也繼續生活，彷彿從來不曾有人淹死。

直至多年後，一個新的首領繼任。他站在岸邊對人們說：「看看大家的口袋。我們已經過河了！」大家都十分雀躍，似乎百多年多努力終於成功了。

有幾個人悄悄指出口袋和過河是兩碼子事，而鄰村的人老早已經有渡輪碼頭和定期航班，但人們都說這一小撮壞分子是鄰村的奸細。大家只會年復一年，等一個會帶領他們渡河的人，卻永遠都也不明白，渡河是靠他們自己各盡其力，而那個傳說中帶他們過河的人永遠都不會出現。

推測

一些關於特朗普擔任美國總統後的推測：

1、日本成功將自衞隊改編為正規軍隊。

2、台灣及南韓更趨親日。

3、中國控制南海。

4、中俄交惡。

5、俄歐結盟對付伊斯蘭國。

Win

過河

最初，那人對他們說：「我大叫一聲，河水便會分開，你們過河吧！」

但他只是吹着笛子，很多人都跳進河裡淹死了。有幾個人大叫「小心」，可是沒有人理會。

之後那人又說：「因為那些叫“小心”的人擾亂了我的笛聲，所以才有人失足墜河。」各人把那幾個叫囂的捉住打死。笛聲再響，更多人淹死了。

自此以後，再沒有人敢說「小心」。後來那人死了，另一個人叫他們抱着石頭過河，可是那條河很深，又有許多人淹死了。

Freedom

"Do you mean you make your tail a bullet and you bite on it?" Raphael asked, half jokingly.

"I mean I would tell them everything and let them choose, but I am always cautious with my wordings."

"I do not see..."

"For example, if you prefer them eating the fruit from the Tree, you could tell the man This is the apple of wisdom, the god would be disappointed if you eat it."

"Yes...?"

"And, if you prefer them getting away from the Tree, you may try giving them another ninety-nine plants to choose - and make the Tree of Wisdom the ninety-eighth on the list. Alternatively, you can lead him to another tree that bears some sour fruit and let them try. After several rounds of bitter experience with no obvious gain, I'm sure he would come to the conclusion that apples are not edible and would never get close to the Tree. In short, Adam is a falling stone who believes it has a free will - and we are the gravity."

"My god, you are really a devil!" Exclaimed the great angel.

"Yes, but, without the permission of the god, do you think I could get entrance to his Garden?"

Autonomy

"My dear fellow, what are the major principles of being an angel?" The serpent asked.

"Do good, do no harm, and, above all, respect autonomy..." Raphael recited.

"Spot on. Therefore tell them all about the tree and let them choose."

"But if I am pretty sure they would choose something that harms themselves, I would prefer keeping everything to myself."

"My friend, in that case you are practising against the ethical principles and, in short, playing god."

"Are you conveying to me the message of the god, or is it all a temptation?"

"It depends on your point of view. You know, since I am a snake, I know exactly how to make both ends meet..."

Serpent

(The story of Raphael continued.)

The great angel walked confusedly in Eden. As you imagine, his subconscious mind brought him to the Tree of Wisdom.

A voice appeared between the branches.

"My dear fellow, you look puzzled. What's the matter?"

"Alas, nothing. Who are you?"

"I am Serpent - you could see that much. Can I help you?"

"How could you? To tell you the truth, I'm wondering whether I should tell the two human beings everything about this tree."

"Of course. You should respect their free mind!"

"Even if they would probably eat the apple and be expelled the paradise?"

Raphael

(Again, history in another parallel universe.)

God told Raphael, "I shall take a break. As the archangel, you shall take charge of the Garden of Eden while I'm not around."

"Yes, sir," Raphael said, "When will you be back?"

"God knows. Oh, I should say even god doesn't know. A few millennia, I suppose."

"In that case what should I do with the two persons in the Garden?"

"Do you mean Adam and Eve? You don't have to do anything. Just leave them there and they are all content and happy."

"But, they may touch the Tree of Knowledge..."

"Don't be silly. They don't even know there is such a tree. I got to go. Everything is up to you. So long..."

In no time the God disappeared. Standing in the middle of Eden, Raphael was confused - he didn't know what he was allowed to do.

