It is my great pleasure to spend the
next 40 minutes or so on stage with a
most sought-after guest that I think
we've ever had in this hall. I need a
warm welcome again and thank you for
choosing to spend time here at SMU. I
know you have many, many engagements and
we're delighted, more than delighted,
that you've chosen to spend the time
with us. Thank you.
I believe that this is not your first
time in Singapore, but you were perhaps
a little bit younger when you were first
here. And I know that the audience here
would love to hear from you. So perhaps
I could invite you to say something, say
a few words to the audience before we
begin.
>> Thank you so much for the kind words,
Professor Kong, and thank you so much
for having me. It's such a joy to be
always in an academic institution. Like
you said in your opening remarks, I
think that
schools are such a microcosm for human
flourishing and it really is a place
where our highest values are realized
and we have the opportunity and the
options to become who we want to be, to
explore the places that we want to learn
and and the directions we want to
expand. So I always love speaking at
schools and and SMU in particular with
its value [snorts] on entrepreneurship
and and being so future-looking. I think
particularly appeals to me. Singapore at
large is such a future-looking place and
so far in my short stay here this time,
it has been nothing short of incredible.
I look forward to exploring many more
times in the future
and I'm really looking forward to our
conversation today.
>> That's wonderful.
You know, there is so much ground we can
cover. Before the event, we invited the
audience to submit some questions and
thoughts they may have and I will say
that we were inundated. There were many,
many interesting and interested
interesting questions and interested
members of the audience. So I'll do what
I can to capture some of it and
apologies to those of you whose
questions may not be asked today. I
thought we might structure the
conversation by beginning with perhaps
more macro questions, and then I know
that there is a lot of interest in you
as an individual, so I hope you won't
mind that we will progress the
conversation towards perhaps more
personal dimensions.
Um
you know, the university, as I said in
my opening remarks, is an institution
that cares about human potential, that
really spends the time trying to bring
the best out of each individual.
I
I think it's fair to say that as an
individual, you have really epitomized
what the flourishing of human potential
means, and you've done that in so many
different dimensions. Just to mention
sport, which we all know about. I
watched the videos of you on the ski
slopes, and that's just so amazing. Um
but you've also excelled in so many
other dimensions, including in
university.
In sport, we know what it means to train
oneself, to push oneself physically.
But you've also talked about the
possibility of training the mind. And
you talked about neuroplasticity and how
we can better ourselves.
Perhaps you could speak to this
question, because I know there's a lot
of interest in the audience on this.
What does that training of the mind,
stretching our neuroplasticity, look
like in everyday life for any individual
out here?
>> Wow, starting easy, huh? My [laughter]
goodness.
Um sure. I mean, I think that
Look, I'm no expert. I think for me
personally, it just comes to
observation. So, I I try to be humble
when it comes to my own mind, and I
don't pretend that I know all the
answers, because I don't, and because
I'm 23, and because I'm learning, and
pretty much everything that I'm doing is
the first time that I'm experiencing it,
right? By definition, to progress in the
sport of free skiing is to ask your body
to do something that it's never done
before, ever. Every new trick that I
learn, I'm breaking a physical, mental,
emotional
boundary that had been set for me
before. Or it's it's breaking new ground
every time.
And so, conceptually, I think that
familiarizing yourself with discomfort
and also knowing that almost every
boundary is somewhat plastic. So, that
there always is potential to expand,
that there always is potential to grow
and change. And so, that just comes back
to self-observation. So, how do I feel
in a given moment? What does fear feel
like? What does doubt feel like? What do
nerves feel like? How are those three
things different? What is pressure? What
do I care about? What are the things I
can affect me? What is the direction I
want to move in? And I think those are
all kind of, you know, as with the
scientific method, it's all just
experimentation and it's figuring out
who I am, what are the things I care
about, and then what is the direction I
want to move in. And so, to be
neuroplastic, I think it's to be the
master of your fate in so far as
knowing that I can observe myself and
that I can control the direction of my
growth.
>> That's amazing because very often I
think for young people and not so young
people, sometimes we are carried by the
trajectories, we are carried by the
pathways that have been established. And
to be very intentional and conscious
about asking ourselves who we are, what
we want to do, um takes something of the
individual.
There is no conversation today without
two letters of the alphabet. And yes,
I'm talking about AI.
