Bøger af Quan-Hoang Vuong

(Third edition, with additions) Thinking is a fundamental activity of our species - those that give names to other creatures and call themselves humans. Textbooks tell us that there is about 1.2 kg of matter called the brain inside the human body. It sounds small but actually is proportionally the biggest among all animals on Earth. I became more aware of thinking at around 5th grade upon hearing about an ancient paradox. It can be summarized as follows. ¤ Once upon a time, there was a stupid king. In his kingdom lived a sage who was highly respected for his intelligence. The King did not appreciate this fact. Maybe the Sage made fun of the King's intellect, but I am not so sure. Anyway, one day, the King summoned the Sage, intending to kill him. The King said, "Wise man, I heard you earn a living by thinking and arguing. Now I give you two options to die." The Sage said, "Please tell me the choices, Your Majesty." The King continued, "You live by your tongue, so I will let you say one sentence before you die. If what you say is true, you will die by hanging. If what you say is false, you will die by beheading." Little did the King know that this was a stupid order. After a short while, the Sage confidently spoke his "last words", which actually were what saved his life: "Your Majesty, I am about to be beheaded!" ¤ As a "wild animal" going out into life from a young age, my brain spent a lot of time and energy looking for food. Now that I have become older, my body no longer needs so much sustenance. However, my mind craves a different type of nourishment: food for thought. Food for thought can directly lead to food (on the table). My main job as a scientist exemplifies what I have just stated. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe it has been "thought for food" all along, like in such a sequence as TFFTTTFTFFTTFFFT... In the hyper-chaotic infosphere today, we are surrounded by the noises of information, not only as wavy shores or waterfalls but also mega-tsunamis, through Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, etc. More than ever, tranquility and calmness are necessary. Like what you have seen in wilderness video clips, predators such as lions, bears, and alligators act lightning-fast when catching prey. But when food is served, the natural world returns to its peaceful, soothing silence. This short book is in its own tidy infosphere, where each little story is also brief and self-contained. Despite this small appearance, I hope the content inside carries the value of tranquility and life observation. The book is petite, but pretty sure not malnourished. A not-too-small detail is that the way the content was shaped and distilled reflects some innovations of mine and my research team: the mindsponge theory, a new theory of serendipity, the bayesvl R package, the BMF analytics, as well as other experiences from working in the field of science. After all, scientific works were my main source of food (before this book sells well - if it does). Much of the content, seemingly fragmented, has reflected our lab's essential cultural values, which have led to mindsponge theory, BMF analytics and related works. Thus, under the analytical paradigm of these closely-connected concepts, the pieces come together as bits and pieces of one whole thing. I think it is a bit unfair to tell about things in a house without mentioning the house itself. Welcome to the priceless sober moments - with a chicken-burger price tag! I hope this book will bring readers some moments of calmness, peaceful smiles, and maybe a couple of good laughs too. Quan-Hoang Vuong Hanoi, December 12, 2023

(Third edition with additions) This is a collection of short stories centering around the protagonist character, Kingfisher, originally written in Vietnamese by myself. The book aims to introduce international readers to snippets of Vietnamese culture through the ordinary yet humorous life of the bird village. The first 15 of these short stories were published in the Khoảng Lặng (Quiet Moment) column of the Vietnamese magazine Kinh Tế và Dự Báo (Economy and Forecast Review) from 2017 to 2019. However, this is the first time that the collection of all the Kingfisher stories has been published in its entirety, covering stories that have not been published elsewhere, including new stories written in 2023. The stories of Kingfisher are full of humor and satire while also deep in social commentary. I hope that the book brings readers joy and some food for thought, for beyond satire is genuine contemplation of the humanistic values in our lives. Hanoi, October 21, 2023 Quan-Hoang Vuong (Incld. Artworks by Bui Quang Khiem and Dam Thi Thu Ha)

Despite the remarkable cognitive power, humans are not alien beings living in their isolated universe but part of the Earth¿s biosphere ¿ a dynamic, intelligent system. The working of the human mind and society is built upon and follows the principles of the natural world. In today¿s modern society, where technological advancement has significantly increased information accessibility to new knowledge, social sciences can greatly benefit from discoveries in natural sciences. In this book, the latest findings in life sciences are used as evidence to demonstrate and explain the mechanisms of psychological and social information processes. Mindsponge is a novel theory of information processing in the human mind. The mechanisms of information processing are present in all levels of the natural world ¿ from ecological and physiological down to cellular and molecular. As a subset of nature, humans express these patterns in the way we think, believe, behave, and establish social constructs. By looking at the intelligent ¿minds¿ of nature, a more accurate framework for human cognition can be logically derived. The mindsponge theory reflects the physical, chemical, and biological laws upon the mental world, not the other way around. Throughout the book, readers will find interesting, often hilarious, stories of both the natural and social world, accompanied by clear scientific explanations and evidence. Each story brings to the table yet another angle to look at the unified principle of information processing within the biosphere: survive and thrive! The book also provides original quantitative findings employing the Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) to demonstrate the consistency and applicability of the theory in studying psychological and social phenomena. Abstracting & Indexing BoD

