Why did I go back to school? After working with giant snails as the manager of an abalone farm, who wouldn’t be fascinated with the inner workings of the mind? They are a very contemplative species. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
When I went back to finish my undergrad, after a long and ignoble absence, my very first class was Intro to C for Cognitive Modeling. Unlike any educational experience before, I aced the class. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
Passing on a full scholarship to MIT would be irrational for me, but to my father and his parents, what would have been the point of spending five years at one of the world’s most prestigious universities if he just ended up back on the farm? Vivienne Ming Read Quote
The tax on being different is largely implicit. People need not act maliciously for it to be levied. In fact, at its heart is a laudable sentiment: ‘prove it to me.’ The problem is that we are requiring different levels of proof without realising it. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
In 1958, my father graduated from secondary school as the highest-achieving student in the state of Kansas, earning a five-year scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He turned it down. For someone raised in a remote farming town, this would have been his opportunity to transform his life, a ticket to a bigger world. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
Because of the tax on being different, individual actors in the labour market from different backgrounds can rationally value the same opportunities differently. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
After I transitioned, a lot of people said, ‘I like you so much more now,’ because before, I was unhappy. Making that change was a big part of becoming me. Whoever you are, as a gay man or a lesbian or a trans woman, embrace it. Turn it into an asset. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
Human behavior is an enormously complex set of things, and that mixture of underlying things is different for different people, so it’s not just complex, it’s meta-complex. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
What drives success, and the most successful students, is internal motivation. Vivienne Ming Read Quote