推論

你也許不能接受追求健康和享受奢侈的生活本質上沒有分別。我們現在略過這點，考慮另一個情況：

如果一個人只要花得起，便應該改為購買有機食物以追求健康，那麼，他是否也應該買更多更新更有效的藥物，聘用手藝更好經驗更高的外科醫生為他動手術？（注意的是，有機食物對健康的好處，證據其實非常薄弱，關於許多藥物的研究反而可信得多。）

至此，除非你是極左硬膠認為醫療服務應該眾生平等，否則必須承認每個人的經濟能力決定他得到甚麼治療。這未必是烏托邦的理想，卻至少是現實世界的情況。

吊詭的是，如果我們將過去幾天的推論反過來看，結果便非常可笑。粗俗的說：有錢，便可以用貴藥（或其他昂貴而的治療），用錢買健康。故此，有錢也可以吃較健康的有機食物。由於有機食物和鮑參翅肚在本質上沒有分別，所以有錢人朱門酒肉，道德上也無不妥。

有機

由於當初討論的是奢侈的晚宴，昨天我故意提到鮑參翅肚。但是，有另一類飲食上的奢侈經常被人忽略。

我說的是有機食物。

邏輯是這樣：如果我們覺得應該將晚宴上的鮑參翅肚改為牛羊雞鴨，而用省卻的金錢來周濟貧困，同一道理，我們便應該由有機食物轉為普通食物。（在這裡，有機食物比鮑參翅肚的考慮可能更多一層：有些資料都顯示，用同一耕地的面積，進行有機耕種的收成較少。換句話說，較多化學品較不健康的耕作方法，可以填飽更多人多肚子。這個論點並非全然可靠，我們暫且忘記。）

你可能會說：有機食物並非奢侈的享受，只是健康的追求而已。

但事實上兩者本質上並無分別。說得明白一點：追求健康，便是一種奢侈的享受。

論點

關於奢侈，有兩個論點必須澄清一下。

首先，右派人士和自由經濟論者會說，宣揚清教徒式的生活而禁止奢侈對不少貧困人士其實有壞影響。舉例說，減少在六星級酒店晚宴會直接影響侍應、清潔工、生產高檔食物的農夫的生計。當然，影響未必很大，用奢侈的生活來支持酒店侍應的就業也不符合成本效益。一餐豪華的晚飯，大部份的消費是歸於盈利和租金（這裡我是用阿當·斯密《國富論》中廣義的定義），真正到了低下勞動階層的口袋的不多。從這個論點出發，把晚餐的花費捐給窮人是遠比維持幾個酒店員工的就業有意義。

另一方面，左派綠色的支持者會說，奢侈的食材本身便應被禁。與其吃鮑參翅肚，不如吃牛羊雞鴨更經濟，也對環境更少害處。如果你讀過李天命，便會發現這是邏輯謬誤中的轉移命題――由原來的論節儉變成論環保了。當然，節儉並不一定環保。

標準

看過昨天的討論，你可能會說：「這不過是個中庸之道的問題。我們當然可以利用財富適當改善生活，只要不過份就成。」

問題是，「適當」和「過份」是否有一個絕對的標準？如果我們說要視乎那個人有多少財富而定，那麼便等如承認「奢侈」或「過份」沒有客觀的絕對標準，換句話說，只要一個人非常富有，多花些錢也不成問題。

你可能直覺感到這個推論有誤，並說：「不然。無論一個人多富有，花錢也不能超過某一絕對標準。」噢，我們又走回討論的第一步。容許我用一個例子代替重複解答：一個富豪用十多億元買了一個海灘，在那裡蓋了一座極豪華的屋子居住。那裡有私人碼頭、道路、城牆、和守衛。如果他把那筆錢捐出扶貧，大概足夠幾個非洲小國的所有小朋友一年的衣食。那麼，這個富豪是否太奢侈？

唔，我告訴你，這人叫比爾蓋茨，而他已經是捐了以千億元計的財富扶貧了。

班聚

與為家母祝壽同時，筆者的大學同學也正在安排畢業二十五年班聚。出乎意料，各同學為此事竟掀起了一段頗為熱烈的討論。

長話短說，各人爭論的事情可以用一個哲學題目來表達：假設經濟情況許可，我們是否應該多享受一下，抑或繼續克己的生活，而用多餘的錢去盡力幫助貧苦大衆？

**************
首先，要注意這個議題的措詞經常直接影響答案。試想，要是把題目寫成「我們應否過奢侈的生活，抑或繼續克己……」，答案是明顯不過。但如果把它寫成「我們是否應該先改善自己的生活，抑或只維持基本生活所需……」，大家也許便會有不同的意見。

你可能說，「奢侈」和「改善自己的生活」有明顯的分别，但是，用一個現成的例子，一餐每位千多元的晚膳，對一個實習醫生來說是奢侈，但從一個“星球”醫生看來，不過是“改善生活”罷了。

上梁

定係梁上――者候？

Note: Pictures copied from the internet.

