I Just Want to Be a Quiet Top Student

The master level is different, Shen Qi's love for talents is getting deeper and deeper.

The 12 boys in the tutorial class were nominally Professor Muller's students, but Shen Qi had more contact with them.

Shen Qi is currently a PhD student at Princeton, and he knows that he will become a professor one day.

After taking two more tutorial classes, Shen Qi got a general idea of ​​the basic personal situation of the 12 students, and used the coffee time to chat with the 12 boys one by one.

The rules of the Princeton Department of Mathematics are that you may not attend classes, publish papers, or publish academic monographs, but you must never skip coffee.

Drinking too much coffee is addictive. Shen Qi, who rarely drinks coffee in China, has been drinking coffee almost every day since he came to the United States.

In the regular academic meeting of the Muller team twice a month, coffee is required.

Shen Qi went to Mueller alone to discuss academic issues and asked for coffee.

Every Wednesday, the whole afternoon is coffee time, doctoral students must go to the coffee shop on the third floor of the Department of Mathematics Building to drink coffee with professors.

The professors said that if a doctoral student misses the coffee time, the doctoral graduation defense will not be given to you (manually funny).

Drinking coffee is a kind of culture in the Department of Mathematics of Puda University. The focus of this coffee culture is not on coffee itself, but on communication.

The Princeton Mathematics Department encourages originality, as well as teamwork and communication.

Undergraduates are not eligible to go to the coffee shop on the third floor of the Department of Mathematics Building, so Shen Qi invited his tutor students to come to the apartment for coffee.

There is often a large study room in the professor's house at Pudong University, and many professors like to invite students to drink coffee in the study room at home and discuss academic topics.

The apartment that Shen Qi rented did not have a study room, just a bedroom and a living room.

Shen Qi arranged the living room a bit, with a round table and a blackboard. It was a little crowded to receive twelve boys at the same time, but it was no problem to entertain five or six boys.

Shen Qida invited John M. Gloston to drink coffee in the apartment the day before yesterday.

The young man was British and received aristocratic education since he was a child. Before the age of 18, he read all boys' schools. Princeton was the first coeducational school that John M. Groston attended.

John-M-Grosston has always worn suits and leather shoes, and Shen Qi has never seen him wear other types of clothing.

The British guy said that he was not going to study in graduate school. After graduating from Princeton, he would return to the UK to take over the family business. His family is engaged in the financial service industry.

The guest the day before yesterday was Luca. This Italian guy is in the clothing business at home. The business is not small. He has opened flagship stores in major Italian cities such as Milan, Turin, and Rome, and has opened stores in Paris, New York, Tokyo, and China's magic capital. There are also branches.

Shen Qi asked Luca, your family sells clothes, why do you need to learn mathematics? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to study fashion design, marketing, or business administration?

Luca said that mathematics is very interesting, geometry is super fascinating, learn to play, if you do not do well in your studies, go back to your hometown in Italy to sell clothes.

Yesterday, Stephen Curry said something similar.

This young American from Colorado is a farmer, and he is also engaged in animal husbandry, raising horses and herding sheep.

Stephen, who was born in a rural area, said that his grandparents were farmers for generations, and he did not want to be a farmer facing the loess. After graduation, he wanted to work as a white-collar worker in metropolises such as New York and Los Angeles. His ideal career was an IT engineer.

If his academic performance is not good and he cannot go to the metropolis, Stephen can only return to the Colorado countryside to farm and raise horses. His family owns 4,000 acres of land, which is equivalent to the combined area of ​​7 Princeton universities.

Shen Qi wanted to pick someone up. After a long time, Stephen, you are the son of a big farmer. It's not appropriate to be a domineering, cool and rich western cowboy. Are you going to be a hard-working IT guy? Are you out of your mind?

There are some Americans whose brains are just broken, and things that seem incomprehensible to Easterners are the norm for these Americans.

Differences in Chinese and Western cultures and values ​​definitely exist, and Shen Qi is gradually understanding and respecting the three views, living habits, and religious beliefs of Westerners.

Princeton's tuition fees are very expensive, and most of the students at Pudong University come from families above the middle class, and there are many wealthy families.

Even though Princeton has a series of scholarship policies, student aid policies, and academic loan policies, students from wealthy families have some advantages after all. They only need to meet the minimum admission requirements of Princeton, and they don’t have to use their admission scores to be close to the abnormal level of full marks. .

While studying at Pudong University, the children of wealthy families do not need to worry about whether their academic loans can be paid off, nor do they need to work part-time to earn living expenses. They can devote all their energy to their studies and social life.

There is also a disparity between the rich and the poor in the United States. The children of the rich naturally receive elite education, and American children sometimes fight for their fathers.

Of course, children from poor families also have the opportunity to receive elite education, and they are completely on their own.

The student Shen Qi received today was Jack Ma.

In the three assigned homework, Shen Qi gave Jack Ma two A+s and one A. He thought Jack Ma was the smartest of the twelve boys.

"My family is poor, very poor." Jack Ma's characteristic is to cry poor, every time he sees Shen Qi, he will cry poor.

"Jack, your English accent is no different from that of white Americans, so you grew up in the United States? Which city did you come from?" Shen Qi asked, trying to understand Jack Ma's family background.

