College: The Key to Life College is a key stage in life.

This is because entering college is when you finally put aside the burden of the college entrance examination and start chasing your ideals and interests for the first time.

This is the first time you leave family life and participate in group and social life independently.

This is the first time you no longer simply study or memorize theoretical knowledge from books, but have the opportunity to practice it while learning theory.

This is the first time that your parents no longer arrange everything in your life and study, but you have enough freedom to deal with various problems encountered in your life and study, and to control all your own time.

College is a critical stage in life.

This is because this is the last opportunity in your life to receive education in a systematic way.

This is the last time you can devote yourself to building your knowledge base.

This may be the last stage of your life in which you can devote a large part of your time to learning. It may also be the last growth process in which you can have high plasticity and focus on enriching yourself.

This may be the last time you can be in a relatively tolerant and ideal environment where you can learn how to behave.

College is a critical stage in life.

At this stage, all college students should carefully grasp every "first time" and let them become the cornerstone of their future life; at this stage, all college students should also cherish every "last time" and not let themselves be in trouble.

I will regret it in the distant future.

During the four years of college, everyone should work hard to weave life dreams for themselves, clarify their direction of struggle, and lay the foundation for their career.

Everyone only has four years of college, and they should spend the four years of college like this... The way of self-study: from drawing inferences from one example to learning without a teacher. I remember when I was a teaching assistant at Columbia University, a parent of a Chinese student complained to me:

"What on earth are you teaching in your university? My child has finished his sophomore year in the computer science department, and he can't even use VisiCalc[1]." I replied at the time: "The development of computers is changing with each passing day. We cannot guarantee what is taught in the university.

Any technology will still be useful after five years, and we cannot guarantee that students can learn every technology and tool. What we can guarantee is that your child will learn to think and master the method of learning, so that no matter five years later,

Whatever new technology or tools emerge, your children will be able to handle them with ease." She then asked, "Learning the latest software is not education, so what is the essence of education?" I replied, "If we will learn the latest software."

When everything is forgotten, the last thing left is the essence of education. What I said at that time comes from the famous saying of educator B. F. Skinner. The so-called "what is left" is actually the ability of self-study.

It is the ability to draw inferences from one example or learn from others without a teacher. College is not a "vocational training course", but a platform for students to adapt to society and adapt to different jobs. During college, it is important to learn professional knowledge, but it is more important to learn.

Only in this way can college graduates adapt to the ever-changing future world through independent thinking and the ability to draw inferences. I know many friends who came to the United States to study as graduate students after studying in China. They think that after coming to the United States, whether it is studying or not,

What they lack most in work and life is the ability to think independently because they rarely think and make decisions independently in China. When they were in middle school, the teacher would repeat the key content of each lesson again and again.

It will only act as a guide, and students must learn, explore and practice independently. After entering the workplace, self-learning ability becomes even more important. Microsoft once made a statistics: every Microsoft employee has mastered the skills.

Only about 10% of the knowledge content was accumulated by employees in their past studies and work. The other knowledge was relearned after joining Microsoft. This data fully shows that it is difficult for a person who lacks self-learning ability to work at Microsoft.

To gain a foothold in modern enterprises, self-learning ability must be cultivated during college. Many students always complain that teachers do not teach well and do not know much, and the school’s curriculum is unreasonable. I usually advise these students: "Rather than curse.

"It's better to light a candle in the dark". College students should not just follow the teacher, but should take the initiative to walk in front of the teacher. For example, college teachers usually cover dozens of pages of information in the textbook in one class, only

It is impossible to learn all the knowledge through listening in class. The best way to learn is to ponder the relevant issues in the textbook before the teacher lectures, and then make up for your own understanding and understanding by comparing it with the teacher's explanation in class.

When learning knowledge, middle school students are more interested in "memorizing" knowledge, while college students should require themselves to "understand" knowledge and be good at asking questions.

For every knowledge point, you should ask a few more "whys".

Once you truly understand the ins and outs of a theory or method, you can learn other knowledge, solve other problems, and even achieve the state of self-taught without a teacher.

In fact, many questions have different ways of thinking or viewing angles.

When learning knowledge or solving problems, don't always stick to one mode of thinking, and don't let yourself become a slave to textbooks or experience.

Only by daring to innovate in learning and being good at thinking about problems from a new perspective can students' potential thinking, creative and learning abilities be truly stimulated.