Before Yang Zhenning became famous, that is, when he was very young, like most of us young people, he was very ordinary and a student. Born in 1922, Yang Zhenning transferred from China to Chicago in November 1945 at the age of 23, that is, to study abroad.
At the age of 23, he also had idols he admired, such as Fermi and Wigner, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 and Wigner who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963. Even before Wigner won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Yang Zhenning already admired him. However, Fermi was more well-known than Wigner at that time.
Therefore, Yang Zhenning, who was 23 years old at the time, came to Chicago, the United States, and he admired these two very much in his heart and wanted to worship these two as teachers. When Yang Zhenning arrived in Chicago at the age of 23, he inquired about Fermi everywhere, where he was going to teach recently, and he inquired about many people.
Yang Zhenning even went up to the 8th floor of the Puping Building to meet several secretaries and ask them if they had any news of Fermi's lectures, but these secretaries knew nothing. The Puping Building was home to Columbia University's physics department at the time, and Yang Zhenning also ran to Princeton to find news of Fermi, which was also disappointed.
Finally, he found out where Zhang Wenyu was, and it was not until January 1946 that he saw Fermi on the podium to teach, when Yang Zhenning was so excited that he quickly became a member of Fermi's students. In the "Collected Works of Yang Zhenning", we can also see the reason why Yang Zhenning likes to teach Fermi.
Yang Zhenning said that Fermi's lectures are simple and easy to understand, and he also said that the characteristics of Fermi's lectures are that each topic is taught from the beginning, giving simple examples and avoiding "formalization" as much as possible, so that even if people did not hear his class last time, they can still understand it quickly this time.
During the period of time with Fermi, Yang Zhenning learned a lot about physics, and found differences of several meters, the following paragraph is excerpted from a quotation in the "Yang Zhenning Anthology":
We found that Fermi was somewhat conservative and liked to think independently. We noticed that he hated any form of contrivance. He sometimes gives some general advice about our research work. I remember he once stressed that a young man should devote most of his time to solving simple practical problems and not to focus on esoteric fundamental problems. ——Yang Zhenning's Collected Works of Yang Zhenning #杨振宁语录 #
After reading this paragraph, although it can be seen that Yang Zhenning found it in Fermi, and remembers that Fermi said a more profound paragraph, that is, it can help us modern young people a lot, which really makes sense. In our reality, why some people are obviously very capable, but they always fail to do things, always fail to make money, may be the problem in this quotation.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a young man should devote most of his time to solving simple practical problems</h1>
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > should not be dealt with exclusively on esoteric fundamental problems. </h1>
Why do you say that? Because many young people always like to solve some difficult problems, they waste time and youth from childhood, and when they want to solve it easier, they find that they are no longer young. In terms of simplification, in reality, many people like to make big money and more money, and for some small money, less money, he does not like it.
These young people, with lower wages, are not favored. A higher salary can not be done, but always like to find a higher salary, so frequent job hopping, has been changing jobs, five or six years, more than ten years, still mixed in the bottom. The people who came out to work with him did not change jobs, did not dislike low wages, and now they are executives, which is the difference.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > at work, many people always like to express themselves and do some difficult work. </h1>
In the end, the efficiency of his work is not as good as that of an ordinary worker, because he has not done a good job in the more difficult work, and in the eyes of the boss, he is better off dealing with some simple work, so that the amount can go up, and he is one hundred percent more efficient than those ordinary workers.
Many people like to be smart, pretend to be posture, and waste time, so they often like to do something to help and not please. You see, a Nobel Laureate in Physics can say such a thing so low-key, and it is no wonder that Yang Zhenning has always kept it in mind, always whipping himself and solving more simple practical problems.
As long as a person solves a simple practical problem, what will happen in the end? There will be quantitative qualitative changes, single practical problems, solved more, naturally some of the more difficult to solve the problem, to his hands, he can also decompose into N simpler practical problems.
So if you are still young, you may wish to read this quote from Yang Zhenning, which may be of great help to you!