Freeman Dyson’s Words of Wisdom

A couple of weeks ago, world famous physicist extraordinaire Freeman Dyson came to campus to speak.  I don’t remember why, but I couldn’t make it to the lecture, and I promptly forgot about him, until I received the following email from him (forwarded by IGL Director Sherman Teichman):

“Here are ten bits of advice from an old guy who has always done what he liked and got well paid for it:

1. First, be lucky.   Watch out for unexpected chances and be ready to jump at them whenever they come by.
2. Second, be competent.  Find out what you can do well, and work hard to do it better.
3. Third, be active.   Do not imagine that you need to learn everything before you can do anything.
4. Fourth, be daring.  Do not let fear of failure stop you from doing something great.
5. Fifth, be cosmopolitan.  Travel and learn foreign languages when you are young, and you will have friends all over the world when you are old.
6. Sixth, be flexible.  Always be ready to quit what you are doing and start a new career.
7. Seventh, be generous.  Give your enemies more credit than they deserve, and they will become your friends.
8. Eighth, be lucid.  In almost all professions, speaking and writing clearly is the way to become a leader
9. Ninth, be sharing.  Working with a group to achieve a shared goal is usually more satisfying than working alone.
10. Tenth, be loving.  In the long run, family and friends are more important than work and career.”

This advice has particularly resonated with me.  To me, these lessons are exactly what Tufts is about; I feel like if there’s one thing (or ten!) that Tufts has taught and continues to teach me, it/they would all fit perfectly in Freeman Dyson’s words of wisdom.

The Stories Behind the Numbers

This morning, I got up early and, because the kitchen was devoid of food, I forewent my usual breakfast conversations with Mirna, the wonderful El Salvadorean woman that cleans our house, for a meal at Dewick.  I had forgotten the best part about  dining halls – running into friends and acquaintances, and having awesome spontaneous conversations about everything and nothing at all.

In Dewick I ran into an old acquaintance that I had met during International Orientation way back when.  Let’s call him call “C”.  C is an engineer from a tiny Eastern European country that few people have heard of, and even fewer can find on a map.  C and I have some mutual friends, so we eat together on occasion, say hi when we see each other on campus, and have those adorable “Hi-how-are-you?-Great!-you?-See-you-around” chats that tend to be the norm when you’re rushing from class to class.

But today, a chance encounter and some free time led to one of the most genuine, comfortable, and deep conversations I’ve had all year.  We talked about everything from engineering vs. liberal arts, to my adolescent desire to be a blue-eyed Asian, to the socioeconomic situation in his country.  Those bits of the conversation, when he told me of his country were probably my favorite.

I mean, I’ve studied urban decay, read of the brain drain in developing countries, heard bits and pieces of the fall of the USSR, but to hear it all coming from the mouth of one who lived it?  That was beyond amazing.

“We didn’t even have toothpaste,” he said of the country under communism.  “Everyone saw the West and the U.S. as paradise, and people who went there…were the luckiest people on the world.”  He paused, before continuing “I’m glad that I don’t remember those years.”

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Colleges always tout their diversity and the number and/or percentage of international students, and to be honest, I have always felt a little jaded reading those numbers.  Maybe it’s because I hate math, but those statistics just seem so… impersonal.  So what if College X has 30% or 5% minorities?  So what if College Y only has 5 international students and College Z has 530? These numbers tell you nothing about the people behind them.  They tell you nothing of the experiences and complexities of each individual.

Because that’s what’s most impressive and awe-inspiring about Tufts, and diversity at Tufts, I think.  Yes, we have a lot of international students, and minority students, and students of all different backgrounds.  Yes, each entering class is well-rounded.  But more importantly, and more interestingly, are the wealth of experiences and the diversity that you’ll find in each individual.

And peeling back all the layers and discovering the stories behind each number is something that could keep you occupied all four years.