Um
when you think about that
intentionality, that cultivation of
self,
and you think about what's available
through AI, where what we do is type a
question,
send the prompt, and the answers come
back.
Is there a danger that that is doing
something to our neuroplasticity?
Is there a danger that that is
sort of reshaping
our ability to think for ourselves and
to forge our paths? I wonder what you
think about that.
>> I'm going to go ahead and take the
opportunity that we are in a university
to be my truest, nerdiest self today, so
I hope you guys will forgive me for
that. Um so I trust that people are
probably familiar with the Descartes
aphorism of cogito ergo sum, like I
think therefore I am, but the the kind
of phrase that comes before that is I
doubt, therefore I think, and I think
therefore I am, and I think there's
something really prescient about that.
Um
in order to, I guess to your point about
prompting AI,
you have to make a judgment decision at
any point, right? And so in order to
write a good prompt or to make a good
decision from the information that you
gather from the prompt or to direct an
agent, you have to have the ability to
start from doubt and to start from
self-informed thinking. And so if
anything, I think
learning to work or learning to produce
through the form of asking questions is
actually encouraging human agency
because that is the Socratic method.
That is the scientific method. That is
kind of what we think about as human
learning, is it not? To ask a question,
to think about how to structure a
question. What is first principles
thinking? To kind of go back and see
what matters and then move from there.
And then also to kind of make informed
decisions and what you do from there. So
I guess I'm kind of cautious about the
whole like delegating your life to AI
premise just because
um
to use kind of like metaphor in skiing,
I guess,
we recently have a new technology called
an airbag, which is like a giant bouncy
castle. So, it's like this If you
imagine it's like a ski slope, um, but
the landing is like literally plastic
material and they spray water on it. And
you jump off of this like plastic ramp,
you fly in the air, you do your trick,
you land, and it's plastic, and you
slide, okay?
And initially people were like, "This is
crazy. This is not even skiing." And
then you realize that because this is
much safer as a technology, suddenly
people are doing much bigger tricks and
the sport is progressing so much more
rapidly, and people are kind of doing
things that they never thought would
have been possible. And the what ended
up happening is not that we reached some
kind of capped human potential and we
were like taken over. Instead, it was
that
the women in sport started really,
really progressing and the the kind of
level all over started rising and we had
the freedom to explore tricks that had
never been possible before and new axes.
We could try things and work with human
physics,
um, in ways that we never thought was
possible. So, I I think that it is the
human condition to be curious and I
think it is the human condition to
progress and improve, and I think that
the methodology of asking questions to
do that is fundamentally a positive one.
>> Indeed. Um, so, you know, I have had
colleagues who have rejected AI saying,
"We've taught the Socratic method for
centuries and, um, why are we, you know,
dropping that?" But I think your
response suggests to us that actually
with the use of AI, you can actually,
um,
um,
strengthen, hone that questioning
ability. Um, in today's language it
would be writing better prompts.
Um,
I wanted to nevertheless, um,
pursue this line of conversation around
neuroplasticity a little bit more and
then I'd really like to come back to
technology and sport which, um, is a
good segue from your comments, um, a
moment ago.
You talked about, um, training your own
mind very deliberately and you do that
through things like journaling, um, you
know, reframing fear, visualization and
so forth.
Do you see a time when that can be
delegated to a machine?
For example.
>> I think the frameworks, maybe. I think
that there are ways that you can
optimize and that you can maybe get more
data, that you can be better informed.
Fundamentally, the work of getting to
know oneself will always remain your own
and the choice to become the person you
want to be has to be yours and I think
in any other way it would be contrived
and corrupted. Um, and and so in some
ways, yes. Like, maybe if if you want to
be directed in a certain way, you can
kind of, um, find ways to structure
actions that help lead to an outcome of
your choosing, but I think at at a large
scale, I don't I don't think that that
is something that can be replaced, no.
>> And and that I think suggests, you know,
if if we can't replace certain things
and I think I I very much agree with you
on that, it also means that the struggle
that we go through in learning, where we
kind of get frustrated sometimes because
we're not getting it just as as it is
and so forth, that struggle is what
helps us to learn, I think. And that's
true whether in sport or in the
classroom and so forth.
Is there a danger
of
us losing that struggle because
things become too easy
with AI.
