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The Boston area has over 80 institutions of higher learning, among the most prominent are Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Northeastern University and Wellesley College. Every day there are  many scholarly seminars that I am interested in taking place on some subject at one  of these institutions. So I make an effort to attend as many of these talks as possible.  It is an effort  since I need to drive for at least half an hour from my suburban home, find or pay for parking, and spend the time of brain concentration and then drive home. People have asked me why I do it now that I have been retired for 12+ years. There are three reasons.

First, I do it because of interest. When you are at a job, you are concentrated on doing your job well. You cannot spend too much time to attend event that are unrelated to your job  but are of  personal  interest. For example, talk on history, sociology, or humanities in my case.  But  in retirement, you have such luxury to indulge in learning purely for the  pleasure and  entertainment. Aside from investment in time and effort, all such talks are free (unlike the “One  Day University http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&id=683006” )

Second, I do it as a brain exercise. We do physical exercise to keep fit. In old age, one would like to maintain the quality of life before the inevitable end. Being physically and mentally  fit makes  every  day living that much more interesting. Even though I have not done  serious research  for a  couple of years now,  I like to think that I still can. Attending cutting  edge frontier  technical  talks and being able to understand and follow the talk is a test whether  or not  you still have it. It is also a way to keep up with development in my own field and more generally with  peripheral subjects.

Thirdly,I do it as a service. For technical talk and as part ofthe brain exercise mention in reason #2 above, I always try to write a summary report of the talk distilling its essence, evaluating  its significance,  and pass on the report privately to my Tsinghua colleagues in China  who do not have access to these talks. This is one way to help them keep abreast and up-to-date on the latest finding in our field.  It is hoped that my reports help them intheir work by  reducing   search time, eliminating the chaff from the signal, and pointing out interesting  problem areas, etc.

Finally, If nothing else, I do it to say “I am still here”