20220709 Listening Notes: Plant 4 “Heart Anchors” for Children

What is an anchor? Listen to a true story. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA, has established three "deep space networks" in order to maintain close contact with spacecraft in space. They are located in Madrid, Spain, Canberra, Australia, and the Mojave Desert in southern California, United States. .

When you come to the Mojave Desert, you will find that in addition to the bases set up by NASA, some people are also engaged in aerospace work. In our impression, the space shuttle industry is an industry that only the super rich can get involved in. But those people are not rich, they are ordinary people.

Ordinary people lack capital and experience, so how can they have the courage to try something so out of reach? The answer is that they were born in the 1960s and 1970s. When they were young, they witnessed American astronauts landing on the moon, which gave them an anchor called the "space dream." Since the 1980s, they have been living in the desert developing space shuttles and trying to send people into space. If you don’t have money to support a large team, then start a small company with a few dozen people. I didn’t have money to do a wind tunnel experiment, so I used a second-hand Ford car to run in the desert for testing.

In recent years, business giants such as Musk and Bezos have also been involved in the aerospace field. You will find that they were also born in the 1960s and 1970s, and the American moon landing also planted an anchor for them. , this led to the later "Mars Immigration Plan" and "Blue Origin Project", as well as their commercial success. It can be seen that the anchor planted in a person's childhood will profoundly affect his life.

Perhaps your child also has the dream of traveling in the universe and pioneering in the scientific world. Many parents are willing to let their children read biographies of scientists. Through these stories, they can cultivate their interest in science, feel the spirit of overcoming difficulties, and at the same time accumulate some composition materials. Reading "biographies of scientists" is of greater use. Join the "Scientist Biography" training class, and we will spend one month planting 4 anchors for your children.

The "Biographies of Scientists" family reading seminar will start with four sets of books.

The first set of books is "The Biography of Einstein".

There is a saying in the scientific community of "miracle years", which refers to the years when major inventions or discoveries are made. The "miracle years" of top scientists all occurred when they were young. 1666 was Newton's miracle year. He single-handedly laid the foundations of the four major disciplines of calculus, classical mechanics, optics and celestial mechanics. This year he was 24 years old. 1905 was Einstein's miracle year. He published six papers alone, and his research results were worthy of at least 3-4 "Nobel Prizes". He was 26 years old this year. In addition, Yang Chenning and Lee Tsung-dao, who are familiar to Chinese people, won the Nobel Prize in Physics at the ages of 36 and 31 respectively.

Some people would say that the reason why Newton and Einstein achieved so much in their youth is because they happened to catch up with the founding era of modern science, and they could start a sect just by asking for directions. However, the famous network scientist Barabasi examined the publication records of all scientists in history and confirmed a conclusion: "You must grow up early". This is the first anchor we need to plant for our children.

Teacher Wan Wei Gang mentioned this statistic in the "Elite Daily Class". For every scientist, the most important discovery in life may occur at any stage of life. Scientists’ creativity does not diminish with age. But it’s true that most people make their big breakthroughs early in their careers. Why is this?

In fact, as we age, it is not creativity that is declining, but output. Making major breakthroughs in scientific research is a matter of probability. The higher the output, the greater the probability of making major breakthroughs. The real problem of middle-aged people is not that they are not creative, but that they are unwilling to do it. Young people are motivated while middle-aged people are slack, so young people are more likely to make major breakthroughs than middle-aged people.

Your child may only be ten years old, but don’t think it’s too early. Maybe his “miracle year” will be in fifteen years, and fifteen years is not far away.

"You must grow up early" is the first anchor planted by "Biography of Scientists" for your children.

Next is "The Autobiography of Madame Curie".

Let's imagine a scenario. One hundred thousand years later, humans have already immigrated to space. At this time, a group of aliens came to the earth. What can you do to make them notice that you once existed on this planet?

Rely on wealth? We can tell who is number one on the world's richest list this year. Maybe you can tell who the richest man was ten years ago, but we may not be able to tell you who was the richest man twenty years ago, fifty years ago, or a hundred years ago. Remember.

Rely on power? The most powerful person in ancient China was the emperor, but of the more than 400 emperors in ancient China, we can blurt out no more than 10 names. Once outside the country, foreigners may not know the names of these 10 emperors.

In this era, the most talented people are scientists. Take Marie Curie for example. She lived in an era when it was still difficult for women to obtain the same rights and respect as men. She had very good grades, but was rejected by universities in Poland and Russia after graduating from high school. After her husband died, , she hoped to start a new love life, but the media at that time pointed fingers at her and even abused and accused her.