策略

關於宣誓事件，泛民的最佳策略是：表面支持梁、游二人再宣誓，以爭取民心和道德高地，實則催化二人不能履新而致重選。經此一役，不少青年新政的支持者會轉投泛民，補選很大機會能重奪二席，增加在議會內的籌碼。

由於上述可能，建制派的最佳策略是表面排斥梁、游，卻令二人最終宣誓成功，以避免泛民籍補選壯大。縱使青政將來在政策上對抗，甚至在議會搞事，二人只是小學雞程度，不難駕御；更重要的是他俩俱是耳後見腮之輩，對泛民非但不會感恩圖報，反而偶爾與之對着幹，大可成為牽制泛民的後欄火種。

Grants

Recently read: Tori O'Neal-McElrath《Winning Grants Step by Step》

I must say I find it difficult to understand there is a fourth edition.

Specialization

I went on with my lecture, "Even for patients within the same department, the current trend is specialization rather than generalization."

"What do you mean?" My wife asked.

"For example, if a woman is under the care of a liver surgeon for gall stone, and, at the same time, she is also noticed to have a breast lump. Would the liver surgeon do the workup or refer her to a breast surgeon? There is nothing fancy about breast ultrasound, X-ray, or biopsy - all general surgeons should be fully capable. However, if there is any problem, his expertise would be challenged, and any pig-headed extraterrestrial would comment that the system never bar him from referring the patient to a breast surgeon."

"The attitude is wrong."

"Is it? I'm not entirely sure. On one hand we think generalization would save the trouble of multiple referral and improve the efficiency of the system. On the other, specialization certainly improves the outcome of many procedures - surgery, endoscopy, and what not. As Adam Smith said: The greatest improvement in the productive power of labour... have been the effects of the division of labour."

Education

"I think the idea of our extraterrestial friends is this: If a problem could be taken care of by a private doctor, why couldn't a junior surgical or medical trainee do the same thing?"

"Because a private doctor gets paid and therefore has the incentive to handle those simple problems. In contrast, a junior trainee in the Hospital Authority has no such incentive - their salary is fixed, they need to shoulder the responsibility, and, if anything happens, they get the blame. As I just said, extraterrestrial creatures are mostly mollusks. Moreover, expectations of the public - fueled by the mass media and, unfortunately, a few aliens in the Council - has also changed over the years. Em... you see, I use the word changed, not elevated."

"So, what is your conclusion - or proposal?"

"My conclusion is: More education is needed - but that's for the extraterrestrials and general public. The idea is simple: Tell them, for example, that a junior surgeon could manage a high finger prick sugar level."

PS. For new visitors who have not heard of the term mollusk, please refer to http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2008/07/benefit.html.

Educated

(Our discussion went on.)

"You don't agree, do you?" My wife asked.

"I'm afraid I do not. To begin with, all junior doctors are actually reasonably educated on every aspects of medicine and surgery, just that the current system prevents them from applying their knowledge - or, I dare say, from exercising their common sense."

"Dear, you are too cynical."

 

"Am I? Take your high finger prick glucose as an example. When I was a surgical house officer, I was allowed to take care of all those problems - not because I was a medical gold medalist, but because my consultant had the confidence that house officers had the capability, and he was willing to shoulder all responsibility for the consequence. Nowadays, on one hand the administrators say they encourage applying general medical knowledge. On the other, whenever troubles or complaints arise, all they would say is they have never prohibited frontline doctors from consulting experts of other specialties!"

Generalization

My wife Vivian attended the consultant interview recently. After that unsuccessful attempt, I asked her, "What did they ask?"

"Everything. Nonetheless, I was puzzled by one question."

"What?"

"They asked what do I think of generalization, that is, expanding the general training amongst, for example, basic surgical trainees."

"What do they mean?"

"They mean the plan of enhancing the knowledge and confidence of simple medical and surgical knowledge amongst junior doctors so as to cut down unnecessary consultations. For example, physicians won't consult us for lipoma, and our trainees will not consult them for a finger prick glucose level of 9 as in-patient. Alas, I know nothing about this plan - I only heard of it during the interview!"

"And what did you say?"

"Em... I said it's a good idea. We should pay more effort to educate the juniors."

I laughed and shoke my head.

Reading

Frequent visitors of my blog may be puzzled by my reading record. For example, how could I finish with 《Mindset》 on Thursday and 《後漢書》 on Saturday?

Simple. They were read at different time slots.

In fact I have four regular time slots for reading everyday - around 20 minutes each. I read medical journals (downloaded to my Samsung tablet) on my way to work, followed by reading medical textbooks in my office as the first thing after I had my breakfast. In the evening, I read a non-medical electronic book (via Amazon Kindle or Google Book in my tablet) on my way back home, and another paperback as bedtime reading.

By the way, 20 minutes is close to my concentration span of reading a book now. It used to be well over one hour when I was in medical school, and 30 minutes some 10 years ago. The process of aging is obvious.