I think not. Um I I think that
as the pace picks up I I I think it's
more of a question of pace as opposed to
kind of replacement, if that makes
sense. So, it's like if we have this
tool that enables us to be higher
efficiency or or more capable, it means
we're able to do more things. If
anything, I feel like the struggle would
probably increase in that situation. Um
a lot of people ask me, so I I graduated
or I walked graduation this year in
June, um for Stanford. And then after
graduation, everyone was like, "Wow, you
must have so much free time now that
you're, you know, out of school." And I
find myself busier than ever. I find
that I my my time is more consumed than
ever. I am more applied than ever. And
so, it it
the concept of like the hedonic
treadmill, where we adapt to our
circumstances, be it through joy or be
it through work or through a kind of
like a temporal reckoning sense,
through all of that, we adapt really
quickly, like much quicker than I think
people expect. So, as far as like
getting used to that pace, I think it's
more of like a relative um
like calibration and and less of a like
do all or nothing and then I'm replaced
and I have nothing to do. I think people
will get used to it quickly and then
move even faster than before.
>> Wonderful. I'd like to pick up on the
thread of your comments earlier about
sport and technology. And we know that
sport is not shorn of technology. You've
given us examples. There's also the use
of data analytics to improve performance
and so forth, right? Um
where do you think we draw the line
between technology
and human potential?
Um what should remain a test of the
athlete rather than the technology?
>> I think split-second judgment decisions.
I think intuition around fear, um like
to push or not to push in a certain
given moment. They're pretty much I
think in the sport of free skiing
because everything is so like the
margins are so narrow between absolute
success and massive failure that that
judgment decision is absolutely
critical. I can be at the top of a run
and be just feeling slightly off and
every single data analytic could be
telling me go. You slept great last
night. Your heart rate looks good. We
think your HRV looks fantastic. Like
you're ready to go. And at the end of
the day, if I don't believe, if my
subconscious is not bought in, the trick
is not happening. And that's a
self-reinforcing cycle. Like if I don't
believe it'll happen, there is so much
of skiing that I think embodies this
like you will it into reality. Like it
only happens because you believe it and
if you don't believe it, it cannot
happen.
And so that element I think is
fundamentally irreplaceable. So it's
like this gut feeling, it's intuition
and more than anything I think it's like
familiarity and intimacy with the self.
>> And you know, that's a great answer
because I think it extends beyond sport
as well. In all that we do in life,
sometimes
the necessity to make that decision in a
split second that's going to just make
that difference. That believe in
yourself that's just going to make it
happen where the data tells you it's
not. Um so these are things I I I I
believe extend beyond the ski slopes
into merit dimensions of our lives. And
so to that extent I think what Eileen
has done is actually to answer a
question from one of our students,
Yen-Ren, who is doing her DBA in
technology and she had asked the
question, what do you think AI will
never be able to replace about elite
human performance. And I I your response
earlier speaks to that.
There is another question from a
colleague, Christina Chee, who asks what
technology or innovation has had the
biggest impact on your training and
performance, and how do you think
athletes of the future will train
differently?
>> Hmm.
Besides airbags, which I mentioned
earlier, honestly, video review is the
biggest thing. Like being able to watch
yourself in slow motion really captures
um a lot of this kind of like
micro neuromuscular
movement um that that you otherwise
wouldn't be able to feel. And then also,
a lot of the time how you feel is
different than what is true. And so kind
of like bridging that gap from like an
objective perspective through video
review is enormously helpful. I would
imagine that there's going to be a lot
more like force analytic data in the
future. So like force generation,
asymmetry um
kind of as far as like technical ability
goes. Right now there's not a whole lot
of that. But I'm also not really
yearning for it. I feel like there's
something kind of
fun in just figuring it out. And so I'm
relishing in the puzzle of all that is.
And also what's kind of fun about being
at the cutting edge of of a sport is
like every time you do something new,
sometimes it's the first time that
anyone ever has done something. And and
so there's something really exciting
about that and feeling like you're you
know, figuring it out
as you go.
>> That's wonderful. Um
you know, we started the conversation
with human potential and and um that
does rely on um talent realized.
Realizing one's human potential is about
realizing one's talent. I wanted to
begin a conversation thread around
whether you thought talent is innate or
whether that's cultivated and developed
and the relative balance of that.
>> I'm going to say that talent stands a
very, very, very small portion,
particularly the older you get, just
because like the number of decisions
that you make compounds exponentially
over time. And so maybe when you're 3
years old, the talent, you know, you can
see that difference a lot more than when
you're 30.