"I was born in San Francisco and live in the poorest neighborhood in San Francisco." Jack Ma said, constantly pulling out his mobile phone to check the time: "Qi, look, I have to go to work later."

"What part-time job?" Shen Qi asked.

"Today is the public day. I'm going to be a tour guide for tourists. I can earn 10 dollars an hour." When it comes to money, Jack Ma is in high spirits.

Shen Qi took out a 10-dollar bill and put it on the table: "I'll give you 10 dollars, and you can chat with me for an hour. I think this is much easier than being a tour guide. Just treat it as a tip, and you don't have to be mentally burden."

"Wow, the boss is so rich!" Jack Ma's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help saying something in Chinese, which wasn't perfect, but fluent.

Tipping is normal in the United States, and Jack Ma has no psychological burden. He pocketed $10 very naturally.

"So Jack, you are of Chinese descent, where is your ancestral home?" Shen Qi switched to the Chinese mode, he was not surprised that Jack-Ma could speak Chinese, he had already guessed that Jack-Ma was of Chinese descent. Of course, there are also some American-born Chinese who cannot speak Chinese or read Chinese characters.

"My mother is from the south, and I don't know where my real father is from." Jack Ma said, a little sad.

"oh?"

"My mother came to the United States when she was more than two months pregnant, but my biological father has not come to the United States now. I don't know who my biological father is. My mother told me that my biological father is dead."

"Your surname is Ma, is it your mother's surname?"

"No, my stepfather's surname is Ma."

"Your Chinese is so fluent, so you must have a Chinese name?" Shen Qi tried to step into the inner world of Jack Ma's little brother step by step with the attitude of a big brother.

"The English name is Jack-Ma, and the Chinese name is Ma Kejie. My mother calls me Ajie." After receiving the money, Jack-Ma showed a very high professionalism. up.

"Ajie, what does your family do in San Francisco?" Shen Qi asked again.

Ma Kejie: ​​"Fruit sellers opened a very small fruit stall, that is, roadside stalls. Unskilled Chinese immigrants can only do these things in the United States, open supermarkets, run restaurants, and sell fruits. The main scope of activities is limited to Chinatown. But if you have money, it’s different. In the United States, as long as you have money, you can do whatever you want. The dollar is the fairest, and it treats people of all skin colors equally.”

"Ajie, you love money so much, logically speaking, you shouldn't choose mathematics as a major, unless you transfer to applied mathematics in the later stage, then you have a chance to make a fortune." Wealth has a strong desire.

"Yes, of course I want to make a fortune, hehehe." Ma Kejie didn't hide his desire for wealth.

"Ajie, in fact, you are very talented. You come from an ordinary Chinese family. It is not easy to be admitted to Princeton with your own ability. Come on, there is still half an hour to do the test. Do it If it comes out, I’ll add another ten dollars, if you can’t make it, you’ll get ten dollars at most today.” Shen Qi drew a geometric pattern on the blackboard.

"This...boss, it's hard to earn ten dollars for you. It's much harder than being a tour guide for me!" Ma Kejie found out that he had been tricked, and Boss Shen was so scheming.

After going through untold hardships and burning countless brain cells to death, Ma Kejie left Shen Qi's apartment in extreme exhaustion, tightly clutching the hard-earned twenty dollars in his hand.

Shen Qi looked at the answers on the blackboard and laughed, talent, talent is rare. A talent like Ajie should do more meaningful things and keep paying attention.

The role of Shen Qi switches between teacher and student, he is a tutor in the morning and a doctoral student in the afternoon.

Like any Wednesday, the cafe on the third floor of the math building was packed.

Ph.D. students chatted with professors about everything from the NFL to the US Open, from health care reform to whose dog was neutered.

Mathematics is of course the main topic.

Today's topic of mathematics is, please name three Princeton mathematicians, they represent the smartest, the most famous, and the highest academic value. You can nominate yourself.

The genius with the smartest brain is not necessarily the most famous, and the most famous big shot may not have made the most valuable research results.

These are the rules of the game temporarily formulated by Director Fefferman.

"The three candidates in my mind are that Gödel is the smartest, Nash is the most famous, and Professor Milnor has the highest academic value." Director Fefferman started, and he first named three names.

Gödel and Nash are no longer alive, and Professor John Milnor is sitting in the coffee shop.

Mr. Mirno is over eighty years old, his hair and beard are all white, snow-white like Santa Claus.

Saying that Gödel is the smartest, half of the professors and doctoral students present are against and half are in favor.

Muller and Shen Qi are the half in favor. They are Gödel's apprentices and apprentices' apprentices.

It is said that John Nash is the most famous, and 90% of the people present voted for it. "A Beautiful Mind" has won the Oscar for Best Picture. Can Nash not be famous?

It was said that Professor John Milnor had the highest academic achievement, and everyone present, including Shen Qi, voted for it.

Milnor's undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students all studied in the Department of Mathematics of Pudong University. After graduation, he taught at Pudong University.

It is said that Milno has never completed any proofs in class in his life. He doesn't care about the details, and his specialty is building systems.

For his great contributions to differential topological systems, K-theory and dynamical systems, Milnor has received the Fields Medal, the Wolf Medal, and the Abel Prize.

F+W+A three grand slams, Professor Mirno, a super expert, who dares to say that the academic achievements of the old man are not the highest?

Don't want to hang out in Princeton.