There once was a master who went to India. In those times, people didn’t have the communications or airplanes or many kinds of transportation that we do now. So the master went to India on foot. He had never been to India before; perhaps he came from Persia. And when he got there, he saw a lot of fruit. In India they have plenty of fruit to sell, but much of it is expensive because they can’t grow much due to the water situation. So he saw one basket, a big basket of some very red, long fruit. And it was the cheapest in the shop, not expensive at all.

So he went up and asked, "How much per kilo?" And the shopkeeper said, "Two rupees." Two rupees in India is nothing; it’s like dirt. So he bought a whole kilogram of the fruit and started eating it. But after he ate some of it: Oh, my God! His eyes watered, his mouth watered and burned, his eyes were burning, his head was burning and his face became red. As he coughed and choked and gasped for breath, he jumped up and down, saying, "Ah! Ah! Ah!"

But he still continued to eat the fruit! Some people who were looking at him shook their heads and said, "You’re crazy, man. Those are chilies! You can’t eat so many; they’re not good for you! People use them as a condiment, but only a little bit to put into food for taste. You can’t just eat them by the handful like that; they’re not fruit!"

So the stupid master said: "No, I can’t stop! I paid money for them, and now I’ll eat them. It’s my money!"

And you think that master was stupid, right? Similarly, we sometimes do a lot of things like that. We invest money, time or effort in a relationship, business or job. And even though it’s been a long time, bitter experience tells us it won’t work, and we know there’s no more hope that things will change in the future —this we definitely know by intuition—we still continue just because we’ve invested money, time, effort and love into it. If so, we’re kaput in the brain. Just like the man who ate the chilies and suffered so much but couldn’t stop because he didn’t want to waste the money he’d paid.

So even if you’ve lost something, let it go and move on. That’s better than continuing to lose.

"Is this making us old or keeping us young? "my husband asked as he lifted the three heavy backpacks from the canoe.

"I don't know, I replied. The heat and mosquitoes were getting to me, and I was wondering whether we were crazy to have started a canoe trip during the hottest week of the summer. But even in fall, our canoe trips ---- while certainly cooler --- are no easier.

I've always loved getting away from civilization to enjoy the peace of nature, to be on a news blackout(中断)and to reflect on the past year and the year to come, which is why we've been doing this regularly for most of the 38 years we've been together.

Now as we’re getting older, it's getting harder-aching knees, aching feet, aching backs. So, we're changing our habits. Instead of extreme whitewater trips in the far north, we’re going on lake trips closer by. Instead of pulling on the heavy pack myself and rising from a sitting position, my husband lifts it up while I thread my arms through the belts. Along the way, I might stop to admire the green plants beside the path or feel the soft surfaces of the moss, and my husband is usually waiting at the other end, wondering why it's taken me so long. During the night, we no longer stay up late to see the stars. Instead, we now get into the tent by 9 p. m. ---exhausted after one day's hard work --- and drift to sleep listening to birds sorrowful call.

Over the years, my canoe-tripping experience has evolved to focus less on the physical and more on the abstract things. Like a solar battery, I store up the energy I absorb from the forest, rocks and waters to help me through the rest of the year. The rhythm of paddling becomes a process of deep thinking rather than an endurance test.

"How long can we continue doing this?” asked my husband at the end of the last trip.

“I don't know,” I answered, but inside, I thought: "As long as our bodies and minds hold out. I hope forever.”

In the digital age, opportunities are arising for everyone. However, only those putting plans into action can stay ahead. Alexandr Wang is one such example.

Los Alamos National Laboratory was where Alexandr spent his childhood. Both his parents were physicists there. Alexandr, from a young age, had a sharp mind. As a kid, he was regarded as a math wizard (奇才) and competed in national math and computer competitions. Finishing high school, Alexandr entered MIT where machine learning and AI amazed him. He saw the potential (潜力) of AI, and was excited about how it could change the world. But it wasn’t making a real impact. His ambition to set up a company in that field was seeded then.

At 17, he got the role of tech lead at Quora and dropped out of MIT. “I told my parents it was just going to be a thing I did for the summer. Obviously, it wasn’t,” Alexandr said. Surely, his parents were disappointed. They all knew he made that change filled with unexpected risks. But Alexandr said, “If you aren’t willing to take a risk now, then when?” Alexandr met Lucy Guo at Quora, with whom Alexandr founded Scale AI, which turned out to be a considerable success.

In fact, at that time, there were various opportunities in the tech world. It was hard to decide which road they should go down. Then he and his team decided to take a different approach—instead of following diverse paths, they agreed to focus on one. They went with “imagery, computer vision and other kinds of sensor data”. And that is what made the company’s profits rise quickly. Scale AI has a net worth of about $7.3 billion at present, with Alexandr being the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.

When asked lessons he’d like to share with founders, Alexandr stated there are a number of things. “The top one is always doing things that go with your values and how you want to build a company at the beginning. When you talk to investors (投资者) they’ll contribute advice that may go against your goal. Figure out your focus and what gets you started.”