Did you ever consider any other major or career? 你考慮過其他主修或職業嗎？ Uras: Honestly, I was pretty lost about my career when I was younger. I never seriously considered any other major or career path — maybe, I was very interested in astrophysics for a while; but once that spark of mathematics came, I did not really change paths for a long time — perhaps since the beginning of high school. For me, now I see, there is no way I could have done physics — obviously, physics has a close relationship with math but they are also incredibly different. I think the separating line is whether you are fine with just thinking and doing something for the sake of things; you really have to enjoy mathematics for the sake of it. I really liked how perfect mathematics is; in physics, we build on our observations rather than proofs and it left me unsatisfied. Different tastes. 老實說，小時候我對自己的未來路向感到迷茫，但此後我幾乎沒有考慮過其他主修或職業路向 — 也許 我曾對天體物理學非常感興趣，但在邂逅數學後，就沒有真正改變過方向，可能是從剛開始讀高中的時候 就一直是這樣吧。現在我才明白到，我根本不可能讀物理 — 物理顯然跟數學有密切關係，但它們非常不同。 我認為分界線在於你是否能接受僅僅為了事情本身而思考和做一件事情；你必須純粹為了數學本身而享受 數學。我很喜歡數學的完美；物理學建基於觀察而不是證明這點不能滿足我。這是兩種不同的取向吧。 Sonia: Originally, in high school, I considered going into music because I played piano very seriously. I decided against that as I was also very interested in the sciences. At the time, I was very interested in particle physics. My dream was to work at CERN, the particle accelerator, do cool things and discover new particles. What attracted me to physics was more the theory side — which sort of explains why I went into math instead. When you read pop science books for the first time and come across the Grand Unified Theory at age 12, you think you really want to do that and change the world. I would watch Neil deGrasse Tyson, MinutePhysics, and a bunch of channels like 3Blue1Brown and Numberphile, which sustained my interest in the science and math side of things. I came into the School of Science with my major undeclared, but after physics lab courses, I realized it wasn’t for me because I kept breaking things in the lab. I’m quite sure my lab technician will remember me for years to come. 最初在高中時，我考慮過選擇音樂，因為我一直非常認真對待鋼琴演奏。然而我最終決定放棄，因為我對 科學也很感興趣。那時我對粒子物理學著迷，夢想是在CERN 那個粒子加速器工作，幹一些了不起的事情，發 現一些新粒子。使我對物理學產生興趣的，更多是在理論那端 — 這也解釋了為甚麼我最終選擇數學。當你 12歲那年第一次閱讀科普書籍，接觸到大一統理論時，你會想，你真的想把這個問題解決從而改變世界。我 會收看Neil deGrasse Tyson、MinutePhysics，以及一些像3Blue1Brown和Numberphile的頻道來維 持我對科學和數學方面課題的興趣。我進入理學院時尚未選擇主修科目，但在物理實驗課後，我意識到物理並 不適合自己，因為我在實驗室不斷打破東西。我肯定實驗室技術員以後都不會忘記我。 Dr. Leung 梁博士: Especially at the time of my master’s program, I thought of working towards becoming an investment banker after doing a master’s degree in financial mathematics, but I decided against it due to the inflexible working hours. Personally, I do not really like that lifestyle, despite the significant amount of money you can earn. At that time, I liked teaching more. I remember when I chose the math major at HKUST, I set a goal for myself one day to become a lecturer or professor at a university. I’d say it’s a very flexible life, and you have more freedom which I prefer. I chose to stay in academia instead of going into the industry. 特別是讀碩士的時候，我曾考慮在修讀金融數學碩士後成為一名投資銀行家，但最終因為不能靈活 調動工作時間而決定放棄。就我個人而言，儘管可以賺到相當多金錢，但我並不喜歡那種生活方式。那 時我更喜歡教學工作。還記得在科大選擇主修數學時，我給自己定了一個目標，就是希望有天能成為大 學講師或教授。我會說這是一種時間安排上比較靈活的生活，亦可享有更多自由，這是我所偏好的。因 此我選擇留在學術界，而不是進入商界。
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