What kind of arrogant person have you ever met? Perhaps many people will think of the adjectives of no one in sight and higher than the sky.
But there is such a genius, but with his own talent, to explain to the world what is "the line between genius and madman".
In 2005, a 17,000-word "The Crushing of Tsinghua Dreams" set off huge waves on the Internet and attracted countless netizens to discuss.
The author of the article claimed that studying at Tsinghua University was a "shackle" and a "waste of youth", and for this reason, he decisively became the first doctor to drop out of Tsinghua University.
However, this person's "madness" does not stop there, after dropping out, he was admitted to two world-renowned universities, and then chose to withdraw from school, and said that he was disappointed in their education.
He joined Google, Microsoft, and Intel, becoming a "wizard" in the mouths of industry tycoons, and then these companies made a big fuss for him, and Microsoft angrily issued a "global ban order".
His name is Wang Yan, a "madman" who makes it unclear whether he is a genius or a madman.
His clever mind gave him a smooth ride, but his arrogant personality made his fate bumpy.
Today, let us walk into the story of Wang Yan and taste his tough life.
Just like the big saying that "earn him a hundred million yuan first" was circulated on the Internet, Wang Yan as a child had already set a small goal of "going to Tsinghua University" early. Although this goal was not his own intention, it did not prevent him from yearning for one of the country's top universities.
For a long time, he dreamed of being admitted to Tsinghua University.
Wang Yan's parents are high school teachers, and his father has a glorious history of teaching Tsinghua students, such a family, the requirements for children are not too low.
As the saying goes: "If you want to do something good, you must first use it", and a tough life often starts with a lofty goal.
In order to set a life goal for her son, when Wang Yu was very young, her mother took out a photo, pointed to the boy on it and said to him: "This is my father's student, admitted to Tsinghua University, become the pride of the school, and when you grow up, you will also be admitted to Tsinghua university and win glory for the family." ”
After listening to his mother's words, Wang Yan nodded with a confused face, as a child who had never even stepped out of the county, he could only rely on the stories about Newton and Einstein in his parents' mouths to understand being admitted to Tsinghua as "the first requirement for becoming a cattle person."
Wang Yao did not take the promise to heart, but the mother took it seriously and constantly cultivated her son to this goal.
Wang Is learning while his peers are playing; he's still learning when the neighbor's children are sleeping. The mother asked him to learn to draw and learn calligraphy, and seemed to treat her son as if his stomach would never be full, trying to fill every inch of his space.
Wang Yao did not like these "fancy" things, the only thing he liked was physics, and the open space in front of his home became Wang Yao's experimental field, and every day he could be seen holding a physics book and tinkering with physics experiments on the book in the ground.
"Physics is not bad, as long as you can get into Tsinghua," Wang's stubbornness made his mother shake his head, and since then, his daily life has changed, and various interest classes have disappeared without a trace, replaced by endless physics exercises.
Time gradually passed under the strict study plan, and Wang Yao's grades became better and better, and he became a "prodigy" in the mouth of his parents and a "genius bully" in the eyes of his peers.
But in the face of these honorary evaluations, Wang Yan was not happy, the open space in front of his home was built into a house, and the life that was full of fun in the past no longer existed, and the only thing that had not changed was the "Tsinghua Dream" that had been engraved in his bones since childhood.
In the second year of high school, my mother took a copy of the previous high school examination paper for Wang Yu to do, and the headaches of countless students were easily completed by Wang Yao, and his score was enough to go to Tsinghua in that test.
Excellent grades could not be exchanged for an easy day, my mother still felt unsafe, and the endless examination papers and endless revision classes were still full of Wang Yao's life.
At a certain moment, Wang Yan felt that he was out of breath, he said: "My life is like being stuffed with a large number of steamed buns, constantly fermenting and squeezing every inch of space, empty and empty." ”
In order to avoid learning, skipping class became the norm for Wang Yao, who began to frequently pretend to be ill, lie in bed, and even began to do childhood physics experiments, "the proud son of heaven willingly degenerated", and people around him began to persuade him.
The teachers said to Wang Yan, "When you are admitted to Tsinghua University, you can do whatever you want." ”
His mother constantly encouraged him: "So-and-so in your class has so many higher Chinese scores than you this time, don't you work hard?" ”
Even the principal was bitter and advised Wang Yan to sink his heart and study hard, and everything would be said after he was admitted to Tsinghua University.
The more the outside world persuaded, the more Wang Yan felt pain, learning from fun to torment, he knew the reasons better than anyone, once, he invited the physics teacher to make a magnetic levitation gyro together, the result of the teacher impatiently said: "You don't want to play with things, always do things that have nothing to do with exams." ”
At that moment, Wang Yan did not know how to answer, just as people did not understand why he always liked to play with the "toys" of his childhood, nor did he understand why adults would regard the exam as the only option.
