Comments on: How Smart is Smart? http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart thoughts of michael xiaoquan zhang professor at hkust Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:18:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: ET http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart#comment-59626 ET Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:39:20 +0000 http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart/#comment-59626 A certification logo of (CA) should be put on all these people's name cards. :-D A certification logo of (CA) should be put on all these people’s name cards. :-D

]]> By: arrogant people http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart#comment-59163 arrogant people Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:32:02 +0000 http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart/#comment-59163 I enjoy reading “How smart is smart?” I had several years’ experiences dealing/interacting/working with such “arrogant people”. (It is highly possible that we are chatting on the same “arrogant people” in the same institution.) Following the conceptualization framework from the wonderful book“The No Asshole Rule”, we should categorize these “arrogant people” as “certified assholes”. I enjoy reading “How smart is smart?” I had several years’ experiences dealing/interacting/working with such “arrogant people”. (It is highly possible that we are chatting on the same “arrogant people” in the same institution.) Following the conceptualization framework from the wonderful book“The No Asshole Rule”, we should categorize these “arrogant people” as “certified assholes”.

]]> By: ET http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart#comment-52598 ET Thu, 03 May 2007 06:16:32 +0000 http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart/#comment-52598 Thanks for the comments Alan. Many people become more humble when they meet the true mastros. They just shine and overshadow and dwarf others. My mentor Prof. John Little is such a person. His contribution in marketing makes him to be considered a founding father of quantitative marketing, and I was shocked to learn that the Little's law in queueing theory was named after him. He never mentions these in our meetings. We are really lucky and privileged to have advisors like them. They may or may not be E-F-H smart, but they have deep influences to people like us and make us to be better individuals in the end. Little's Law: The average number of customers in a stable system (over some time interval), N, is equal to their average arrival rate, λ, multiplied by their average time in the system, T, or: [tex]N= \lambda T. [/tex] Thanks for the comments Alan. Many people become more humble when they meet the true mastros. They just shine and overshadow and dwarf others. My mentor Prof. John Little is such a person. His contribution in marketing makes him to be considered a founding father of quantitative marketing, and I was shocked to learn that the Little’s law in queueing theory was named after him. He never mentions these in our meetings. We are really lucky and privileged to have advisors like them. They may or may not be E-F-H smart, but they have deep influences to people like us and make us to be better individuals in the end.

Little’s Law:
The average number of customers in a stable system (over some time interval), N, is equal to their average arrival rate, λ, multiplied by their average time in the system, T, or:
[tex]N= \lambda T. [/tex]

]]> By: Alan http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart#comment-52572 Alan Wed, 02 May 2007 16:38:31 +0000 http://blog.mikezhang.com/2007/05/01/how-smart-is-smart/#comment-52572 David Hilbert is said to be the last human genius in the sense that he knew and was very good at math, physics and chemistry. It was very interesting to read this post. I guess being smart and being a genius are quite different. My advisor once said, "geniuses, there are only a few of them, and when you see them, you know. I've met a couple of them so far, only a couple. Even most of the professors at MIT, they are good, but they are not geniuses." (He seemed to be very much troubled by those few geniuses while he was at MIT, and hence took a whole year off of math and spent that year on reading the western classics ranging from Homer to Nietzsche. Later, he got over his ego, and realized that although he was not a genius, at least he enjoyed the process of finding things out, and so he went back and finished his phd in 3 years.) He was very nice though. David Hilbert is said to be the last human genius in the sense that he knew and was very good at math, physics and chemistry. It was very interesting to read this post. I guess being smart and being a genius are quite different. My advisor once said, “geniuses, there are only a few of them, and when you see them, you know. I’ve met a couple of them so far, only a couple. Even most of the professors at MIT, they are good, but they are not geniuses.” (He seemed to be very much troubled by those few geniuses while he was at MIT, and hence took a whole year off of math and spent that year on reading the western classics ranging from Homer to Nietzsche. Later, he got over his ego, and realized that although he was not a genius, at least he enjoyed the process of finding things out, and so he went back and finished his phd in 3 years.) He was very nice though.

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