Columbia Essay 2: practice taught you more than theory. 大家能聊聊思路么

theory 不仅指理论，还包括常规做法和由来已久的观点。
practice指 实践带来的经验。

文章就是写creative的故事，自己修正了常规做法，或者自己通过不同寻常的方式纠正了传统看法。
最终还是一个 beyond expectation/creative thinking/solve complex problem的经典故事。
但是在文中要涉及 theory和practice的对比内容。

我的essay是这么写的，
有一个难题由来已久，很多人认为这是系统的问题，个体很难有所作为，但是我通过独辟蹊径的思考，采用了创造性的方法解决了这个问题。最终获得了出色的成绩和好评, 通过practice和theory的对比，知道不能只遵从theory，还要因地制宜，develop theory to fit the current situation.  

因为拿到了interview, 姑且认为adcom还是buy in了我对的这篇essay的理解。

theory 不仅指理论，还包括常规做法和由来已久的观点。
practice指 实践带来的经验。

文章就是写creative的故事，自己修正了常规做法，或者自己通过不同寻常的方式纠正了传统看法。
最终还是一个 beyond expectation/creative thinking/solve complex problem的经典故事。
但是在文中要涉及 theory和practice的对比内容。

我的essay是这么写的，
有一个难题由来已久，很多人认为这是系统的问题，个体很难有所作为，但是我通过独辟蹊径的思考，采用了创造性的方法解决了这个问题。最终获得了出色的成绩和好评, 通过practice和theory的对比，知道不能只遵从theory，还要因地制宜，develop theory to fit the current situation.  

因为拿到了interview, 姑且认为adcom还是buy in了我对的这篇essay的理解。

Without practice, you will never know which theory is appropriate. Without theory, you will not be able to learn from the mistakes and successes of others, and practice will be wasteful and never-ending.

The two sentences above, of course, are also a theory of how to approach theory and practice. So if you apply what I've just said to the statements themselves, you end up needing to 'practice' the theory of the statements, as well as theorising on how to 'practice' the statements.

It's complex, but that's the whole point: it's a very complicated world. There's never one "right" answer. How have you tried to find your own answer, or perhaps more accurately, do you know how your answer has found you? Do you know how that answer has changed over time as it is shaped according to the environment (as a previous poster has noted), but also, (and people often forget this) according to your own biases and experiences?

How our answers are shaped by our own biases and experiences:

For instance, why are there so many disagreements in the world? Israel and Palestine continues their long, long battle. Do they in fact understand how each of their own views are shaped by not just what is truly happening in the world, but how their biases and experiences are causing them to each view the same exact event in different ways? Closer to China, there is the Tibet issue, Xinjiang issue, Taiwan issue. Why do smart, respected, influential and reasonable Chinese people get angry and disagree with equally smart, respected, influential and reasonable Americans and French people over these issues? The temptation is always to blame it on the environment- (they don't see this.. they don't see that...) rather than examining one's own biases (and this is true for everyone, for basically all issues) and acknowledging that there might be a different (also correct) way of looking at things, because different people have different assumptions and experiences to inform your decisions.

That is why none of these issues seem to have 'right' answers. Or, put another way, depending on who you ask, everyone has a different 'right' answer, and seldom do people say, 'but I think they are right too' (because this means admitting that you are wrong). When we talk about needing to adapt both theory and practice at all times, it is easy to apply that to the current situation, but not easy to apply it to yourself. And that kind of humility, of willingness to admit mistakes, and of keenness to accept the diverse opinions of ours, might be one of the most valuable skills that you can train.

Finally, this is all very abstract, so I will illustrate with Yifan's example. First I had considered what's wrong with the old approach to come up with a new idea. But after I had come up with my new idea, I would have immediately turned around and asked.. what's wrong with this? Why might everyone else think something else, and why might they be right and myself wrong? Only when I later convince myself that they are right and I am wrong, and that I should follow their idea, will I then take a step back and now, with both their and my ideas in my head, and understanding why both may be right and why both may be wrong, then make a decision that integrates the viewpoints of everyone, and also makes it easier for me to 'sell' this new integrative idea to my team.