On the day of the college entrance examination, Wang Yan filled out Tsinghua University as fate, and then under the persuasion of her mother, she added Tianjin University to her second choice.
"Perhaps, after being admitted to Tsinghua, everything will be fine?" With all his thoughts discouraged, he could only comfort himself with this reason.
"Being admitted to Tsinghua" became Wang Yao's hope for liberating his life, but fate played a huge joke with him.
Because of excessive nervousness, his language played abnormally, and he only scored 96 points, and the total score was two points away from Tsinghua's minimum admission score.
Wang Yao lost touch with Tsinghua University in his dream, and even Tianjin University, which was a preparatory option, was full of people and did not want him.
The proud son of heaven became a "loser" overnight, and Wang Yan said desperately: "I am like an "outcast" who has no effect, and I am very popular in the first moment and spurned in the next second. ”
In the midst of all the thoughts, Sichuan University gave Wang Yao hope, and he became a student in the 97th grade of the university's computer science department.
Although his life has a home, Wang Yan still feels very lost, and Tsinghua, who originally had a winning ticket, sneaked away and came to a university that he had never looked up to before, such a gap, anyone will feel disappointed.
When the military training began, the instructor asked the students to stand in the sun, the hot sun shone on the faces of everyone, sweat flowing, Wang Yan wanted to quit school to repeat the study, but when he thought of the "suffocation" days in high school, he felt that it seemed that it was better now.
Hard work is better than freedom.
Without the "care" of her mother and teacher, Wang Yan's talent has been fully exerted in Sichuan University, and when the classmates around him are still holding Pascal and studying, he has set his sights on more advanced Linux.
He was dismissive of the computer classes taught by his teachers, did not attend classes throughout the semester, did not take computer exams, and let himself go.
But when it came to the final exam, he disappeared for more than half a year, but he was able to get one of the best results in the class, and his classmates called him "eccentric" and envied his talent in computers.
The dazzling achievements failed to fill the loneliness in Wang Yan's heart, he could not forget Tsinghua University, it seems that admission to this university has become an indispensable link in his life, and the beauty imagined in his mind can be obtained in Tsinghua University.
Wang Yan said: "When I graduate, I will leave this place immediately and go to Tsinghua for graduate school. ”
In her senior year, Wang Yan heard that there was a kind of "direct doctorate" at Tsinghua, that is, to study graduate school and doctorate in a row, and to get a doctorate after 5 years of study.
In order to win this opportunity, he began to study rarely, and eventually, he was directly escorted to Tsinghua University by Sichuan University.
On the day of the interview, Wang Yan stood on the podium and talked, and the Tsinghua teachers in the audience looked at his results and did not say a word, and finally, one teacher could not help asking: "Your physical education performance is so poor, can you be competent for heavy learning tasks?" ”
Wang Yan didn't want to say: "My sports performance is similar to that of ordinary people, but my smart mind can guarantee that I only need to pay half the effort." ”
Arrogant? Of course, arrogance, but this arrogance comes from genuine talent.
Wang Yan was admitted, after 4 years, he finally came to tsinghua university with a dream, and his mother set a "small goal" for him; the ideal of learning disgust but unwilling to give up; the persistence in the lost days of Sichuan University.
In this moment, it was realized.
A few days after the beginning of the school, the school organized students to watch a movie, telling the story of the 20th century scientists doing hard scientific research, Wang Yan looked at a personal figure constantly appearing on the screen, they were happily doing scientific research, laughing and arguing with each other for science...
He was so intoxicated that he seemed to have found an ideal he had never seen in the first ten years of his life.
Wang Yan was excited, his hands were tightly clutching the chair, and he secretly swore that he must live that life.
Many times, there is often a huge difference between ideals and reality.
Wang Yan's enthusiasm for Tsinghua University did not last long, and he found that the "holy land" he had in mind, the way of education, was not much different from Sichuan University, the only difference was that there were more classes and roll call.
This made him feel disappointed, especially after seeing the talented classmates around him, who "suppressed their own nature" all night for exams, and this disappointment turned into anger.
In the first year of Tsinghua University, Wang Yan finished all the courses, he wanted to continue to study French, for which he formulated a "training plan", however, when he sent this plan to the teacher, the reply was: "You can roughly learn it, there are too many lessons, and you can't learn to hang up the subjects." ”
The teacher's pertinent suggestion, Wang Yan could not hear, he felt that the other party's selfishness was too heavy: "The teacher is not for my own good, he does not want us to go to other classes, waste the time to work for him, and may run away because of broadening his horizons, in the end, he just wants to catch us in his hands." ”
Wang's anger turned into dissatisfaction with the school and his tutors, and he repeatedly said in front of his classmates: "Most tutors deliberately do not give students a chance, so that they cannot find a good job, so as to force students to serve themselves." ”
The anger "roar" of reality, in the end, was sunk into the sea and failed to provoke a response.