But today, when we mention Marie Curie, we will say that she is the first female scientist to win the Nobel Prize, the first scientist to win the Nobel Prize twice. Once a scientist reaches the top, it will never end.

We believe in science, not because scientific knowledge is great, but because scientists are great. The biggest feature of science is that it is “falsifiable”, and scientific knowledge will be updated iteratively and repeatedly. But scientists are different. We trust scientists not because they have magical powers, but because they focus on one thing, which is to doubt existing scientific knowledge and promote its continuous updating. Scientists are constantly seeking the truth, while charlatans claim to have it. As the French writer André Gide said: Believe those who are pursuing the truth and doubt those who claim to have found the truth.

"In this era, scientists are the best." This is the second anchor we need to plant. In China, you will encounter such a scene. When you ask a child: "What will you do in the future?", the answer you get is often: "I want to be a scientist." Perhaps the anchor of "scientists are great" was originally planted in the hearts of Chinese people. In the "Scientist Biography" training class, we will plant this anchor deeper through interesting scientist stories and brain-burning thought experiments.

The third live class begins with "The Biography of Alan Turing".

Many times, children solve problems as a "substitute" behavior. I read two more classics because I can get a game console as a reward for doing well in the final exam, which is a "substitution"; I learn one more talent, and maybe I can get extra points when I go to college in the future, which is also a "substitution." With a "replacement" mentality, reading and learning talents may become numb.

Turing’s story tells us that returning to interest itself is the most meaningful. This is the third anchor we need to plant, “the joy of solving real problems.”

During World War II, Turing cracked Germany's most advanced coded telegraph system, helping the Allies win World War II two years early and saving at least 14 million lives. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said: "Turing was the greatest hero in World War II." But Turing's great achievements were not due to the pressure of the task, but just because he was full of love for decoding. Therefore, even though the war was over, he continued his research and proposed the idea of ??"computer" and "artificial intelligence", which still affects us today.

For another example, let me ask you a question, why are the edges of coins jagged? In fact, this stems from Newton's interest in solving real problems. In 1696, when Newton was 53 years old, he had become famous and was hired to supervise the British Mint. This job was originally very leisurely, but Newton, a scientist, had no intention of working as a part-time job after joining the job, and he also engaged in the work of the Mint with a scientific research mentality. At that time, counterfeit currency was rampant. After investigation, Newton found that 20% of the metal currency in circulation was counterfeit. What’s even more frightening is that the counterfeiters at that time even claimed that the counterfeit coins they produced were more authentic than real coins. Newton carefully calculated and analyzed the chemical composition of counterfeit coins and found that the silver and copper used in most counterfeit coins were real and sufficient. Where did all this silver and copper come from? Newton continued to investigate and found that counterfeiters would find genuine coins, cut a thin layer from the outer ring of the genuine coins, and then round the edges of the genuine coins. In this regard, Newton came up with a way to carve complex patterns on the edges of the currency so that counterfeiters would not be able to rub the metal off. This method is still used today.

In the fourth live class of the training class, we will start from the book "Approaching Qian Xuesen" and talk about Chinese scientists.

Let me ask you a question, how can I become a talent? Rely on hard work? Diligence alone is unreliable. What we need to do is to try extensively to find your talent. This is the last anchor we need to plant.

The Chinese are the group with the most opportunities in the world. The reason is very simple. China has a large population base, so the success rate must be high. In addition to Qian Xuesen, there are many famous Chinese scientists, such as Yang Zhenning.

Teacher Zhuo Ke mentioned that Chen Ning Yang was the greatest scientist in the world after World War II. According to Mr. Zhuo Ke’s statistics, in addition to the Nobel Prize won by Chen Ning Yang himself, there have been 7 Nobel Prizes, which were obtained by directly using the "Yang-Mills equation" proposed by Chen Ning Yang; in addition, there are dozens of Nobel Prizes. The Bell Prize is related to the theory proposed by Chen Ning Yang. You know, when Yang Zhenning started doing scientific research, the tide of the "golden age" of world physics had receded, and all the relatively low-hanging fruits had been picked, but Yang Zhenning still stood at the top of world science.

Opportunities are around you, try widely and find your own "talent point". Chinese people can become the top people in the world at any time. Maybe this will happen to your child.

“You must become talented as early as possible”, “Become a scientist and be the most reputable person”, “The joy of solving real problems”, “Try widely and find your talent”, these are the seeds we will plant for your children. The four anchors of the heart.