I used to be really into modern art—especially the 1960s—when I was in high school. Teenagers tend to distance themselves from their own culture or from whatever’s popular, I guess so they can feel “iconic.” Honestly, I was just being avant-garde for the sake of avant-garde: hanging up a Marilyn Monroe print in my bedroom, thinking it was cool that none of my friends got it (not that I fully did, either, as I later realized). ...

March 15th is World Consumer Rights Day—to raise global awareness about consumer rights and needs, and to demand respect and protection for all consumers. In China, the day is marked by a two-hour prime-time show on state-run China Central Television (CCTV), where brands are publicly criticized for issues like poor-quality products, robocalls, and illegal collection of personal information. Reporters often would spend months or even years under disguise in those problematic industries to finally unveil the truth on this day. Many famous industries’ problems have been addressed in this channel. ...

“Chopiniana,” also known as “Les Sylphides,” is a ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine, set to music by Frédéric Chopin, and premiered in 1907 as a “romantic reverie”. It’s a ballet blanc—where all ballerinas wear white dresses or tutus. Mariinsky Theatre premiered the ballet in 1907. The music is very beautiful. And the choreography has magic. Fokine’s Chopiniana is an homage to the Romantic era with its white ballet, fleeting arabesques, airy dances of ethereal sylphides and perpetual longing for perfection. Fokine, inspired by antique engravings depicting the legendary Marie Taglioni and her contemporaries and weary of ballet virtuosity and technique show offs, created a storyless ballet sketch at the beginning of the 20th century. The sketch was “in the style of that long-forgotten time when ballet was governed by poetry, when a dancer rose en pointe not to demonstrate the steel-like arch of her foot but in order to create the impression of lightness, barely touching the ground, something ethereal and fantastical.” The choreographer wrote: “I have tried not to surprise people with the newness, but rather to restore conventional ballet dancing to the point of its greatest advances. I don’t know if this is how our ballet predecessors danced. And no-one else knows that. But in my dreams this is precisely how they did dance.” source: Mariinsky Theatre ...

This is the second reading note of paper “Strategic Experimentation with Exponential Bandits”, following the previous post that describes the single-agent basic model: a continuous two-armed bandit: one risky (R) arm + one safe (S) arm. Model: When There Are More Than One Agents Players each have replica two-armed bandits. They share the same prior belief (over whether the Risky arm is good or bad), the same discount rate, and information is public. The risky arms’ time thresholds are i.i.d..—In other words, the risky arm’s ‘good’/‘bad’ nature is the same among all agents. But every agent’s threshold distribution might be realized differently. ...

This is the reading notes of “Strategic Experimentation with Exponential Bandits” by Godfrey Keller, Sven Rady and Martin Cripps, published in Econometrica, 2025. I think it is a really cool theoretical economic paper, because the math is solid, elegant and inspiring. For more details, please refer to the original paper. The following are notes for the models and and results for reference, if one wants to quicly grasp the intuition. ...

Brahmn’s music speaks love. And the story goes: [The story] has been pieced together from personal letters between Clara, Brahms, and friends. Robert Schumann was Brahms’ mentor. Brahms got close to Schumann’s wife Clara as Robert was drifting off into madness (likely related to syphilis). Clara and Brahms wrote letters to one another as if lovers, but after Schumann’s death, Brahms left Clara to move on with his career, although they still kept in touch, and were affectionate whenever the met. Brahms insinuated they never had sex, that Clara was more like a beloved mentor or muse. Letters show that Clara really thought Brahms would marry her after Robert’s death, but that didn’t happen. The story has circulated in musical anecdotes for ages, and several films have been based on the story. ...

Updated my CV and about me page. Goodnight!

I spend the weekend in Los Angeles. UCLA is mountainous. Its campus design has layers and depth. Impressively beautiful. LA is flamboyant, loud, of beautiful, bold contrasts—definitely one of a kind. Beneath the Hollywood glam and tourist traps, there’s a real depth to the city. I walked throught its most diverse neighborhoods in the world—Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, and the Arts District all have their own unique cultures and communities. I think all will find a niche in LA that their heart recide. ...

Attending the admitted PhD open house at USC Marshall’s DSO department was an invaluable experience. It was a rare opportunity to engage with multiple faculty members. USC has a beautiful campus located in a delightful and convenient neighborhood. One of the most interesting thing was when I tried to crowdsource representative attributes for a good PhD student by asking everyone the question: What makes a popular job market candidate? Their responses provided a well-rounded view of what it takes to stand out. Below are the key takeaways: ...

I was at the opening night of Cosi Fan Tutte by the LA Opera, March 07 2025 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion theater: The pre-show lecture given by conductor James Conlon, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, featuring the amazing Chandelier. Pro Tips for classical performances, especially grand productions like Ballet and Opera: Arrive early (1 hour+) to attend pre-show lectures, explore the venue, take a glass of wine, or just chill in the bathroom. Read the synopsis on the handouts. It’s generally a good idea to read the plot before attending an opera or ballet. Operas are often performed in languages other than English, while ballets don’t even have language. It can be challenging to follow every detail of the story while also appreciating the music and staging. The title “Così fan tutte” is Italian for “Thus do all women”, often interpreted as “All women are like that.” The opera, composed by Mozart with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, is a comedic yet thought-provoking exploration of love, fidelity, and human nature. It tells the story of two young soldiers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, who make a bet with the cynical philosopher Don Alfonso that their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, will remain faithful to them. To test their lovers, the men pretend to go off to war, only to return in disguise and attempt to seduce each other’s fiancée. ...