If you ask me, what is something more awesome than being admitted to Tsinghua University?
I will tell you that I dropped out of Tsinghua University.
Is there really such a person?
Yes.
19 years ago, there was a student who successfully obtained a doctoral degree in Tsinghua, but dropped out of this university that countless people envisioned, becoming the first doctor in the history of Tsinghua to drop out.
Not only that, he also called studying for a doctorate at Tsinghua a "shackle" and a "waste of youth."
A 17,000-word "The Shattering of Tsinghua Dreams" has stunned countless people.
His name, Wang Yan, is the protagonist of our story today.
When she was a child, Wang Yan's mother once pointed to a photo of a big brother and said to Wang Yan: "This is my father's student, who was admitted to Tsinghua University, which is the pride of our school." When you grow up, you will also enter Tsinghua University to study and win glory for our family! ”
Wang Yan replied stupidly after listening to it. He didn't really know what "Tsinghua University" looked like, but when he was a child, he often listened to the stories of Newton and Einstein, so he understood it as: "Tsinghua, probably the place where I can be made into a person like them." ”
Young Wang Yan was passionate about many things.
As a child, he could spend his whole day in the open space in front of the door, watching the ants come and go under the eaves, kissing with their tentacles and then scattering away; Wang Yu always wondered what they were saying. Once in order to find the legendary queen, he chose to "flood the golden mountain", but the water seeped into the ground, and he did not succeed once.
At that time, Wang Yu liked to do experiments, upside down ants, batteries and coils. He said: "Lu Xun has his hundred grass garden, and I also have my own experimental field. In the open space in front of his home, doing experiments to explore various mysterious principles, this is Wang Yao's childhood.
Wang Yan's mother asked him to learn calligraphy and painting, but Wang Yan did not like it, he liked physics, and always picked out all the experiments in the physics book a few days before the beginning of the school year.
After going to high school, the pressure of schoolwork increased sharply, for Tsinghua University, Wang Yan got up early every morning, then came to the dinner table, and then went to the mother to prepare a large bowl of noodles for herself, and then went to the classroom to start reading and practicing. The ants, batteries, and coils that had once been there were gradually disappeared, and the open space in front of his house when he was a child had long been razed.
In the second year of high school, my mother took back a copy of the previous high school examination paper for Wang Yu to do, and Wang Yan easily made a score that could be used to go to Tsinghua at that time, and the future was bright. It was also from that time that Wang Yan was a little annoyed, every day life was exercises, exercises, exercises, endless test papers and endless review classes, everyone was working hard, like preparing to fight a battle to gamble on life, and the gap in life was suddenly all stuffed.
Wang Yan was breathless.
He began to lie in bed, pretend to be sick, and even develop obsessive-compulsive disorder. He began to miss the open space in front of his house in the past, the batteries, ants and coils that had accompanied him, and he wanted to regain his experimental hobby, but when he asked the physics teacher to make a magnetic levitation gyro with him, the physics teacher replied to him impatiently:
"Wang Yan, will you let me answer the other students' questions first?" Your question is not good for the exam. ”
Gradually, the date of the college entrance examination is getting closer and closer.
The teachers kept advising Wang To "sink his heart and do the problem."
His mother kept motivating him: "You see that so-and-so has a higher math score than you in this mock test, work harder!" ”
The headmaster also tried to persuade him to sink his heart. Otherwise, you will not be able to pass the Tsinghua University.
On the eve of the college entrance examination, Wang Yan originally planned to fill in only Tsinghua University, and later studied with his mother, added a Tianjin University in the second choice, the rest is all blank.
At that time, he was full of thoughts: "Leave this place after graduation and enter graduate school at Tsinghua University."
However, the invigilator teacher also came behind him, and as a result, Wang Yan played abnormally in the subject of Chinese, and only scored 96 points.
When the college entrance examination results were released, he was still 2 points away from Tsinghua's minimum admission score line. Tianjin University's first choice students are also full, don't want Wang Yao.
Wang Yan instantly became an "outcast".
"The good students of the past have actually come to the end of the list." Am I really that good? At that time, Wang Yan always asked himself this.
Later, the Department of Computer Science of Sichuan University admitted Wang Yan.
The military training was carried out in a strict artillery base, and the high pressure made Wang Yan want to drop out of school for a while, but when his mother really went to Sichuan University to help him with the formalities, he regretted it, because when he thought of those "good review, sink your heart", he had a headache.
The teachers of Sichuan University said to Wang Yan in the first class: "Our school is backward." Outside companies are using C, C++, and we're still teaching Pascal..."
