> [!Remember] > The Interviewer knows nothing about you > Don't assume, don't start abstract from nowhere, which would make it super confusing. Clarity over depth. ## 他有可能问我什么 *Why do you want to go to Stanford? Why are you interested in Stanford specifically? What aspects of the community or programs appeal to you? How do you hope to contribute to the Stanford community if you’re admitted?* Stanford is a very prestigious school that have a very high ranking. I think this is a fact that we cannot avoid. Everybody knows ranking doesn't mean everything, and the fame of a university doesn't matter that much; they tell me what matters is how you spend your time, and it's really more about what you do than what school you are in. But then i ask myself, why do people still all apply to Stanford anyway? And then I realized, it's not about the ranking or fame itself, but what the fame attracts -- the density of brilliant minds -- and all that they bring. Their ideas, ambitions, posiibilities. Those are the things that's truly valuable. Not the school or the teaching, but the environment of ideas and people. Here's what I mean: In most environments like where I am right now, if you want to start something ambitious, you're more likely an outlier. You have to convince people your vision isn't crazy. I am not being arrogant, but we have to kind of accept the fact of the fact of the power law, and the fact that 80% of the people are just average level, no matter which metric you use. However, at Stanford, the density of birlliant minds change things. You never know when you put the brilliant minds of our planet in the same campus. It's incredible. Ideas don't add together -- they multiply, and raise to the power of each other. That's what's powerful about Stanford. What do you do in your free time? I learn and build stuff mostly. *Tell me about your school life and expereince at schools.* Despite lots of wonderful aspects and moments I've had here, if I have to be honest, I don't particularly enjoy my time here. *Where do you envision yourself to be in 10 years?* Ok I can expect a common answer of living in the Sillicon vallye, startup founder, software engineer blablabla. Sure. I'd love to try that out. But if it turned out I cannot build a great product as great as the iphone or design a new tech as revoluionizing as LLM, I probably wouldn't stay ther for long. I might move on tho explore the world. Recoonect with nature. To be homeless in a city. To hike across a continent. That's what will define my being. Especially in a time of abundance in the future, of time and energy, expereince instead of possessions is what matters. things that truly makes me feel alive. what are you passionate about, and what drives you? Building great new things and share with the world. ## 我想展示什么 人格魅力 Charisma 积极有热情的喜欢说话想要分享的人格 -- 装也要装出来 真诚，不像是准备的，像是非常真诚有激情的分享和交流 --- For me, educaiton and schooling are two very different things. This might be the biggest lesson I've learned from my 12 years of experience in schools all aroudn the world. Education is about empowerment. It's telling students in all kinds of ways that thew orld is big and you are free to explore and contribute to it. but that's not what i experienced in classrooms. 1. impartation of knwoledge --> inefficient / harmful 2. teaching of learning abilities --> non-existent 3. empowerment If I have to name one aspect or area, in this world, that I have most expertise and experience over, it must be education -- simply beacuse I have spent the most time through it. I think this is a really good justification of my major and my whole life interest bascially. Most reformers trying to reform educaitno have no idea what's going on in the classroom. I am a very self-driven learner what do you learn? Learning something, some area of knowledge. Don't appreicate the separation of subjects -- it's artificial and designed for the linear minds. I can't really pin down a traditioanl area of knowledge -- those important being left out by school but are the most important for humanity's future e.g. system dynacmis; love & relationships; technological literacy tools are extension of human beings --- ## What did you actually do??? Personal task management system 1. school & chores 2. personal -- learning & building 3. with people / with nature (connection with the world) exploring a new cafe, taking photographs in a new corner of the city doing sports, palying badmintion or simply doing nothing but sitting together with those i love sitting and doing nothing --- Larc Mini -- switching context Learning in Public Community School TV The Flying Dutchman newspaper Writing book Personal IP / logo, my website, newsletters, blogs, knowledge vault --- I don't really talk about my projects, my apps, and my books and websites, those are boring stuff, you can know them by going to my website and scrolling through my blogs and notes. But here I want share with you something unqiuely about myself that you won't find there. Let's talk about something exciting, What is me and my life truly about? the idea of Ok so there's this exciting idea I've been thinking about these days -- I have been doing a proejct for my entire school to take a picture of the back of their heads of every one on campus. something that you are truly excited about. I have been helping to rewrite the economics course? redesigning the economics course not based on scarcity but on abundance -- of intelligence and matters. rethinking out hidden mindsets and assumptions save the planet and change how we think rethinking the application process itself -- [[Intelligence of Humanity (IoH)]] my pain points, others --- There was a specific moment when I realized everyone's been asking the wrong question. _We ask 'What do you want to do?' but the real question is 'What can you not NOT do?'