後漢

Recently read：《二十五史新編――後漢書》

The attraction is not what it describes, but what it doesn't.

杭州

母壽誕，於灣仔杭州酒家設宴慶生。菜單如下：

前菜：醉乳鴿；醬鴨；炸響鈴；素鵝

湯品：火朣老鴨湯

主菜：富貴雞；清炒蝦仁；三鮮魚丸；黃魚腐皮卷；家常豆腐；上湯豆苗

單尾：杭州炒麵；家常大餅

甜品：高力豆沙

一行十五人，埋單四仟壹有找，價錢合理而質素也非常不俗。

後記：長輩慶生傳統須有麵食作單尾。家母不吃蛋糕，故以家常大餅濫竽充數，順便作為提醒大家唱生日歌的記號，亦一新嘗試也。

Power

Recently read: Moisés Naím《The End of Power》

It is by and large another version of Thomas Friedman's《The World is Flat》.

Information

(The conversation with my wife went on.)

"Since you mention reading a lot without any practical experience, I come to realize medical students are very fortunate nowadays." Vivian said, "In the old days, when we encountered a particular disease or specific drug in the ward and we wanted to look it up, we had to search through several textbooks, and, many a time, we still could not get a satisfactory answer. Now, a student just goes to the Internet and key in anything you need, you can get a very detail answer - in Medscape or Wikipedia or whatever. In short, they have all the information at their fingertips."

"My dear, I'm not sure you could call that fortunate. Maybe I can explain my concern in a philosophical way: You read a lot of martial arts novels (武俠小說), don't you?"

"Yes... so what?"

“咁你有幾何見絕世高手係住喺藏經閣㗎？”

Or, as TS Eliot said:
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in infomation?

Talk

During a casual dinner conversation, I told my wife, "You know, I was late for dinner yesterday."

"Yes. What happened?"

"I was attending a talk that I had to be present for administrative reasons, and the speaker was absolutely remarkable. His lecture was supposed to be 20 minutes, but he prepared over 120 slides, which he took well over 40 minutes to finish."

"I suppose he just tried to be thorough?"

"He probably wanted to tell us all he knew about kidney disease - and I'm afraid even that wouldn't take 20 minutes. It was plain obvious that he has no practical experience in that subject, and he just copy-and-paste everything he could found in textbook and recent review articles to his PowerPoint slides."

By the way, I shouldn't really call that young man speaker - all he did was playing karaoke.

PS. Frequent visitors of this site would know I have a specific phobia to speakers who overrun. To me, wasting other people's time means wasting their life, and therefore a kind of miniature murder.

阿基拉

當然，對大部份我這個年紀的人來說，「akira」只有一個解釋：大友克洋的經典動畫「阿基拉」。

一般的說法是大友克洋非常崇拜黑澤明，所以將故事的中心人物取名「阿基拉」。我對此一傳言頗有保留，為的是用自己偶像多名字，替一個引致東京大爆炸的怪物命名，似乎有違常理。說黑澤明對日本電影有毁滅性的影響，也與事實不符。

用現代的觀點，「阿基拉」和「島鐵雄」幾乎是指現代網絡科技――都是源於年輕人，威力遠大於傳統武器，容易變異而失去控制，兩大巨頭又互相攻伐。「阿基拉」原意是帶來光明，但卻因太過耀眼而令人盲目，確實是現代活生生的諷刺。只是「阿基拉」拍攝於1988年，是作者有大智慧預知未來，抑或另有所指，便不得而知了。

明

和不少對文字演化有研究的朋友一樣，當我看到黑澤明的日文原名，便會有很奇怪的感覺：「明」的日文是 「akira」，語音和平假名的結構和許多常用字大有分別。

事實上，「akira」是典型印度語或梵語類的發音。現代梵語的 akira 也是解作「光芒」。同一個字西傳歐洲，和大部份的梵文一樣，第一個 「a」省略了，變成了女性名字「Kira」，就是「光明開朗的人」。

奇怪的是，梵文詞彙影響中、日語文，是魏晋後和佛教一同而來。在此之前，一則路途阻隔，兼且別無他用，借用梵文詞語是絕無僅有。然而「akira」日語是「光」，則於唐初已然確立。究竟是梵語對東亞語文影響遠大於傳統說法，抑或兩字只屬浪漫的巧合，使只有留待將來研究。

黑澤

偶然看到電影《七俠蘯寇誌》的廣告。這套1960年的西部片局今重拍，又令人想起1954年上映的日本原著，黑澤明的經典傑作《七俠四義》。此片台灣譯名為《七武士》實在更為貼切，因為片中其實並無另外四位義士。