Wang Yan was not reconciled, he set his sights on the discussion groups that many universities abroad have, and applied to the teacher for the idea of establishing a discussion group, and the tutor agreed: "There are any ideas that can be proposed with me or the deputy tutor, your brothers and sisters have their own things to do, we try to help you." ”
The seminar was established, but Wang Yan felt that the things the students were talking about were nothing new, and many people's views were basically copied from the papers, and even some people simply wanted to make a scene.
A lively seminar became a "brag meeting" in Wang's eyes, after which he set his sights on building an academic room, but this time, his idea did not come true.
The mentor asked him, "Who pays for this room, and there are so many people staying in it every day, who will implement these things?" ”
Wang Yan was speechless, and when the noble ideals in his heart were linked to the actual money, he felt that this was an unacceptable thing.
Despite his dissatisfaction, this did not prevent Wang Yan from shining his own light in Tsinghua, which was full of talents.
He proposed two major systems of computer speech, because of the unique insights, caused a sensation in the country.
With that paper, he became famous in the computer industry in one fell swoop, becoming a genius known to everyone in Tsinghua Park, and even some people thought that he was "China's future Jobs" and had a promising future.
For these honors, Wang Yan did not care, or rather, he was always immersed in finding a place suitable for his ideals.
No one knows where the ideal that Wang Yu aspires to is, and the only thing that can be determined is that he hates the link between ideals and interests.
After becoming famous, the mentor had hoped that Wang Yan would be able to write a patent, preferably detailed and with examples.
Perhaps, the mentor also hoped that through this patent, Wang Yan's future future would be smoother, but he himself felt that this practice was an insult to himself.
Wang Yan said: "I don't want to waste time on this kind of pediatric thing, and in this way, it is useless to graduate with a doctorate." ”
The anger and dissatisfaction that had accumulated in his heart for a long time exploded at this moment.
On that day, the tutor called Wang Yan to the office and said to him: "If you can no longer contribute to the laboratory, no one can support you. ”
Wang Yan did not speak, and with disdain and mockery, he responded to the affectionate persuasion of his mentor.
"I know you look down on us, it doesn't matter, we are not as smart as you, but we take every step diligently, and your steps are too big!" The teacher's angry roar drew students passing by outside the door to stop and watch.
Wang Yan still did not speak, he was like an ancient temple, listening to the sound of the Buddha in the temple, but ignoring the wind and rain in the outside world.
When the mentor calmed down, he said lightly: "Goodbye."
Wang Yan decided to drop out of school, and Tsinghua, who had been haunted by dreams in the past, still failed to keep him.
More than ten years of dedication, once abandoned.
Not to mention the outside world, even Wang Yan's parents could not understand why their son would make such an unwise choice.
On September 22, 2005, Wang Yan published a blog post on the Internet titled "The Crushing of tsinghua dreams", scolding the domestic higher education system and Tsinghua University, writing:
"There are still so many beautiful things in the world waiting for me to develop, but I am like a prisoner sentenced to 5 years, imprisoned in Tsinghua, I can no longer waste my youth for a doctorate, it is my shackles." 」
After posting this blog, Wang Yan dropped out of school, becoming the first doctorate in the history of Tsinghua University, and at this time, there was only one year left before he graduated.
Wang Yan didn't care about the degree that countless people flocked to, he just wanted to escape the "shackles", and the phrase "it was good to be admitted to Tsinghua" has now become "it is good to go abroad".
Going abroad has become Wang Yan's choice to find an ideal life, but this road still has not been able to work.
A year after dropping out of Tsinghua, Wang was admitted to the Computer Department of Cornell University in the United States, as the sixth largest university in the United States for computer science majors, Cornell University does not know how many people are eager for it.
But even such a highly professional university still failed to leave Wang's heart, and two years later, he dropped out again, of course, the same criticism of the school.
Wang Yan scolded: "Education in the United States is a commercial test-taking education, treating graduate students as cheap labor, students have no freedom of thought, and even few people devote themselves to research." ”
It turns out that "genius has wayward capital", one can not do two, two can not do three, after leaving Cornell University, Wang Yan was admitted to Indiana University Bloomington, where he continued to study for a doctorate and served as a teaching assistant.
From 2008 to 2012, he stopped briefly at the university, and just when everyone thought that Wang Yu would settle down, he once again "made a fuss."