Um
I don't know, I'm not there yet, but
I'll report back.
Um but the the kind of idea that I think
between talent and and hard work is that
if you tell yourself that you have a
ceiling, or you tell yourself that you
have a floor,
just be careful with the kind of
premises that you believe. And I think
what's more important about the
empirical reality of either those of
those things is how it informs your
decisions going forward, because we are
all just a collection of all the
decisions we've ever made. And so if we
make those decisions decisions with an
assumption that fundamentally limits us,
then that is more detrimental than any
lack of talent could ever be.
Um and so maybe this is kind of the the
set of cards that I've been dealt, but
if I spend the whole time looking at my
hand, and I never play them, then it
doesn't matter what I'm holding. What
matters is that you take a step, and and
one step leads to two, and as long as
you keep moving and keep being better
than who you were yesterday, then it's
not really a question of what hands you
had to begin with. It's it's about where
you end up and who you end up becoming.
>> And in that journey to, you know,
whatever end point it is that one
identifies for oneself, it requires that
we have building conditions. It requires
that we have environments, supportive
people, and so forth. And so I have a
question here,
um from Sheryl Lee, who's an SMU alum
from 2011,
and she was curious to know how much of
your excellence has been shaped by um
your mother in particular and the
environment she created and how that um
helped develop your intrinsic drive or
perhaps the intrinsic drive was there
um to start off.
>> Yeah, so my mom's the best, for sure.
Like let's just get that off the table.
Um that's like no question. So she's
here. She looks great. She's in the
front. Everyone tell her she looks
pretty.
Um
she's
>> [laughter]
[applause]
>> Um so yeah, absolutely. I think that So
So she would always say that up until I
was 13, I was her job. And then after I
turned 13, I was
the job of the world. And And that just
means that like beyond a certain point,
you are more created by your peer group,
by your environment, by the people who
you look up to, um
by by the media you consume, by the
beliefs that you hold versus your home
and family life directly. Um but I've
been really lucky in so far that I've
had this very unique partnership through
the course of my life that has
constantly evolved and we always have
had kind of different roles. So like
obviously when I was three, she was my
mom. So she was taking me to the
playground and I think she really
optimized for play and she optimized for
optionality. So she put me into
everything. Like I'm literally talking
about everything.
Like ballet, piano, archery because I
had an archery phase cuz I was really
into dystopian novels and I thought that
this was going to be like a skill that I
was really going to need. So archery,
basketball, soccer, cross-country
skiing. I did math camp. I did science
camp. I did singing lessons against my
will. There were lots of things, right?
And so, the point being that when I was
younger, she really gave me the full
spread so that when I was older and when
I knew myself better and when I was
responsible to make those decisions, I
could make an informed one having tried
all the options. So, when I was young,
she gave me the choices. And then when I
was a little bit older, she gave me the
freedom to make the choice. And I think
that responsibility that she she really
entrusted me with from a somewhat young
age, I think that was critical and
really fundamental.
Um a lot of people make the incorrect
assumption that she's a tiger mom and I
think the tiger mom definition is that,
you know, it's like a helicopter parent
that pilots you and like forces you to
do various things. She was in many ways
the opposite of that where she just
vigorously provided me with freedom and
agency and like enforced my freedom
really intensely and that was like the
effect of her tiger mom. So, so that was
kind of like the parenting thesis and
then as I got older, I keep calling us
co-founders cuz I really think that's
like the best way to encapsulate our
partnership. We travel together every
day. We live together. We work together.
We develop together. We change together.
We evolve. And
she is she has a science background. So,
neither of us really knows how to, you
know, it's my first time living. She
hasn't worked in these industries
before. And so, we're both just figuring
it out day by day. We come in with
unique perspectives and most importantly
a respect for one another. We have
dialogue that is respectful, that is
critical, that is conducive, that is
productive. And often times we will
start from kind of two different points
where we disagree.
And then we will debate debate debate
debate converge debate debate debate and
then end up on opposite ends. So, like I
will have the opinion that she started
with and then she'll have the opinion
that I started with. And then we will
have to repeat the the where we debate
debate debate and go back to our
original premises. So, I think if
anything, that just illustrates um that
she really gave me the freedom to find
out who I am and to really support me
and to guide me in ways that make sense.