平心而論，《七俠四義》負盛名而又有娛樂性，但未必是黑澤明的最佳作品。論格局有《羅生門》和《天國與地獄》，論精彩有《影武者》和《姿三四郎》，論為西方主流媒體接受有《亂》和《德蘇烏扎拉》。但個人而言，最喜歡的卻是《用心棒》。柴刀對手槍，比雞蛋對高牆更反映現實。

那個故事也代表了黑澤明早年的心態：世道混亂，但不乏人性光輝，每有俠義之士，能濟世匡民。待得年事漸長，黑澤明的世界觀也逐漸悲觀。由《天國與地獄》到《沒有季節的小墟》的絕望，再到《亂》，明白到天道無常，邪常能勝正，致有無語問蒼天之概。而作為凡夫俗子，自己便寧可喜歡仍有鋤強扶弱的年代。

按：《亂》乃改編自莎劇《李爾王》，相較强國改《哈夢雷特》為《夜宴》，境界之别殊不可以道里計矣。

名實

[續昨]

張居正摇摇頭：那些侍郎、少傅並不需要宦官一般的退休安排。

申：為什麼？

張：他們用自己的官銜，退休後在外設帳授徒，或給人寫碑題字，收入極為豐厚，那裏會稀罕一個大學士的虚銜？

申：那麼馮保等大太監為甚麼又不這樣做？

張：啊呀！因為他們沒有真才實學呀！

申：所以，可悲的結論是大學士只是留給一些有名無實的人。真有才學人的不會，也不需要成為大學士。

張苦笑點頭。

[筆者按：正史不論，但明宣宗三楊中楊士奇的書法卻是罕有其比。其楷書之精，依愚之見，勝過顏柳，與歐陽詢、趙孟頫在史上實鼎足而三，隔代輝映也。]

合约

[續昨]

張居正大笑良久，才緩緩的說：給我看內廷起居注的，便是馮保。

申：所以他現在便獲聘為武英殿大學士？

張：也可以這麼說。但馮保當年和我們並沒有什麼協議，甚至我們從未有商量過甚麼安排，所以勾結是談不上。不過他知道，從前的王振、汪直、以至劉瑾，只要對我們內閣做事權宜方便的，退休後便會成為大學士。銜頭體面，俸祿也不錯，是他們夢寐以求的退休安排。

申：唔，正如那個叫 Jared Diamond 的花旗人說，在一個小圈子內，信譽足以代替合約。

張：這也是博奕理論所說的 communication by action。

申：首輔大人，我們這樣做固然可以方便行事，但是對三、四品的官員卻不甚公平。他們半生辛勤文墨，到退休卻只得到一個侍郎、太子少傅一類的頭銜。這些儒生不是更值得加封東閣大學士嗎？

張居正望着申時行，露出了難以置信的表情。

委任

[平行時空歷史]

大明內閣首輔張居正宣佈，委任剛退休的內務司禮大太監馮保為武英殿大學士。

剛入內閣的大臣申時行對此一安排甚為疑惑，便往請教張居正。

*****************

申：首輔大人，武英殿大學士俸祿雖然不高，卻只應授予學養極深的宿儒。馮監粗通文墨，不過寫過一兩首平仄不調的蹇腳詩，和大學士的頭銜恐怕不稱吧？

張：話倒不是這麼說。馮大人審閱奏章多年，對文學實在有極豐富的第一手經驗。

申：首輔大人，依下官之見，聘請馮監為大學士並非因為他的學術成就，而是看上他在內廷的影響力。馮大人擔任司禮太監多年，昔日部下多已身居要職。內閣聘用了馮監，便可以打通和內廷太監的關係，我們辦事大為方便，甚至影響內廷以至聖上的決策，使之變得對我們有利。

張：你既然看到了，還有甚麼問題？

申：首輔大人，我只是想這一着未必行得通。人走茶凉，馮監的昔日舊部，也不會對他唯命是從。早年我們聘請了退休後的王振擔任文淵閣大學士，他想借內廷的起居注一看，也被那些舊部諸多留難，三年竟看不到兩頁。反而首輔大人要看，只是略作疏通，便可說一馬平川了。

張居正沒有說話，只是哈哈大笑起來。

分紙

Took part in the MRCP PACES examination recently.

I shall not elaborate what I encountered. Nonetheless, a remarkable phenomenon did happen again and again throughout the day.

It went like this: All candidates were given their own score sheets before the examination and were asked to fill in the computer codes of their candidate number, center number, scenario number, and examiner number, as shown in this picture:

And, you may guess that much: The more careful the candidate filled in the boxes, the more meticulous was their technique of physical examination.

There was also a small group of candidates who filled in their candidate number carefully but left the other boxes all over the place. I shall leave it to you to decide what kind of people they are.

[Declaration: The above picture is downloaded from the Royal College of Physicians' website.]

