Yitang had some background in classical Chinese literature. Sometimes we talked about them. I mentioned to him a phrase of Confucius: “A person who knows a job is no match to a person who likes the job. A person who likes the job is no match to a person who enjoys the job. ” I thought that applied to research very well. He agreed.
Sometimes I regreted not fixing him a job. But really, who could tell whether it was a good decision or not? Maybe it was his destiny to endure and turn out to be great.