And at the same time to to grow beside
me. She's also living for the first
time. She is a unique person who um is
more than just the role of mom. And so,
to kind of grow with her as we both come
into adulthood or I guess as I am in
adulthood and she continues in
adulthood. Um
but kind of like growing together and
there's something really exciting and
really fun about that. And to do it with
my mom, who's someone who I, you know,
trust entirely, who's known me my whole
life, who um
wants nothing but the best for me, I
think that's a unique privilege that I'm
really grateful to have.
>> I want to say of
yes, please.
>> [applause]
>> I just want to say how amazing a mother
you have. And Madam Blue, I want to say
how amazing a daughter you have.
Um
you know,
not not everybody finds themselves in
such circumstances where there is a
supportive parent
who is able, willing to give the time,
the care,
or a coach of access to facilities,
which means that if somebody has the
potential, but doesn't have the building
conditions, it can be very difficult for
the individual to find himself or
herself.
What advice or what insights might you
share with individuals who find
themselves in these situations and how
might you encourage them?
>> Sure. Um
I'm not good at skiing because I'm good
at doing double corks. I'm good at
skiing
because I know how to learn. And because
I'm resilient in the face of failure,
and because in moments of doubt, I know
which threads to pull on and how to
manipulate my own intuition to guide me
in the direction that I want to go.
My point is that skills are
transferable. So, many of us will often
find ourselves in situations where it's
our first time doing something, and it
is not the hard skill that is
necessarily the one that defines us.
It's the ability and our intrinsic
qualities and values and skill set that
we bring into the situation that allows
us to adapt and shape a situation to our
will.
Um, and so I think what's important to
remember is like
going into it, you know,
I've never done this sport before, or
I've never raised my hand in class
before, or I've, you know, never sat
next to this person at lunch before.
Yeah, but have you talked to a person?
Have you ever done something that made
you nervous? Yes. So, these are all
skills that you can apply to new
situations, and so that's why I always
come back to this point of it's so
important to know who you are, because
that's your toolkit. Your toolkit is not
the set of hard skills that you acquire
over the course of your life, although
those are obviously very helpful and
can, you know, continue to inform the
conditions that make you who you are.
Um, but to know what you come into a
situation with, because
our strength is
are the differences that we have, and
that's what makes any situation unique
and interesting, because everybody has a
different perspective, everybody has a
different toolkit. So, the better you
know what you have, the more you can
actually provide value for any situation
that you're in. Um,
because you want to provide, you want to
make something better, and only you can
do it, because only you have those
skills. So, um,
yeah, I think that everybody has
inherent value irrespective of kind of
the the you know,
bedrock or the foundations from which
they rose.
>> Um, it's a good segue. Um, you know,
we've been talking about systems of
support, um, but also discovering the
oneself, one's skills, developing one's
own toolkit, and so forth.
Um,
but if if we can help design an
ecosystem that is to support the next
generation,
what might that ecosystem look like?
What are the elements of an ecosystem
um, can be designed to help other people
succeed?
>> A few things. Um,
I think one is mutual respect. That's
really, really important for anything to
succeed. Two, and that extends beyond
just like the right for someone to
exist, but it's also like genuinely
giving space for someone's input and
perspective, and not holding a value
system for whose voice is louder than
someone else, whose opinions are more
important than someone else. Everybody
has something unique to say and to
provide, and so I think bringing that
student mentality into every interaction
you have, and really trying to say,
"Okay, what can I learn from this
encounter?" I think that's really
important. Um, secondly, I think
curiosity is really important. So, just
always holding a microscope to to all
the things in life, and coming back to
the point in AI, like that's a great
tool to have to enable curiosity, and to
really just, you know, superpower it.
And and so I think that's super
important. The third is probably
resilience, and, you know, no skill is
objectively difficult because on a two
different days, I can be equally
stressed about going to dinner and doing
a trick that I've never done before. And
it depends on probably how much sleep I
got, how resilient I feel. It's more
about how well prepared I feel I can
deal with any adversity. And so the
higher our tolerance, our threshold, our
resilience generally is, I think that
it's like our having a higher tolerance
for life, I think is generally a good
skill to have.
Um and then of course community. And and
community is more than just, you know,
people who you like and who you feel,
you know, care about you and who you
care about. But it's also what helps you
craft legacy because more than anything
your impact on the world is probably
most profound on the people who are
closest to you. And and so that I think
is really important. And I think about
legacy as like an inflection point. So
like you can map, okay, this is where
this person happened and after that
everything became easier or everything
started moving faster or um
after that, you know, the the people who
followed or the people around them were
positively affected in some way and
everybody else was then able to become a
better version of themselves. That is
kind of like the general philosophy that
I subscribe to. Um so yeah, I think
those would be kind of like my my
founding principles.