This made Wang Yan's classmates suddenly have a very heavy sense of crisis, some students began to hold a book such as "XXX Bible" and nibbled up, as soon as they opened their mouths, it was Bill Gates, the world's richest man and other topics, and the counselors also praised their good hands-on ability.
Wang was touched, but when he also picked up a DOS encyclopedia and planned to nibble it from scratch, he stumbled upon Linux (an operating system kernel).
He suddenly found that the things spoken in the class were originally so "low-level", many things were long outdated and could not be used at all, and the whole class was a large archaeological site, and the biggest function was to let students get the few credits they needed for graduation. Seeing this, Wang Yu began to let go of himself again, basically did not go to class for the whole semester, did not take computer level exams, and completely dismissed Microsoft's certification.
When Wang Yan did not go when he drew the key points at the end of the term, he scored an 8 or 90 points, and the students saw the situation and called him "eccentric".
In her senior year, Wang Yan heard that there was a kind of student at Tsinghua called "Zhibo", that is, to study for a master's and a doctoral degree in a row, and to get a degree in 5 years.
More importantly, this kind of "direct doctoral" does not require an exam, just an interview.
Wang Yan was very happy to know that, he contacted the teacher and got an interview opportunity.
At the interview site, Wang Yan talked about it, but the teachers all looked down at his report card, and one teacher suddenly asked:
"How can you only score more than 80 points in sports, and can your body be up to the heavy study tasks?"
After listening, Wang Yan replied: "Our school score is relatively strict, is it true that Tsinghua students all take the physical education test of 90?" ”
Then, be admitted.
He finally came to the haunted Qinghua Garden, the school that his mother had made sure to enter since he was a child, his first choice when he took the college entrance examination, the spiritual pillar he used to survive the embarrassing time in Sichuan University.
The dream of entering Tsinghua to engage in research seems to have finally come true.
But after coming here, Wang Yan "actually" found that the teaching methods of Tsinghua teachers were almost indistinguishable from those of Sichuan University, and the slight difference was that teachers would frequently raid and roll call.
On the eve of the exam, everything is quiet, and the students who often skateboard together at night can disappear overnight, leaving Wang Yu alone.
In his first year at Tsinghua University, Wang Yan completed all his homework, and he planned to take a French course, but when he handed over the "training plan" to the tutor for signature. The teacher said: "The second foreign language or learn it yourself, it is okay to audit, I am mainly afraid that you will be in trouble if you do not pass the exam if you take too many classes." ”
Later, Wang Yan summed up: "The tutor is not really good for us, but does not like our class. Because class not only takes time to study (or work), but also broadens their horizons, students will easily have other options to walk away.
All activities: teaching assistants, internships, must be signed by the tutor. And most tutors will find excuses not to let students do these things. Do not give them teaching assistants and internship opportunities, so that they will not be able to find jobs in the future, but can only serve themselves, or serve their acquaintances. ”
Later, Wang Watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind", which is a biography of mathematical genius John Nash. When he saw the scene in the film, where scientists in the 20th century lived and researched together, a room appeared in front of him, in which all the talented people gathered together, they drank tea, played chess, discussed problems, sometimes laughed, sometimes debated loudly, and were happy and forgetful.
Wang Yan was fascinated, this was the ideal.
Later, he saw on the Internet that foreign universities had discussion groups, so he proposed his idea to the teacher, and the teacher replied to him: "Well, anyway, the brothers and sisters have their own affairs, and if you want to discuss anything, discuss it with me and your deputy tutor." ”
Later, the seminar did start, but the things discussed were nothing new, many of them were seen from the papers, and some people participated in the seminar, basically talking about the feelings after reading the paper.
Later, Wang Yan proposed the establishment of a Common Room similar to that of a foreign university. (Rooms available for academic seminars)
The response was: "In such a room, there are so many people staying in it every day." Who's going to pay for this? ”
These experiences made Wang Yan feel that Qinghua was not the same as he had imagined before.
But even more damning is the thesis.
In Wang Yan's view, many of the papers he professionally produced are "fried cold rice", revised and sorted out on top of other people's achievements and other people's papers, sewing and patching, and there is no novelty at all.
One of his papers once won the "Best Paper Award".
On the same day, Tsinghua released the good news: "Wang Yan, a student of our school, won the Best Paper Award of xxx conference. This is the first time that a mainland scholar has received such a high award at such a high-level conference. ”
After Wang Yan knew about it, he said: "This "high-level" meeting is a garbage in my opinion. Americans have put their worst papers here just to travel around. (The winner of the paper can go to Greece for a meeting)
Later, the teacher asked Wang Yan to write a patent, he said: "We must write the algorithm step by step like teaching primary school students to do this, and give examples." ”
Wang Yan finally couldn't restrain himself and broke out into emotion.
