Recent Reading

Introduced by the Swarm Agent AI club, I have started to read the book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" since the week before last. Hitherto, my step reaches Chapter 3.

From the previous chapters, I found that the author endeavored to combine the related concepts of music, drawing and mathematics as a sole theme to make readers interested in the topic of Artificial Intelligence. From Chapter 1 to 3, he referred to the formal system to carry the abstract concepts of isomorphism, theorem, recursion, etc.. And the drawings of Escher and the conversations between Achilles and Tortoise can be a beautiful metaphor for his explanation. 


What's more, each chapter just conveys one core concept, which makes me comfortable and never feel overloaded. Such an arrangement of the book can lead me to be addicted in the thought and questions of the author. What a great strategy!

 

Waterfall by Escher, describing a "Strange Loop"

Life seems Overwhelming

Right after the fall break, there came two Midterm exams, one programming homework and one mathematics homework. What's more, I find myself fall behind the process of Neural Networks course. And for Algorithm course, it's still difficult for me to catch up with others. The only one that I'm confident with is CS 530. However, the professor is talking about Fourier Transformation, which is somehow the most difficult part of this course.

Life seems overwhelming now. Besides the course work, I keep on reading GEB and the AI book that Prof. Luger gave to me. I really want to be stronger in AI field, and don't want the professor to be disappointed with me. So I have no other choice but to keep on fighting.

Maybe this afternoon's Loopy Group Meeting will be canceled from my schedule. I feel really tired after spending almost the whole night twice. I need courage and break, and then come back to the lasting war.

Time doesn't wait for anyone

It's a month since I entered the USA. Hitherto, everything seems going well. However, I feel a little lazy during recent days. I know it's crime to behavior like this, so I write this article to warn myself.


What's more, I'm sure that I have wrongly looked down upon my American classmates. Though they think about problems in a different way than mine, they are still clever and they courage to communicate with professors in class. I'm lack of such a courage, and my mathematical skill still remains weak.

So it's the time to stand up, and continue to fight for my dream. Time doesn't wait for anyone.