In 2012, without the slightest warning, Wang Yan announced with an article entitled "Saying Goodbye to a Doctorate" and announcing that he had completely ended his plan to study for a doctorate for many years.
After years of searching in the United States, Wang Yao still could not find the ideal "utopia" in his heart, and since then, he has never continued to the road of study.
He said: "A few incomplete Doctoral careers have allowed me to find something more important than a PhD, and for the sake of freedom of thought, I can't stay in academia." ”
The talented talent and uninhibited personality have cast the legendary story of this genius who dropped out of a prestigious school three times, but Wang Yan's "madness" has not ended here.
Wang's talent in computer technology is a fact that the entire industry has witnessed, and in the absence of a doctorate, he still successfully entered the world-class company - Google.
As an intern, he participated in the production of cross-language service programming projects, which was an unprecedented thing that Wang Yu did, and although there were many conflicts with the person in charge of the project in the process, he still conquered everyone with his strength.
As a project to search and analyze all the code within Google on a large scale, Wang Yan decided to work as a team after disagreeing with the project leader, and undertook and completed the Python search part of the project alone.
This incident convinced the person in charge, who admitted: "Wang Yan's method is the most advanced technology I have ever worked with interns in more than 20 years of my career. ”
The senior industry tycoon did not skimp on the praise of Wang Yao, believing that he was a veritable "wizard".
In the face of these praises, others may be a little polite, but Wang Yan is still so "arrogant", he said:
"Although I didn't spend much effort, this thing is difficult for even the founders of Python to do, I have largely saved this project that is close to failure, the little salary that Google gave me, it is not enough to buy this software, but I want to make some extra money, so let them pick up a bargain." 」
Wang's arrogant personality doomed him not to stay in one place for a long time, after the end of the internship at Google, he did not choose to stay, before leaving, he continued the "old habit" and scolded the company: "This is a company that buries talents, not only ambitiously annexes its peers, but also implements cultural invasion." ”
After a furious rebuke, Wang joined Microsoft.
There was no accident, because of many reasons such as dissatisfaction and disagreement, Wang Yan and Microsoft finally broke up, and he angrily scolded: "Such a company will go out of business sooner or later."
However, this time, Microsoft did not let Go of Wang Yan, and in the resignation clause he signed, it was clearly written: Microsoft and its subsidiaries, subsidiaries and cooperative companies with more than 50% shares are not allowed.
For a time, the news that Wang Yan was banned by Microsoft worldwide spread throughout the country and abroad.
But he still didn't care, and even put down his bold words: "Whether it is the United States or China, there is no company's management that is worth working with me and them." ”
This talented but arrogant young man is always in his own unique way, realizing his inner ideals and fighting against the rules of the world.
As it is said on the Internet: "There is only a line between genius and madness."
For Wang Yan, the outside world has never been able to tell whether he is a genius or a madman.
Some people say that he is a lonely fighter, who dares to roar at the current academic environment, and is a well-deserved brave;
Some people also say that Wang Yan's ideal is too naïve, there are no rules and no squares, born in this era, you must abide by the rules of this era.
In the hearts of a thousand people, there are a thousand Hamlets. Everyone has their own different views on Wang's story.
Since quitting Microsoft in 2019, there has been little news from Wang Yan in the outside world, and now he has emptied the blog that was active in the past, and has made a website to share his thoughts and life experience.
Wang Intends to establish a "world's highest level of educational institutions" to cultivate talents from point to point, teaching students knowledge while also paying attention to their inner cognitive and mental health problems.
Whether this plan can eventually be realized is still unknown, but no matter what, Wang Yan's talent is true, arrogance is also true, and there is always a contradiction between ideal and reality in his body.
But in fact, his story is not a microcosm of everyone?
Is life a struggle for pure ideals, or is it a choice to live with a complex reality? Do you stick to your beliefs, or do you follow the masses?
Perhaps, everyone has their own answer in their hearts, and Wang Yu also has it; or we have been looking for this answer, and Wang Yu is also seeking it.
The path of life has never been repeated, everyone has their own choices, it has nothing to do with right or wrong, it is simply a thought from the heart.
What is really worth pondering is the resolute attitude in Wang Yan's body, is it worth it?
Is it "to be a person to leave a line, to see each other in the future", or to hate clearly, sharp and sharp? As far as Wang Yan's life is concerned, perhaps the former is more suitable for this era.
The idea of "not wanting to let go of others, and not wanting to let go of yourself" has created this farce of Wang Yao, with his talented talent and arrogant personality, so that his life has been smooth sailing at the same time, but also experienced ups and downs.
For such a "madman", we have no lack of admiration and appreciation, but also have a deep sigh.