Cultivating the next generation with my missions

Sometimes I wonder why I still put in so much time in instruction for meager compensation.   Sometimes I wonder I need to spend so much time explaining to students why we have to add a fee to their financial burden.  

But it is not for the monetary reward, which I am fortunate enough not to worry about anymore.  It is for the mission: to learn, to love, and to serve.

Without the learn, we don't have to tool to move forward, without the love, there is no passion to move forward, without the serve, there is no reason to move forward.

Living by the three missions, I am often frustrated, exhausted, troubled, challenged, but feel every day is worthwhile.

 

Portola Valley

Have been staying in the Portola Valley house for about a month now.  It is quiet and pleasant.  The 5 acres lot make it pretty private, next to Stanford and Sandhill Road, make my connection to the Silicon Valley much easier than Carmel.

The cook Karina is great. When I stay in PV, each meal is well prepared, mostly Sothern Chinese, Vietnamese or Southeast Asia cuisine.  My assistant Elaine is also trying her best to complete the my personal and the UnivSA project.

I arrive at PV usually on Thursday morning, have the study meeting while driving with IT folks, have an update meeting with Elaine, lunch by Karina, update meeting with Steve, prepare for evening working meeting with Chinese partner at 6:00PM.  Dinner is served at 7.  Then I take a long walk, sometimes with Steve, on the trail between PV and Woodsides, crossing a running creek, for about 45 minutes.

The garage is small after I park the Mercedes S, there is ONE inch left between the car and the garage door.  

The weather is hot, last week it was in the 90s, have to turn on the air conditioning. 

Overall, it is a new experience and a pleasant one.  The UnivSA vision: bring Silicon Valley Venture knowledge and connection to the world, is an exciting one.

Tennis Drama 06 2020

I have been playing tennis with LP in Carmel. Enjoy the exercise and soft hitting.  But she has a controlling tendency.   Any other females want to invite me to play without inviting her, she got very angry and speaks ill of the others.  I was surprised by the drama and kind of amused by it.  

This also applies to the other, Ja.  The female's minds are hard for me to understand.  So competitive and jealous among them, even for just playing tennis.

Spending more time on tennis and piano during the COVID19 lockdown.  Playing with Vicky and Michelle in San Jose high school on Friday.  Mattie and David (both are very good and compete and NSTA) and Ling in South San Jose with good dinner afterward, in addition to playing in Carmel.  I enjoy them but not sure I care about the drama.

I lost some weight over the last year, reduced from 189!!! To 174, together with the collagen, my knees are getting better!  I try to modify my troubled forehand with consistent unit turn and bending the knees to get more consistency and power.  Flipping the forehand was more powerful than I expected when done well, it is beautiful and very satisfying. 

 

Bob Lin’s talk for Mount Jade 05 30 2020

What a great guy!  So true that loving to connect with people will enhance someone’s career.  He assisted many startup to go IPO.  Definitely should connect with him.  He is fun and frank.  Touch many industry is great.  

Dealing with the finance, governance and legal challenges at PGI, but I make sure I do the right thing and enjoy the ride - even a bumpy ones.

To build a tall building, the location is essential. The “location” for startup is “market”. You can not create the market, you have to follow it.

Market and the people are the most important components

What pain of the customers that you can reduce?  What pleasure your products can bring to the users?

Mount Jade and Hua Yuan are good association to join.

Typical VC firm on Sandhill receive 10,000 proposals per year.  Select 1000 to meet, select 20.  Of the 20, 10 already have prior connection.   Only 10 new projects are picked.  Trust is an important factor.

20 pitches reviewed per week.

Homedepot is doing well, because everyone is working on home improvement!

Political Paradigm Shifting - from plutocracy to meritocracy

1950 saw the world’s political system moved from Plutocracy to Communism.  Corrupted region fell and either national democracy, or communism disguises under the flags, established.  In the 80s and 90s, capitalism, disguised as democracy, become the norm of the political system.

The raise of China, especially in the aftermath of the COVID19, exposed the weakness of the western political system.  Democracy is a great idea - people, after thoughtful discussion and analysis, caste their votes and pick a leader to govern.  Alas, there is less and less thoughtful discussion these days.  Most people are manipulated by the media, which is manipulated by the powerful and wealthy.  

The democracy become just a name, it has become the marriage of two extreme negative forces - populism and plutocracy.  The lower class, easily fooled, voted with anger and fear, to the detriment of themselves.  The rich become powerful and the powerful become rich, and their kids become rich and powerful!

Chinese Communist Party, with all its faults, has lifted more than half of billion Chinese out of property. The lower 50% of the Chinese people, have never have this level of prosperity. One can argue that this has happened in spite of the CCP, but it is never easy to argue of success.

One process of that makes the success of the CCP is strict meritocracy, most government workers are selected thru a huge human resource department, the CCP’s organization department, since the person is admitted to the party.  They go thru as small roles as a village chief, to a town, a county, a province, a small city, big city and to the central government.  At least from my observation, in the public sector, there is no “royal family”, such as Trump, Kennedy, Bush...

CCP pick their leader as a CEO, while the west pick their leader as rock star.  The result is drastically different style and personality of the leadership.

It is said every 60-80 years, three generations, there will be a regent change and political paradigm shift.  A shift is happening to bigger, more controlling, more effective, and merit based government.  We shall see.