Academia is a competitive environment. Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are limited in experience and resources and especially need achievements to secure and expand their careers. To help with these issues, this book offers a new approach for conducting research using the combination of mindsponge innovative thinking and Bayesian analytics. This is not just another analytics book. 1. A new perspective on psychological processes: Mindsponge is a novel approach for examining the human mind¿s information processing mechanism. This conceptual framework is used to construct models in studies. The framework is highly flexible and widely applicable for many different types of information processes. The mindsponge approach can help researchers discover interesting ideas or even formulate their very own theories when investigating psychosocial phenomena. This approach brings a fresh wind to the current landscape of social sciences and humanities (SSH). 2. Easy-to-follow analysis protocol: The Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF analytics) is useful in terms of computing and visualizing power but also easy to learn and apply. Contrary to being intimidating, the Bayesian analytics section of this book is presented in a reader-friendly manner with a detailed yet clear step-by-step procedure. Examples are from published BMF articles, allowing readers to immediately practice the method and quickly create their own applications. With educational purposes in mind, the book is very suitable for ECRs who are looking to innovate their research methods. 3. Advocating for low-cost, high-quality research: Doing science can be very costly. Mindsponge innovative thinking and BMF analytics help produce impactful studies using openly available data on online repositories. This is based on the authors¿ previous works and experiences. The book presents examples of employing the open R package bayesvl on secondary data from different sources. With less financial constraints, researchers can have more freedom of thought to pursue their curiosity and creativity. ECRs in low- and middle-income countries may find this aspect crucial in their careers. 4. Support and collaboration: The authors share their insights from experiences in the academic publishing system to help readers get through the processes of manuscript writing and peer-reviewing more easily. The authors are also ready to support other researchers with further inquiries and collaboration opportunities at the following website, https://mindsponge.info. This book is for: a) ECRs whose only abundant resources are their innovation capacity and strength of will; b) Researchers in SSH who want to explore a novel approach to thinking and study conducting; c) Low- and middle-income countries¿ researchers looking for a cost-effective research protocol; and, d) Innovative thinkers who want to turn their interesting thoughts into good publications. Abstracting & Indexing Baidu ScholarBDSBoDBowker Book DataCNKI Scholar (China National Knowledge Infrastructure)DimensionsExLibrisGoogle BooksGoogle ScholarNavigaReadCubeSemantic ScholarTDOne (TDNet)WorldCat (OCLC)X-MOLAdditionally, the proceedings volume is registered and indexed in the Crossref database and accessible on Amazon.

The book explores the nature, underlying causes, and the information processing mechanism of serendipity. It proposes that natural or social survival demands drive serendipity, and serendipity is conditional on the environment and the mindset, on both individual and collective levels. From Darwin¿s evolution theory to Sun Tzüs war tactics, major innovations throughout human history are unified by this key concept. In the rapidly changing world, information is abundant but rather chaotic. The adaptive power of serendipity allows people to notice treasures within this wild sea, but only for those who understand how it works. To increase the probability of encountering and attaining serendipity, one should employ the mindsponge mechanism and the 3D process of creativity, for without these frameworks, serendipity is truly an elusive target. The book also discusses methods to build environments and cultures rich in navigational and useful information to maximize the chance of finding and capitalizing on serendipity. As a skill, serendipity has a resemblance to how kingfishers observe and hunt their prey Description of the peer review process for the book titled A New Theory of Serendipity ¿A New Theory of Serendipity: Nature, Emergence and Mechanism¿ is covered by the following services:¿ Baidu Scholar¿ Barnes & Noble¿ BDS¿ BoD¿ Bowker Book Data¿ Ciando¿ CNKI Scholar (China National Knowledge Infrastructure)¿ Dimensions¿ EBSCO¿ ExLibris¿ Google Books¿ Google Scholar¿ Naviga¿ ReadCube¿ Semantic Scholar¿ TDOne (TDNet)¿ WorldCat (OCLC)¿ X-MOLAdditionally, the proceedings volume is registered and indexed in the Crossref database and accessible on Amazon.

This volume comprises a series of research articles dedicated to the UNESCO 2019 Forum on Education for Sustainable Education and Global Citizenship. Given the imperative of education in sustainable development, especially in developing countries, the volume covers a wide range of topics: the mobility and mental health of international students, reading habits and academic achievements of junior high school students, core competencies of mid-level managers in higher education, adoption of an international publishing standard, legal rights for education and socio-cultural adaptation of ethnic minorities, and, most recently, students'' learning behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.