>> Great. Um you know, this is the Karim
Family Foundation Inspiring Women
Leadership Series and in many
conversations that I've had um
pertaining to women leadership, one of
the questions that's often asked is this
and I I will ask the question of you as
well. And that is um very often we have
someone in our lives who advocate for
us,
who open the doors for us, who help us
um with our path. Sometimes we are
fortunate enough to have more than that
one person.
Um we know your mother has been
fantastic and done so much for you. Is
there anyone else who's advocated for
you that you think has made a difference
for you? And now that you're in a
position perhaps to advocate for others,
um what do you think you might do with
that?
Okay, definitely my mom. I'm just going
to have to reiterate that.
>> [laughter]
>> Can never reiterate that enough.
I think I'll tell a little story and I
think it's an it's a small anecdote, but
it really captures the spirit of
something that I believe strongly in.
When I was 7 or 8, I started in a ski
team. I was the only girl on my team.
And it's important to note that I was
also attending an all-girls school at
this time. So, from age 4 to 13, I was
at an all-girls institution. So, Monday
to Friday, I was only with girls. And
then on the weekends, I was only with
boys. So, it was like this alien
environment. I had no idea what was
going on. I It was like I I wanted to
fit in was the most important thing. I
wanted to have friends and I wanted to
build community. That was like
intuitively what I wanted to do, but I
didn't know how to do it. It's like this
alien species. What's going on?
Um and so, my coach at the time,
he would set up these games in skiing.
And it would be little things, you know,
who can slide this rail? And if you
slide the rail, you get a pack of gummy
bears or a sticker or a dollar.
And through the power of sport, you
start, you know, punching each other on
the shoulder and you're like, "Oh, okay.
Well, I did it last week, so you have to
go first this time." Or um "No, watch
me. I got it. Like this is, you know, my
time." And then everyone would line up
next to the rail. And I remember so
specifically the very first time that
anybody on our ski team slid a rail, we
were we were all like lined up next to
the rail and they were like, "Okay." The
coach said, "Okay, who wants to go
first? You get a sticker."
And I remember in that moment I was
like, "I will go first. It will be me."
And everyone's like, "Ah."
You know, "Oh my gosh." And so, I I hike
up to the top of the rail. Everyone's
holding their breath and I literally
remember it like it was yesterday. I go
and I slide the rail. It was good.
Everyone's just ecstatic, okay?
Everyone's clapping, they're cheering.
We're like a massive little huddle of
just, you know, eight-year-old bodies
wearing hoodies that are way too big for
us, you know, past our knees. And in
that moment I was like, "Wow, this is
what it feels like to to be included, to
belong." Because I'm being uplifted by
people who I care about and respect, but
who are also my peer group, and we are
improving together. Because by the end
of the day, everyone, of course, had
slid the rail. But what's important, I
think, from that is that competition is
about pushing each other to be better,
and it's about feeling empowered to try.
And so much of it is about not being
afraid to be the first, not being afraid
to fail, and being willing to celebrate
when other people also achieve success.
So, it's uplifting other people
alongside you and using competition
through, you know, through my example,
it's sport, but it could be any avenue
in life, to uplift yourself and to bring
other people with you, and to celebrate
when people surpass you, because it
means that there's more opportunity and
more excitement and more engagement and
more opportunity for you to rise up even
more. So, um the it's really important,
I think, to take this idea of like
sportsmanship with you.
>> Um you know, as you were speaking, it
struck me that um
it
it takes a particular kind of
confidence, if you will, to um
want to be in a competition and to be
better than someone else, or to better
to be better than yourself. And on this
question of building confidence, you've
you've talked about how
um
creating your own pond, rather than
competing in crowded ones, is uh that
there is a wisdom to that. I wonder if
you'd elaborate on that and share your
thoughts with your audience.
