Wisdom I Pondered This Week
- “A man is worked on by what he works on.” — Frederick Douglass
- “For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” — Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
- “How little do they see what really is, who frame their hasty judgment upon that which seems.” — Daniel Webster
- “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” — Helen Keller
- “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” — Hermann Hesse
Things I Learned This Week
- Advantech 研華：工業電腦 (IPC = Industrial Personal Computer) 市佔率世界排名第一
- 強迫症 (OCD = Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)
- A Black Swan Event (黑天鵝事件) refers to an unpredictable, rare event that has severe consequences and is often rationalized in hindsight. These events are typically small-probability occurrences that cause significant disruptions, such as the 2008 financial crisis or the COVID-19 pandemic, and are difficult to foresee yet deeply impactful.
- Switzerland is a small, landlocked country in Central Europe known for its political neutrality, high quality of life, and stunning landscapes, particularly the Swiss Alps. The German name is Schweiz, the French name is Suisse, and the Italian name is Svizzera. Despite these different names, they all refer to the same nation, which has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh (羅曼什語). The abbreviation CH (or CHE) comes from the Latin “Confoederatio Helvetica”, which means “Swiss Confederation.”
- what3words is a geocoding system that divides the world into 3m × 3m squares, each labeled with a unique three-word address (e.g.,
apple.tree.moon). It simplifies location sharing compared to GPS coordinates like 48.858370, 2.294481, which might refer to the Eiffel Tower. It’s used in emergency services, deliveries, and travel to pinpoint precise locations that might be hard to describe with regular addresses.
