::Some time ago, mr.tan quoted einstein and said 'our ignorance is like the circumference of our circle of knowledge'. Our ignorance's always there, always around us.
what got me to think about that quote is this talk I sat through a few minutes ago and the effect it has had on me. It was a great talk of course. Conducted by GIC's HR director, it was highly entertaining and was of great value. I learned a lot about the workings of GIC and it opened my mind towards working for a GIC scholarship.
It wasn't the first time I looked at the scholarship of course. The first time I heard about the schoalrship was actually when my classmate shared with me his ambition. He said he was taking physics and wants to study engineering. Then he added that he wasn't going to be an engineer but rather he was going to apply for the GIC scholarship. I was quite puzzled then, since I had no idea what GIC was. Subsequent contacts had been indirect primarily because I've never considered finance or economics as a viable career for me.
The talk turned my head. I'm looking forward to the GIC scholarship now. It fits rather well with my philosophy of a good career. Its emphasis on social skills, analytical skills, and integrity resonates within me and I felt my pulses jump as he emphasized those points. It was great listening to him, but I need to make sure I get what I want.
Frankly my chances of getting what I want are quite slim. It doesn't help being cursed with an over-ambitious character that seeks the most lucrative scholarships and applications. I want the best, but then again a lot of people share this desire. What distinguishes me is who I am, and I guess that's also the only thing that gives me hope for the GIC scholarship. Truth is, I'm not that confident of my analytical abilities and I'm not great at social skills. Hopefully someone sees something in me. haha.
anyway, I confess that most my posts are exaggerated with limited correspondence to reality. haha. I'm just having fun writing this post. I also came across some other blogs.. and it sort of dawned on me how many people I'm competing with. Outside of hwachong thousands of JC students are applying for scholarships and there are at least a hundred non-hwachong students are top-notch. What makes me think I stand a chance against them? haiiiiz
I really hope I don't get stuck in a local university. No disrespect to NUS but it's just not as appealing as studying overseas.
JC is a horrid place. I should say I'm really behind in terms of preparation for my post-JC life but then to plan early would go against my values of having fun while you can. haha. anyway frisbee training tomorrow.. =s I feel so inadequate in terms of post-JC planning.. but yet so helpless about improving my chances. to heck with it... shall just cope with whatever comes my way. It's really out of my hands by the way.. whatever I've planned is already keeping me busy until at least july. by then it'd be a few weeks before prelims.. and a few months before A levels.
What more can I do to help myself? I feel helpless.. =s haii::

.:firestarter blogged on 4:43 PM:.
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::I have stumbled on my new IS topic. haha. Even though my original topic has already been approved by the Cambridge KI committee, I'm going to twist it abit to suit this new idea.
Ideas are precisely the theme of my new IS. In my IS, I'm going to look at ideas and more specifically, this thing that we call memes. Memes are infectious ideas that hijack our brains. As described first by Richard Dawkins, and then by Daniel Dennett, memes are the ideas that survives. As a student of epistemology, I am looking at memes specifically at its relationship to science.
A generalization I'm going to propose is that all successful ideas of today are memes. The most successful of all would be scientific laws. These laws are reliable and tested. I am not disputing their usefulness, but I'm disputing their truth. An idea does not need to be true in order to be useful. A case in point is the idea that there are human rights. It is a human convention and it may not be true but it is certainly useful. And useful ideas are spread to others and soon it's ubiquous. The most successful ideas are the best memes, not truth.
Truth in fact is beyond our comprehension. Truth, as described in justified true belief, is external and a property that we can check. While it is certainly external, we have no way of checking that it is true. This is because our minds are limited and can only have subjective interactions with nature. In fact our limited brain power make us prefer simple elegant truths that fit nicely with our existing conceptions of the world. Truth is out there and any idea that comes from interaction between ourselves and the world is not truth.
We can not achieve true objectivity. Science is flawed and since the truth sets us free, we will never be free.::

.:firestarter blogged on 5:54 AM:.
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