Sheracaolity

2020 是個非常特別的一年。有很多事情可以分享，但今天我只想分享ㄧ句 Douglas Engelbart 說過的話來為今年作結： The key thing about all the world's big problems is that they have to be dealt with collectively. If we don't get collectively smarter, we're doomed.

在我第一次休學的時候，我和大部分 19 歲的年輕人一樣，有著很大的野心，想在有生之年對世界做出重要的貢獻。然而，我既不知道自己的人生使命是什麼，也不夠暸解這個世界背後的運作原理。而每當我想好好地花時間來自我省察、串聯不同學科的知識來打造自己的思考體系時，我便不斷地感受到大學體制的綑綁，覺得無法完全施展自己。 在休學的兩年期間，我為自己設定的大方向，就是對一切事物保持開放的心態，用盡全力地學習各種知識、技能、觀點，讓我得以從不同的維度去認識自己、認識世界，進而建構一套我覺得扎實可靠的人生觀、世界觀和價值觀，並從中推導出我的人生使命與對世界的願景。 如今，我已經很清楚我未來十年的願景，就是將整個世界知識與技術增長的速度優化到理論極限。為了做到這件事情，我的十年目標是打造一個真正普及世界的開放超文本系統（Open Hyperdocument System），並以這個系統為基礎，建立新一代的網際網路。 很顯然地，這件事情非常困難。在休學兩年期滿時，我仍然能感受到自己在許多方面上都還有所不足。如果我要達成我的願景，我必須走出台灣、看一看外面的世界，取得那些我在台灣無法獲得的成長。於是去年九月，我正式放棄台大物理系和數學系的學籍，來到了以城市為校園、以多元文化交流為背景、以主動學習和跨領域應用為標榜的 Minerva 大學。 重返學生身份的這一年半，我有了三個重要的收穫。 第一個收穫，是思考的方式變得更加完整。以前在台大時，我只是單純地在吸收並理解知識；但是在 Minerva 的第一年，學的則是八十幾種不同的思維模式。這些思維模式可以應用在各種不同領域的學習與研究上，也可以應用在解決問題、與人溝通、判讀資訊、拆解系統、分析數據、建立決策等每天都會遇到的情境中。一整年的訓練不僅使我注意到許多以前不曾注意到的思維漏洞，也讓我更懂得如何批判、創造與應用眼前的資訊與所學的知識，對我來說剛好達到與在台大所學互補的效果。 第二個收穫，是學會用心經營與他人的關係。我在 Minerva 交了幾個我非常珍視的朋友，這些朋友不僅讓我感受到被珍惜、被重視，也讓我變得更像一個人。以前的我總是一股腦地朝著願景向前衝，但是這幾年我才真正意識到，經營有意義的關係，跟開創有意義的事業同樣重要。我變得更加重視我與我愛的人們之間的關係，也開始花更多的時間去傾聽、理解他人。 第三個收穫，是找到能理解我的願景的...

Here's a sneak peek of what I've been building recently.

Three years ago, when I decided to drop out of university, I was more scared than anyone else. Standing in front of the future with tremendous uncertainty, I had no idea where the world would take me. From then on, my biggest challenge was: how do I live with uncertainty and move my life forward, little by little, on a path that I don't know where the end is? Three years had passed. Now I'm proud to say that even though the decision was reckless, ignorant, and conceit, it was undoubtedly the best decision I ever made in my life. I gained the knowledge I craved, found the people I loved, and figured out what I wanted to do in life. The feeling of hesitation disappeared, wounds recovered, thoughts matured, and all these years' efforts finally come to fruition. But deep in my heart, I knew that this was not the end. It was just the beginning. Uncertainty is not only the norm of life but also the norm of the world. Minerva's students have to travel between cities in seven d...

Medium Link:   My Vision: A New City Photo Credit: My brother (Yu-Chien Chan) Foreword In the first article of the series, My Vision: The Context , I gave the following public statement: My goal for the next ten years is to design and build a truly universal Open Hyperdocument System and build on that system the next generation of the Internet. What do I mean by saying “the next generation of the internet”? That is the question this article is going to answer. It helps if you’ve already read the previous article, but this article can also be read without any prior knowledge. Internet as a City Imagine our current internet as a city. Every city has public spaces, such as parks, museums, libraries, roads, train stations, etc. Some places belong to individuals, such as stores and houses on the street. For our current internet, there is also a lot of public spaces. You can treat Facebook and Instagram as parks, Youtube and Netflix as theaters, Spotify and iTunes as con...

2020 Mid-year Recap My 2020 started with the fireworks in San Francisco. I set 12 goals for myself this year. However, before I started on any of these goals, I had to pay off my debts. Apparently, I didn’t give a shit on the $0.02 debt. We watched a beautiful night view in Bernal Heights (with silent disco). I made a bunch of Minerva Meme’s Telegram stickers. Then the semester started with Anais (from Canada) teaching me how to order coffee in Philz. We ended up in Apple Union Square and we met Andriy and Liuda (both from Ukraine) there. Me: “So with Notion, you can do this and this and this…” Anais: “ThIS is sICK.” Then there’s Civitas when all Minervans had to suit up to meet their Civic Partners. Nikita (from Ukraine) and I decided to steal some veggies for ourselves. I watched my first musical with Corin (from the US) in SF Playhouse. It’s THE GROUNDHOG DAY, one of my favorite childhood movies! Before the sea of assignments arrived, we decided to go...