Notes (10)

Teaching and Learning

Teaching is only one aspect. A teacher learns by teaching and receiving feedback from the students. A teacher should be a life long learner.

Learning is another aspect. We should not encourage Rote Learning and mindless repetition. “Learning how to learn” and similar courses propose efficient and effective techniques.

Degree

Liberal education is usually offered at the Bachelor’s level.

A university degree was necessary for getting decent jobs. Now, there are some companies that do not mandate a university degree for selected jobs.

Disciplines

In the beginning, there were no computers and no Computer Science. Among the computer pioneers were engineers, mathematicians, physicists, psychologists, and linguists.

Edgser W. Dijkstra, who won the ACM Turing Award (equivalent of Nobel Prize in Computer Science), had to put “Theoretical Physicist” in his marriage license instead of “Programmer” or “Computer Scientist”.

The same is true for any emerging discipline.

Research and Development transcends multiple disciplines. It requires collaboration.

Main Facebook pages

• For relatives and close friends
• For not-so-close friends
• Life Long Learning
• RIT Updates

Member of selected pages

• Old Burma
• RIT Updates
• Lifelong Learning
• Hla Min 2024
• Myanmar 2024

I used to be a member of the following:

• ကံ့ကော်မြေ (ရာပြည့်တက္ကသိုလ်)
• စကားပရိယာယ်
• စွယ်တော်ရိပ်ဖေါင်ဒေးရှင်း
• NorCal RITAA
• P.B.R.S Group
• RIT 69ers
• Team Old School IT
• YUBC Old Members
• Buddhism Q&A

Proper use of “Like” button

• Some users use the “Like” button indiscriminately.
• Puzzled to see Likes in an Obituary posting. Shouldn’t one be sad?
• Before clicking “Like”, check if the posting is current or old, and determine if the contents are really likeable.

Malware

• Malicious software industry is responsible for losses (in down time, data corruption, identity theft) in the billions.
• According to one report, the industry is more profitable and safer than the drug dealing.
• The penalty of offenders for malicious software is “peanuts” (e.g. little or no jail time) compared to drug dealers (e.g. life imprisonment and death penalty) in most countries.

Option

• One should be aware of “opt-in” versus “opt-out” options.
• Many do not read “fine print”.

Retire vs. Re-tire

• U Thaung Sein (Steeve Kay, EC70) is a Multiple Golden Sponsor of SPZPs.
• He told me, “You should not retire. You may re-tire (as in re-threading a tire). We will try to support you and your projects
• I am retired from working to make ends meet.

• I am re-tiring as long as my physical and mental health permit.
• Took a few on-line courses (for credit)
  Too taxing and slow; Opted to audit 100+ courses (covering many subjects)
• Listen to one Blinkist every day
• Listen to Merriam Webster’s Word of the day (WOTD) Podcast every day.
• Ride stationary bike for 40 minutes every day.
• Write or revise several posts every day.

Salutation

• Context and culture dependent.
• We call some old unrelated people as “Uncle” and “Auntie”.
• At St. Paul’s High School, we call our sayas without the formal U. e.g. Saya Sein
• I was reprimanded by a reader for writing Saya Aung Khin instead of Saya U Aung Khin or Sayagyi U Aung Khin.
• A visiting German wanted to be addressed as “Professor Doctor” (not just Professor or Doctor).
• Saya Allen Htay was told not use “Mr” in Netherlands. He was asked to use “Ingr” (for Engineer).
• Early surgeons in the UK were not necessarily doctors. So they did not force people to address them as Doctor
• People who have Honorary Doctorates usually put “Honoris Causa” (meaning the degree was awarded for esteem).

Speed and Scope of Writing

• A friend said, “You write too fast and too much. Slow down.”
• A few said, “We have read every post”.
• One said, “Cover topics of interest to the general reader, not just engineers and scientists”.

• One can please some readers all of the time, and all readers some of the time, but one cannot please every reader all of the time.
• I am just disseminating the teachings of Thin Sayas, Myin Sayas, Kyar Sayas