大學

攝於某大學聚會：

容許在下用廣東話問：點解咁多有（髮）色人士？

詩韻

看到黎教授的詩牌，便從抽屜中找到內人母親從北京帶來的「䄂珍詩韻」：

紙如蟬翼，字皆蠅頭。全書不過傳呼機大小。乃供古人聚會、行酒令時作弊之用。

詩牌

While talking about Chinese history, my friend FL showed me a box that he recently acquired under the hammer:

Thanks to his explanation and additional comments by RC, I learn that these are Chinese poem plates (詩牌). It is, in essence, a kind of board game that social elites of the Qing Empire played, but is also used for teaching kids to write poems.

中史

週日，和太座閑聊。

「據說教育局打算擴大中史科課程，政府似乎是迷途知返了。」內人說。

「不錯，但我們的中史課程實在太沉悶了，難怪年輕一輩對中國既無知，又無感情。」

「啊呀！你認為可以怎麼辦？」

「老實說，我非常贊成陶傑的建議，與其教刻版的事件和朝代，不如用人做單位，選擇一些有趣又有代表性的人物，像說故事般敍述他們的生平，應該更能引起學生的興趣。」

「但是有許多歷史事件是非常重要的呀！」

「那視乎你的看法。譬如說近代史，甲午戰爭是非常重要的戰事。但對一個中學生來說，便甚麼也不是了。再說，用人物說歷史，便可以從選擇人物入手，對學生潛移默化――或者你可以說是洗腦。」

「洗甚麼腦？」

「又以近代史來說，只要課程仔細描述宋教仁、宋子文、汪精衞等人的遭遇生平，便很難不對民國政府感到厭惡，進而覺得共產黨統治中國是理所當然的了。」

「嘩！好彩唔係你制訂課程嘅唧！」

Card

While I was counting the numbers, my friend AP showed me a name card that she recently received:

********************************
Dr. XYZ
Founding President
International Society of Pruritis Ani
********************************

I literally scratched my head and asked, "Who's this guy? I've never heard of him."

"Of course not. It's too remote from us - he just got his fellowship earlier this year."

"Alas, that's a vivid example of title inflation. I suppose he is leaving Hospital Authority for private practice soon?"

My friend smiled and nodded.

Numbers

Let the numbers speak:

• 12 directors
• 15 advisors
• 17 workers on public access
• 10 project leaders
• 9 active projects

• 25 vacancies for potential applicants

Education

"If young people could learn everything from the Internet, why should we spend so much on education?" Hebe asked.

"My friend, education - or I should say our education system - is not meant for educating the younger generation. Look at their content and curriculum and it's pretty obvious. From the social or governmental point of view, however, education serves two important purposes."

"Yes...?"

"First, when education is free and easily available, the younger generation would spend longer in the unversity. Since old people do not retire and job vacancies are vanishing, education is an excellent strategy to bring down the unemployment rate."

Hebe nodded - she could not agree more. Her friend went on.

"And educaiton is a convenient way of brainwashing. You learn something when you are a kid and you will be convinced that it is correct - religion, patriotism, universal value, and what not. Whatever you teach a kid, it gets imprinted in their mind and won't get challenged for the rest of their life. If you give the same message to all children, they would become cohesive and believe there is some core value of their country..."

Hebe could not help shivering.

Youth

"There are several reasons," Athena explained, "First, the young people have nowadays the ever worsening difficulty to earn a living and secure a position in the society. With the advances in machines and technology, jobs that depends on physical strength are vanishing. The young people lose their edge over more senior colleagues. Obviously, neither could compete with a machine in this regard."

Hebe nodded, and her friend went on.

"On the other hand, exactly because of the advances in technology, the older people also lose their edge over younger ones. One hundred years ago, experience was valuable, and therefore senior people in many professions earned more. In those days, if a young person wanted to master a technique, he needed to be taught by an experienced person in that field. Nowadays, you can learn everything from the Internet and Youtube - and everyone could easily check whether the teaching by their senior is correct. The result is simple: Young people begin to look down upon older ones."

Job

"My friend, the water is deeper than what you see." Athena said.

"Yes...?"

"Since there is no disease and everyone lives practically forever, there is no hope in this world."

"Do you mean Since there is always a tomorrow, we do not treasure today ?"

"Partly. For the old people, they would be bored to death - or I should say bored to hell - if they do not hold on to their job and social title. Unfortunately, Hebe, that's what we are now doing."

"I see what you mean. Since we are the majority in the society and we have the resource and connection, we dominate the government. A healthy and prospering society is not our priority. We make policies in favour of our own selves."

"Very true. As to the young people, they have every reason to join a rebellion."

"Why?" Hebe asked.

Retire

Reluctantly Hebe nodded.

"You are all for this idea, aren't you?" Athena asked.

