The Beginning
“… the only difference between a FA and a TM is that the TM, unlike the FA, has paper and pencil.
Think about it. It tells us something about the power of writing.
Without writing, you are reduced to the automata.
With writing, you have the extraordinary power of a Turing machine.
”– Manuel Blum, Advice to a Beginning Graduate Student
Recently, I decide to start the English Blog to record what I read or thought in DB Research. I wish I started it earlier, but it seems not too late now 
.
I always believe in writing is a powerful tool of thought. In fact, the power of writing has been emphazised again and again by many people. Perhaps, the most interesting one is the above one by Manuel Blum, professor in CMU who recieved the Turing Award for his contribution to complexity theory.
Besides, in a talk given by Dr. Haixun WANG in DBTC mentoring program for NDBC 2009, he asked a question “Can creativity be trained? How to train your creativity?”
The answer is “write, write and write“.
and
Research = Write + Rewrite
In the process of writing down what you have read or thought, you understand your problem better and better and finally maybe find more general or interesting problems.
In addition, it also open the way to dialogue with others.
Similar to best way to train a programmer is to code, the best way to train a researcher is to write.
Write what you you read as you read it. Write what you thought before you implent it
It is the mission of the blog.