>> Sure, yeah. I think to my point on like
the anecdote, you sometimes need someone
to give you the platform or the
confidence to try,
um to say, "Hey, how about you or you
know, I'm giving you the opportunity to
rise up. So so that's one but I think as
far as creating your own pond what I
meant by that is
I'm going to take kind of like a woman's
angle here because given it's also where
that's kind of one of our themes for for
the discussion today. I think that now
is a really interesting time to be a
young woman because we have more career
opportunities, more educational
opportunities, more family
opportunities, more support than anytime
in history. And what that means is that
there is more space for us in places
that have historically felt maybe a
little competitive. And what I think
that's interesting because you hear this
phenomenon a lot of like there's one
woman in the boardroom meeting or
there's you know, one woman on the ski
team and what that breeds is this sense
of like okay, there's only space for one
of us and so by default my competition
is all women ever but I want to reverse
that and and think about there's
actually more seats in the room than one
and so the competition is very rarely
other people. The competition is just
yourself to be good enough to earn and
to provide value and to earn that seat
to to be good enough to be there but
it's not about beating other people.
It's about uplifting the entire
community so that every single person
ends up being better in the way that a
rising tide raises all ships and so I
want to think about kind of healthy
competition and in many ways no
competition at all because there's only
one of you and only one person has the
perspective and history and skillset
that I mentioned earlier. And that's
you. And every single person has unique
value and so the question is how can you
be the best version of yourself so that
you can provide the most value and help
the most people and tell the most
interesting and relevant stories to to
inflict that legacy point. And so in a
lot of ways, the whole pond metaphor of
like, am I a big fish in a small pond or
a small fish in a big pond? Stop looking
at the other fish. It doesn't matter are
there other fish or not? Are they like
the fish even exist, right? Like we
don't care. Be your own fish and you can
be a pretty fish. You can be a shiny
fish. You can be a little fish. You can
be a vegetarian fish. You can be a
whatever kind of fish you want to be,
right? So I think that's a much more
interesting and productive conversation
than looking around and seeing what
other fish are in the pond with you.
>> You know, um there are just so many
questions that I could ask, but I am
mindful of the time. So I'm going to
give this last question to one of our
students.
Um and this is Weixin Seto, who is uh
the class of 2027 BBM.
And she says, if you could ask yourself,
sorry, if you could ask one question to
your future self, what question would it
be?
>> Ooh.
Only one?
>> [sighs and gasps]
>> What
inputs or what things did you observe
that you felt were the most productive
in finding the path
that you cared about most?
So I think a lot of the time it's easy
to follow direction or momentum.
Actually working working hard is hard,
but working hard is not as hard as
finding the right direction. So you can
like work really hard and bang on a wall
and that does very little, whereas
learning what the route is so you can
walk around the wall is much more
productive. So I want to learn the
direction and then work hard in that
direction. So I already trust in my
ability to work intensely um and
rigorously. And so, I think what's
probably more productive for me is
knowing what to observe and what inputs
to give value to so that I can move in
the right direction.
>> That's wonderful. Um ladies and
gentlemen, we have covered so much
ground in a short time. Um you know,
testimony to Eileen's intellect as well
as her experience in life despite being
23 years old. We've covered, you know,
everything from how we can train oneself
both physically as well as
intellectually, training the mind and
the body. We've talked about how AI
actually can be a positive rather than
um something to fear. We've talked about
the importance of mutual respect, of
curiosity, of resilience, of community,
and the sense of inclusion and belonging
in our journeys in life.
And we've talked about how competition
is not necessarily that ugly thing where
we're out at each other's throats, but
that it is about feeling empowered to
try. It is about pushing each other to
be better so that as a community, we are
better.
And it is perhaps uplifting for the
entire community where a rising tide as
to use Eileen's words can raise all
boats.
And
the one thing I've learned, there is
such a thing as a vegetarian fish.
>> [laughter]
>> Algae. Right?
>> Yes.
You're right. Actually, maybe all fish
are vegeta- I don't know. Okay, they're
not all vegetarian.
>> Not all [laughter] fish.
>> Um wonderful. I would like to invite the
audience in this hall that has been a
tremendously
attentive audience to join me in
thanking Eileen in this wonderful
conversation.
>> [applause]
[applause]
>> You've got a little fan there.
The little girl stand up again and wave.
Eileen's going to wave at you.
>> Hi cutiepie.
>> Wonderful. Thank you once again for
spending the time with us. We're very
grateful for the time that you've given
to us and the you know many thoughts
that you shared very candidly with us.
I'm going to hand back to Jasmine who
will
lead us through the next segment.
>> Thank you so much Eileen and Professor
Cong Claire. Please give them another
round of applause.