"I think it's almost over, and if I continue to toss like this, I may only make these pediatric things when I graduate from my doctorate!"
In 2005, at 3 p.m. on September 22, the office of the tutor of the qinghua east main building, Wang Yan's mentor and deputy tutor sat side by side, with a solemn face, and kept reprimanding Wang Yao, who was sitting in front of him:
"If you can't do research for the lab anymore, we can't support you, and I'll get back the money from the lab in the first two months..."
Gradually, one of the teachers began to growl, "You look down on us. We are not as smart as you, but we are diligent! ”
His emotions became more and more agitated, so that the tone was raised and the movements were flamboyant, and what contrasted with him was the calmness on Wang Yan's face. When his mood cooled down slightly, Wang Yan only said a faint "goodbye" and then turned away.
After that, he became the first doctor in tsinghua history to drop out.
In the 17,000-word "Shattering of Tsinghua Dreams," he said: "I can no longer waste my youth for him, he is my shackles." ”
Tsinghua, which was once haunted by dreams, has now become his "shackles".
He desperately fled.
This time, he set his sights on abroad.
Yes, going abroad, as long as you go abroad, it's fine.
So, after leaving Tsinghua, Wang first entered the computer department of Cornell University and then entered the Indiana Bloomington Campus.
But these two famous American schools failed to retain him.
After entering both schools, he came to the conclusion that "the so-called Western critical thinking is nothing more than a joke." ”
It turned out that foreign countries were not heavens, and the ideal country in Wang Yao's heart had never been able to come.
Finally, in 2012, he published a "Farewell to a Doctorate", officially abandoning the plan to pursue a Doctorate, and the talent who dropped out of Tsinghua, Cornell, and Bloomington, Indiana, said:
"For the sake of freedom of thought, I can't live in academia."
Withdrawing from academia, Wang Yan's career does not seem to be complete.
He entered the world-class website Google, but he had a very unpleasant quarrel with his direct leadership.
The efficient way he thinks he works, his boss finds it incredible.
In the summer at Google, Wang always felt that she did not have a common language with others. What he is interested in, others do not understand at all, what he thinks is not important, others blow it into the sky.
After seeing Google's inefficient way of working and the internal culture of sneaking up on chicken blood, Wang Entered another giant company, Microsoft.
As a result, Microsoft showed him a rare "ugly" face: the overlord clause of suppressing wages, pressing job titles, and leaving (not allowed to join Microsoft and its subsidiaries, affiliates and cooperative companies with more than 50% shares, and it is precisely because of this that it will be rumored on the Internet that Wang Yan was "banned" by Microsoft).
After seeing this, Wang Yan turned away again.
"From the United States to China, there is no company whose management is worth working with."
Later, Wang Yu planned to establish a "world's highest level of educational institutions" to make education into a martial arts master-style "human-to-human", where teachers should not only impart knowledge, but also understand the psychological and cognitive states of students.
He said, "I want to pass on my knowledge to those who seek true knowledge, who have passed the character, and who respect me." Pass ten, pass a hundred, and gradually I will have a team that I have trained myself. ”
However, just as he wrote these blueprints on his own web page, many people had already issued a sad sigh to his former "Chinese Jobs":
"It's a shame to study for a Ph.D. and find a job..."
Wang's story is not strictly speaking a tragedy, but a farce;
Some people say that it is the current academic environment that forces Wang Yan to turn around and leave, he is a hero, a brave man who dares to issue a roar to the world;
Some people say that Wang Yao himself is too naïve, he wants the 19th century aristocratic scientific research environment, how is this possible? This child is too childish, too arrogant, too willful.
It is difficult to describe which is right and wrong.
Many people have heard this saying: "Individuals cannot change their environment." ”
However, without changing the environment, should we not be silently endured until we are smoothed out by the world?
A few years ago, at a dinner party at Sichuan University, a student came to Wang Yan with a glass of beer and said to him, "I toast you, Big Bull Man." I heard that you were admitted to Tsinghua University as a doctor. I did it, you did as you pleased. ”
A moment later, the student, who had just swallowed the drink, spoke again:
"I admire you so much that you're someone who really loves research. There aren't many people who can study with you, and you must be lonely when you go. ”
This article is written by Xie Bi'an
Editor-in-Charge: Willow Leaf Nagging
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