Eric Tao

05 22 2020 Carmel

World is changing because of COVID19

Moving budget from fighting war to fighting dease,because now people know virus can paralyze arm forces

People are a pushed to embrace digitalzatikn   including online meetings, classes, and probably eMedince

Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena" 竞技场中的人

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

“荣誉不属于在一旁指指点点的人，不属于那些谈笑强者跌倒或者哪里可以做得更好的人。
荣誉属于真正在竞技场中努力，那些脸庞沾满灰尘、汗水和鲜血，那些勇敢奋斗，屡败屡战的人。因为任何努力都会有错误或缺点；荣誉属于投身于有意义的事业，属于敢于追求伟大梦想，最终取得伟大成就或者虽败犹荣的人。这样，竞技场中的人，他的位置，将永远超越那些冷漠胆小而不知胜败的人。”

Blessed to have JJ and DD

I remember, and often relive those moments that I felt to touched and proud of JJ and DD.  The hard work, the talent, and the perseverance of JJ and DD. The years of learning Chinese, thousands of hours of practicing piano, the pain, burden, suffering, defeats, and triumph.  I remember DD practice Beethovan's tempest for the entire year, confident that he is as good as anyone, but did not win the competition.  He cried at the announcement.  My heart bleeds with him. 

I can understand that when I struggle in my PhD study, going into the fourth year, Dad comforted me telling me that if I really don't want it, I should just stop, which made me worked harder and eventually finished it.  I remember when I was in my last year of high school, had not exercised for a long time and joined the running competition, passing the finish line, I ran out of strength and fell to the harsh ground, scrapped my entire right side of the body and bleed with mom and dad watching in horror.  I know how worried they are and I know they much be very proud of me. After raising JJ and DD, I understand how much pain a parent can go thru when they see their kids struggle. The even more difficult one is that you have to know that they will have to face the journey alone.

But it is not only the fact of life that we have to face and overcome the challenges, in the end, but there is also sweetness in the defeat if we have strived.  The experience we gain, the scar we endure, they build character and form the building blocks for your future journey.  Trying is already worth the effort.

Truth, Good and Beauty

These are the three virtues that we are after.  They are also a journey.  We pursue them in stages in our lives.  During the first 20 years, we observe the world, memorize many of the facts, in the twenties to forties, we apply that knowledge to better our surroundings, we work hard for our selves, for our family, and for the community.  Then we gradually shift our focus to peace and beauty in our later stages - the things that make us content and happy.

The cycle continues in our lives, we continue to learn, to apply and to appreciate. How to balance the three is the lesson that we have to practice and refine throughout our years.

辟谷及生酮-分析东西方的饮食养生方式 Bigu vs. Keto - Comparing the Eastern and the Western Diet Regiments

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1652617226830657329&wfr=spider&for=pc








辟谷及生酮-分析东西方的饮食养生方式

陶翼青博士 

东方传承千年的养生方式”辟谷“，与近期开始流行的“生酮饮食”, 有着殊途同归的过程与成果。他们让人减重，降食欲，有精力，思考清楚。生酮饮食在二十世纪被采用治疗癫痫，后来成为一种流行的养生方式。生酮是一种高脂肪、适量蛋白质和尽量降低碳水化合物饮食，强迫人体燃烧脂肪而非碳水化合物。日本小泉教授在2016年，提出了生酮饮食的科学根据，得到诺贝尔奖。辟谷源自道家养生中的“不食五谷”，是中国传承千年的一种养生方式。它源于先秦，辟谷最早的记载源自《庄子·逍遥游》：“有神人居焉。肌肤若冰雪，淖约若处子，不食五谷“，弘一法师也写了辟谷后的体会：「无梦、无挂、无虑、心清、意静、体轻。」此篇论文从科学及数据的角度， 比较辟谷与生酮的不同， 并提出两种养生方法的优劣点，以及未来研究建议的方向。

Bigu vs. Keto - Comparing the Eastern and the Western Diet Regiments

Eric Y. Tao, PhD

Chinese have a long traditional practice of "bi gu", and it has a similar process and results as the ketogenic diet, or Keto, that has recently become popular. The practices make people lose weight, reduce their appetite, increase energy, and think clearly. Keto was used in the twentieth century to treat epilepsy. Keto later becomes a popular form of health practice - a high-fat, moderate protein and minimizes carbohydrates by forcing the body to burn fat rather than carbohydrates. In 2016, Prof. Koizumi of Japan provided the scientific basis of the ketogenic diet and won the Nobel Prize. “Bi gu” means “Avoid Grain” is a way of health preservation in China for thousands of years. It originated from the pre-Qin Dynasty, and the earliest record was derived from "Zhuangzi·Happy Travel." Master Hongyi also wrote about his bigu experience of bigu:  "No dreams, no worries, peaceful, light body." This research analyzes the sciences and data to compare the differences between bigu and keto, proposes new bigu standards, and recommends future research directions.

Music that lift my spirit

Human beings are easily influenced.  Music can change me mood in a few seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C2MAUeNFz4  The movie that I like has a soundtrack that I enjoyed tremendously - it is the music that changed two years, maybe more, of my life.  This is music I listen while driving to palm spring to visit Goodells, Mr. Tang called and invited me to be the president of Mt Sierra.  The script of the soundtrack encourage us to be a little be crazy, so I did, took a leave from CSU and joined MSC - a great but not all positive experience.  But I value it greatly.