"Yes. Of course. Certainly. Definitely. Absolutely... Oh, I mean, I should. After all, we do not age nowadays. Even though I was born a century ago, my body is as young as a 30-year-old. On one hand the society is not making the best use of our ability and experience if we are forced to retire at 60 or 65. Moreover, we nonagenarians would be bored to death if we have nothing to do!"

"In that case why are you puzzled?"

"Because if we refuse to retire and stay in our position, the future of our next generation is gloomy. Take our Queen Elizabeth as an example. She is doing so well that Prince Charles, her heir apparent, seems to have no chance of becoming the King. When the Prince was 30 years old, he had a high hope of taking over the crown one day. When he was 70, alas, he came to realize he was nothing but a piece of furniture sitting next to the Queen."

"I see your point. But, can't we work out a system so that people of all age could live in harmony?"

Later

Hebe, like most of the others in her days, could not find a place to take care of her mother, who passed away - or we should say faded away some time after her 100th birthday.

Time flies. Hebe herself is expecting her 80th birthday tomorrow. But, unlikely her mother, she does not become old. Quite the opposite. Thanks to the effort and donation of Maxima, Hebe is more energetic than ever. She pursued a career of politics after retiring as a school teacher, and became a backbencher last year. Today she is going to speak in the parliament.

It is about the proposal that the age of retirement should be deferred to 80, and she feels slightly uncertain which side to take. As always, she decides to have a drink in the Strangers' Bar so as to arrange her ideas.

Well, it is never easy to get a moment of peace in the Palace of Westminster. As soon as Hebe takes her first sip of whisky soda, she finds Athena sitting down next to her.

"You look puzzled. Is it about the age of retirement business?" The goddess of wisdom asks.

Aging

(The conversation in front of the elderly home continued.)

"Why should we blame them? The intention of the internet entrepreneur and his wife was very good to begin with," Hebe said, "And they were unexpectedly successful..."

"Very true. As a result of their good work - or really their generous donations - all diseases are eradicated. We end up having everyone to live for a hundred years and die of senility!"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Madam, it is a fantastic happening as long as their family and the society do not have to take care of them. At this moment, one third of our population is over the age of 65, nursing home attendent is the top career amongst the working class, and one third of the government expenditure is used for the care of old people. To put it simply, the society has become a gigantic elderly home. And, madam, that's why we have no vacancy for your mother - the demand is so high!"

"I see. Sir, don't be disappointed with Mark and Priscilla, and there is always hope," Hebe said, "I just learn from the news that Maxima, their daughter, has set up another fund to eradicate aging in the coming 50 years..."

"You call that hope?" The elderly home owner said incredulously.

Vacancy

Hebe feels hopeless.

She is standing in front of a small white building. An elderly home to be exact. This is the seventh one of the same kind that she visited in the past two days. None of the previous six gave her good news.

"Well, that's life," she says to herself, takes a deep breath, and presses on the doorbell.

In no time the heavy door opens a little - just enough for one eye of whoever behind the door to peep out.

"Madam, what's the matter?" The whoever says with a skeptical voice.

"Good afternoon. My name is Hebe. I'm looking for an elderly home vacancy to accommodate my mother. She is 85 and a bit frail, but has absolutely no disease to worry about..."

"No place. No place for anyone!" The skeptical voice turns agitated, "And, nowadays, who on earth has any disease? That's exactly why all elderly homes on earth are runny out of vacancy. Should we thank Mark and Priscilla?"

預防

K呆了一會。忽然他看見這家M記的經理走過，便拿着自己剛買的晚餐走過去。

「老友，你竟然敢叫這種垃圾食物做健康餐！？」他嚷著。

「先生，你稍安毋燥。」那中年經理嘴角掀了一下，似笑非笑地說：「健康是個主觀的感覺，但我們的宣傳資料卻絕對正確。」

「正確個鳥……」

「先生，你可曾有聽過有每天吃我們的雙層肥肉芝士漢堡的人死於癌症的？」

「當然沒有，他們都老早有心臟病，掛了！」

「這個自然。他們只是不生癌症，卻不是能永生不死呀！進一步說，他們有心臟病，可能是我們的食物預防癌症太有效了。」

快餐

離開辨公室時K抬頭一看，天已經全黑了。他累得身體似乎不是屬於自己的，但出乎意料地他還懂得感到肚餓。噢，别說自己弄飯，他連多走幾步找家像樣一點的餐廳晚飯也提不起勁。「就M記吧！」他自言自語的說。

快餐店就在街角，K推門而入，望望四周，一切還是老樣子。當然，這星期他已是第三次來吃晚飯――而今天只不過是星期四。

嗯，不，有點不同。售餐處上面的螢光幕新放了一個醒目的廣告。

「新發売健康餐――每日一餐，有效預防癌症。超過三十年臨床研究發現能減低癌症死亡機會百分之九十九。只售$19.9」

**************************

「一客健康餐。」K毫不猶豫地對售餐的服務員說。

不消一分鐘食物已送到，K急不及待打開一看，便――正如他們所說――不禁倒抽一口凉氣。

那是雙層肥肉芝士漢堡加特大薯條和巴菲特飲。

PS. As to the favourite drink of Mr Warren Buffett, it is well described in most financial magazines. You may also want to refer to Snowball.

