Some part of the web performance lecture is a little bit too technical for me to understand. But I do gain something very important: try to understand more about what you are going to do before you do it. The most valuable advice form the lecture is : in coding client side I should avoid excessive http requests. The architecture of the code must work efficiently in its working environment rather than only in theory.
The more interesting part is Prof Ben's lecture. Prof Ben is really a passionate speaker and always impresses his audience :).
The first part is about grade. Based on Prof Ben's idea, the grade is important mostly as a filter index. I personally think it is not really true. If a student gets higher grade when he graduates, it generally means he has better abilities compared to one with lower grade. I know this is not always true as some passionate students devoted too much time in his favored field and it inevitably lowered his grade. While this portion won't dominate in the whole collection of low grade students. More of them are just too lazy to study or really not intelligent enough( this should be very rare). So it has to be true that generally the higher grade students are of better "quality" than the ones with lower grade.
The second part about scholarship. I am not sure about the scholarship system in Singapore but the struggle it caused is basically the same as what PRC scholars like me has. The basic contradiction lies the pursuit of better education versus freedom of moving to other places. I have thought about the problem before and I think in most cases, accepting the scholarship is a better choice. As the "freedom" that we give away when we accept the scholarship (like going to the US after graduation) tends to be useless if we choose to do it our own way. Without a better degree, it makes success in doing our own business more difficult and it is likely that the time we would spend before we finally succeed will be comparable to the time we would be bound if we accept the scholarship offer. So it is really worth it.
Lastly about meritocracy, I personally believe in it. The world itself is unfair but this unfairness is not throughout your life. We could improve our social and economic status if we try hard enough. This of course is not always possible as sometimes the unfairness it too huge. On the other hand, unfairness is the power that drives the progress of the society. If everything is equal for everybody, then the world won't progress and life is meaningless as people lose the power that drive them. That is also why I believe communism is meaningless.