_ This is because those things that we claim to be important to our life, we rarely do. Let's face it. Too many shit things and chorse came up. We always put it to tomorrow. So that important things lay untouched, till our very death. And I believe this is sad, and the crux of the issue is that we keep spending our time doing things we actually don't want to do. [[Concentration requires setting posteriorities]] In my case -- schoolwork is not important for me. I really struggle over it last year. ## Current vs Stanford **Current** Schooling ≠ education, limiting my growth, taking up my doing (doing things I don't want to do), not enough brilliant minds, sometimes struggle to find fellow conspirators (outlier) **Staford** Also not sure if i can find education -- but that's not what truly matters because I believe my Stanford experience will be so much more than the classes; find people to work with me. explore my life path -- entrepreneur, startup founder, tech leader --> to see and get to experience firsthand how the life truly looks like. At the same time I understand that this is a really fiercely-competed track, and what so many people are trying to do. BUt at the same time I keep believing that there are so many ways to live one's life right, and I haven't really gotten to know 99% of the ways of living on this planet. One of the modern tragedies is that so many people gradually came to believe that their way of living is the only one, and they become trapped in their own little bubble -- going to work, getting kids from school, vacations during breaks etc. Indigenous ways of living, people around the world. The fundamental questions of life is how do we want to spend our life -- and I think an important part to answering that questions is first to see how so many other people are living their lives and what are the full spectrum of my options are right -- so many pople commit to the mainstream, eveybody answer without first exploring their opstions and exercising their agency and fredom, and I think that's a big mistake --- ## My Narrative Parent, **real-estate boom** in the 2010s--> wealth --> prestious to go to UWC and here big theme -- ==learning & seeking education== realization & frustration -- schooling ≠ education / learning self-directed learner --- ## 主干, Narrative ==Learning (PKM)==, Education, Passion Frustration Drive (Vietnam) how do you benefit stanford community --- You would have so many in-depth knowledge and insights into any industry if you spent 12 of years of your life there, and that's the case with education for me -- I know much too well what's happening in the classroom every day, if students are truly learning or not, and all the strengthes and fatal weaknesses of the curriculum. that's what I have first-hand experience doing and sepnt 12 years of my life in, and naturally where my current interest lies -- education, how do we better empower our next-generations, how knowledge is organized and communicated I write books, built apps, and set up communities for self-directed learners to help them direct their-own learning outside school and beyond curriulums -- not just learning for credential, but to become truly prepared for the futrue and becoming a comprehensive and full human being. I saw a lot of problems and unfulfilled potential in this field `+` **the rise of LLM and gen-AI** from 2024 till now --> extremely passionate in exploring ==AI=='s possbility in empowering education, and its wider implications for humanity (post-abundance world where we have unlimited intelligence material, where does the meaning of humanity lies) --- hope to find a better environment where i can truly learn and build freely at Standford, and explore the full specturc of the possibilities of life School makes my life incomplete by forcing me to do thigns I don't want to do --> I hope to explore its full posibilities in Stanford and beyond campuses --- ## 尽早 / 必须要说 ### Past school transfer experience knowlegde worker, PKM, passion for learning, frustration with school vietnam camp inner transformation start a server of self-directed learning build spaces and tools to empower self-directed learning ### Future differnce between high school and university what are you looking forward to / hope to acheive Why Stanford how do you benefit stanford community ## 线路模拟 student @ UWC Maastricht --> UWC Movement; campuses all over the world --> transferred from UWC China *Why transfer?* Go back even more to my public school experience in China I love learning, PKM --> clash with school seek education where i can learn freely and that empowers instead of trying to control me and commoditize me seek to explore the possibilities of education elsewhere => my actions