Professional

"Alas - then what is yours?" I pressed on.

"My consideration is simple," L explained, "Take the medical profession as an example. Even though one may be working in a field that he is interested in, it is rather unlikely that he would love each and every aspect of the field."

"What do you mean?"

"Say, if you are inspired by the renowned professor of that green medical school and become a gastroenterologist and love the subject very much, it remains most probable that you may not like the entire subject. People who like lumenal disease often find metabolic liver disease boring. People who prefer to read up nucleoside analogs probably do not enjoy handling endoscopy. A brilliant clinician may be mad when being called in the middle of the night to treat a patient with massive hematemesis..."

"I see what you mean: An amateur can focus on the aspect that he feels interest in and forget about the rest. As a genuine gastroenterologist, however, one must perform up to the standard even in aspects that he finds repugnant."

Change

(My discussion with L continued.)

"My friend, there is a weakness in your argument." L said.

"And that is...?"

"It is obviously true that we often cannot choose our occupation, but, can't we alter what we love? If the circumstances make you a nephrologist rather than some position that you love - say, a neurosurgeon - wouldn't it be possible that you gradually change your mind, find the new subject interesting, and fall in love with it?"

"You may be right," I paused for a moment, "But, after reading Carol Dweck recently, I could say with confidence that not everyone could change their mind that easily. In fact, I suspect the ability to change one's own mind is inborn and fixed per se. A good many people are stuck with the unfortunate cul-de-sac that they have to endure an unbearable job."

My friend smile, "Absolutely. But that's not my point..."

Amateur

After a moment of silence, L suddenly decided to change the topic, "My friend, do you love your job?"

"What a question!" I laughed, "It's my job - that's all. True, there are gratifying moments, but I have enough hard times to compensate my reward. Why do you ask that?"

"Alas, I am just inspired recently by the head of a green medical school. He loves his job so much!"

"I must say that's a blessing. Many a time we cannot really choose our occupation - and, in general, we cannot alter what we love. Therefore, it is really a happy coincidence to have the two matched."

"You may be right, and, for those who try their very best for a job that they don't really like, a famous saying just flashes through my mind."

"Which?"

"An amateur performs well on what he likes; a professional also performs well on what he doesn't like."

"Should I thank you for the compliment?" I could not stop smiling.

PS. The original quote should be: An amateur learns what he likes; a professional also learns what he doesn't like.

蔡瀾

我當然曉得。正因為「這個菜很好吃」和「這個菜是很好吃的」一類的毫厘差異，我很喜歡看蔡瀾從前在《壹週刊》寫的《未能食素》。

平心而論，蔡先生的口味殊不從眾，對菜式的評論也間或偏頗。但他的文章卻極具娛樂性，遇上不頰意的食肆 ，除了秉筆直書外，嘻笑怒駡有之，明褒暗貶有之，更甚是有時或怯於對方由有勢力人士撑腰，便不得已欲言又止，於留白處陽秋。一般人看了不知就裡，以為按圖索驥，便不免大失所望。然而心思複雜者，細嚼良久，豁然有悟，自當忍俊不禁。

或如蔡先生所言，魚鮮味者必多刺。文章佳妙者亦每多微言伏筆，啖之，俱是有骨落地也。

中文

歸家路上遇到L，他說：「中文真是一種垂死的文字。」
我說：「這話不錯。前些時我偶然用了幾個較冷僻的四字成語，一群大學生中竟無一個懂得。」
「是哪些成語？」他問。
「含枚疾走、鶴籌添算、明夷待訪、懷璧其罪……」
「啊呀！這些蝌蚪文唯一的作用便是酸秀才拿來拋書包……」
「那麼你認為怎樣才算懂得中文？」
「如果一個人曉得『這菜很好吃』和『這菜是很好吃的』的分別，便可說是粗通中文了。」

Mindset

Recently read: Carol Dweck 《Mindset》

Another book that tries to explain everything by a simple idea.

馮婦

愛因斯坦說：「閱讀太多，應用太少，就會懶於思考。」

所以，訓練獨立思考的最好方法是寫作，而不（只）是閱讀。

See: http://www.managertoday.com.tw/columns/view/52205