Academia and Adventure ~Climbing up to the Shoulders of Giants and See Further~ (English)

English Creative Education

The other day, as a kind of new year's resolution, I wrote the importance of connecting my mind and head.

(By the way, I don't believe in new year's resolution as I wrote at the beginning of 2014, hahaha) →　Trap of New Year's Resolution: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Vivalavida0423/20140106/1389036153





Mind and Head are not separate things. Those are connected, and should be connected. (→ East and West, Monism and Dualism: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Vivalavida0423/20131118/1384802683)




Today, I would like to think about this from a perspective of academia, since I am a graduate student now.

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I thought that academia is all about reason, in other word, head.

When I write papers, I need to write logically. Rationality is an important factor. Academia is about reason.


Surely, I still believe in that.


However, it does not necessarily mean that there is no room for "heart" in academia.


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I learned this quote when I was learning how to cite.

Citation is about giving a credit to the originator of the idea.
For example, if I want to write "climate change is proceeding", basically, I need to cite because this finding is not mine. Many people conducted researches and concluded that the climate is changing. Based on these researches, now I can write "climate change is proceeding." Therefore, I have to respect their work and give credit to them. This is the basic idea of citation.

At the same time, their research (that concluded that climate change is really happening) was possible because of, for example, the accumulated data of historical temperature. Therefore, they should cite from the former researchers.

And those former researchers too, had to cite because........... (things go on.)



New findings are consequences of accumulated knowledge from the past.

This is the meaning of "standing on the shoulders of giants."








So, yes, you need to "stand on the shoulders of giants" to see further.


How can we stand on the shoulders of giants?



First, you need to climb up till the shoulders, of course.


To climb up till there, you need muscle. Without well trained muscle, you cannot climb up. You need to train your muscle so that you don't fall while you are climbing.


You need to train your muscle: intellectual muscle.


You have to train your "head" part: logic and reason.


Sometimes, muscle training might be painful and boring. However, that is a necessary process to "stand on the shoulders of giants."

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Once you stand on the shoulders of giants, you don't need muscle anymore. Next, you need to decide where to look at. You have freedom. Where to look at and focus on is completely up to your discretion.


Here is where our "heart" and sense come into play.


There, at the top of the shoulders of giants, muscle does not work very well because there is nothing to climb anymore.


There is no way behind you. It is time for you to construct a new way in front of you: time to ADVENTURE.

Only our "heart" can tell us where to go and what kind of road we are gonna construct.


With sensitive "heart", we can construct a beautiful way ahead us.

With sensitive "heart", we can see further from the top of the shoulders of giants.


Sensitive heart brings about beautiful ADVENTURE.

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As I wrote before, I left Japan because I wanted to adventure.



There are lots of forms of adventures; starting up venture business, traveling around the world, writing novels, etc etc.







But I realized that adventure is possible in academia too.



Connecting my heart and head is a way for academic achievement too.