Chapter 7: Core Advantage
Cherry Spring National Park is known as New York’s best stargazing spot, but in reality it’s not in New York State, but in Pennsylvania, and it takes about four hours to drive there and back.
On the way back, Lin Ran had already sorted out his thoughts almost clearly.
Whether in 1960 or 2020, his biggest advantage is the information gap.
All kinds of information gaps.
From major global events like Kennedy’s assassination to technical details like the Apollo spaceship escape tower using a solid fuel rocket.
The Apollo spaceship escape tower uses bundled small solid fuel rockets, somewhat like the skyrockets we played with as kids, correcting the trajectory in an explosive ignition instant, simple and reliable but low precision.
Large and small information gaps constitute his core advantage.
Much of what was core secret information at the time has long been declassified by 2020 today, becoming publicly accessible information in libraries for historians to study.
And 1960 has a large information gap with respect to 2020 as well.
For example, manned moon landing which America itself cannot replicate now—if he could participate throughout, does that mean he knows all the large and small technical details intimately, and could replicate the manned moon landing feat in 2020 spacetime?
But information gap isn’t something you can utilize just by saying so.
Especially the overt information gap and the information needed in actual operation—there will be a distance between them, and this distance is what is called historical distortion.
There are many reasons for historical distortion, such as historians being influenced by personal bias, emotion, political stance, or cultural background, leading to subjective or biased descriptions of events.
Or historical recorders might only rely on limited information sources, which may be incomplete, inaccurate, or tampered with.
It also includes historical recorders being unable to experience events firsthand, relying only on second-hand information or rumors to describe events, which may have been transmitted multiple times, leading to information distortion.
Excavating history from the hands of event eyewitnesses is the best way to utilize the information gap effectively.
“Being a big scientist in 1960 and a history porter in 2020—in the starting phase, this is by no means a bad shortcut,” Lin Ran thought.
And the business he did in the past can provide him help now and in the future as well.
In other words, in the top 300 universities globally, he can find acquaintances in his WeChat contacts.
In Lin Ran’s view, these can all become part of his information gap, and in the future if he wants to start a business, plenty of talent can be selected from them.
After the brain evolves, the traits shown by each person in conversations with him are vividly clear.
“But if returning to 1960 now, the Fabian Society is a good entry point,” Lin Ran thought. “This matter still needs long-term planning, and later I need to have a good chat with Sister Xiao Man. If possible, best to borrow the Fabian Society badge left by her grandfather, though I don’t know if it’s easy to borrow.”
The client on the video is the daughter of his mother’s best friend, the kind of client he absolutely can’t refuse.
But acquaintances are acquaintances, business is business, and the consultation fee still needs to be charged.
After he sorted out his thoughts, a Word document image appeared in the shared Zoom video conference on the computer screen:
“Basic information: Female, Chinese doctoral supervisor, U.S. News Top 10 Assistant Professor
Bottom-tier 211 undergraduate, USNews Top10 PhD + Postdoc.
Academic homepage: 30+ Publications.
Research direction: New materials, composite materials
Hosting 2 NIH sponsored projects”
The basic information is sparse; Lin Ran scanned it in one glance, and he already had an answer in mind.
U.S. News Top 10 Assistant Professor means assistant professor at a top 10 university nationwide.
NIH refers to America’s National Institutes of Health, similar to China’s Academy of Medical Sciences; for a newcomer, getting funding from NIH is not easy, let alone her having two projects funded by NIH.
“Aside from the bottom-tier 211 undergraduate, it’s an almost perfect resume. A female Chinese doctoral supervisor might indeed have a preference for Chinese descent females; similar backgrounds may lead her to empathize more with your situation and needs.”
A few short sentences immediately built initial trust with the client on the video, because she had included this mentor at the top priority for her PhD applications due to the same considerations, and just recently got an offer from her.
“But~” Lin Ran drew out his tone. The client clearly bit: “But what?”
Having provided study abroad consultation to countless clients, Lin Ran had developed a mature script framework; it was too normal for her to bite—pursuing a PhD is a long haul of time and energy for anyone, in a sense a gamble.
Since it’s a gamble, spending two thousand for off-field assistance is not expensive at all.
This price rose from two hundred all the way to two thousand, relying on both information gap and precise grasp of client psychology.
“But she might be an academic succubus.
She completed her PhD at a USNews top 10 university, then did postdoc, and stayed on as assistant professor after. For her to go straight from a bottom-tier 211 undergraduate to a US top 10 university, there are only two possibilities. First, her academic strength is truly very strong—GPA alone isn’t enough; she must have produced sufficient achievements during undergraduate. The second is that the teacher was very appreciative of her.
Then looking at her publication situation, over 30 publications—for an assistant professor at a North America top 10 university in materials, this number is obviously insufficient.
Similarly, only two situations: first, she is relatively young; second, his papers have very high value.
So she needed very strong academic ability during undergraduate, showing immense talent, and then produced very high-value achievements during PhD and postdoc—both indispensable.
With such talent, yet only getting into a 211 undergraduate, is that possible? Yes, but quite small.
So I guess the possibility of her being an academic succubus is a bit higher.”
The beautiful client in the video blinked her big eyes, eyelashes as if asking what an academic succubus is.
“Simply put, using beauty to gain appreciation from a big shot, who then carries her to ascension. Having a beauty to eye-candy in the laboratory is also a good thing.
If so, if you go, you’ll only be squeezed out and suppressed, unable to access her biggest resource, namely the big shot who carried her.
Since the big shot can give her resources because of her beauty, he might similarly give you resources because of your beauty; to exclude that possibility, she will deliberately suppress you.”
The other party first blushed because the other praised her looks, then felt worry from Lin Ran’s proposed possibility: “Then what to do?”
The reason she believed half was first because Lin Ran was indeed somewhat famous in Jiaotong University or the entire Shanghai university circle for this line of work, and second because she knew some hidden information, knowing that this female Chinese doctoral supervisor was indeed quite alluring at her age.
“Can you show me the mentor’s specific information.” Lin Ran asked.
The other party switched the interface to the mentor’s academic homepage.
Looking at the mentor’s personal homepage again, Lin Ran was mostly convinced inwardly—his guess was indeed correct: “Um, this mentor started recruiting students from last year, and has two students under her. If I remember correctly, a senior I advised before went to her for PhD.
How about I make a telephone call to ask?”
One call later, the senior brother on the phone started pouring out bitterness: “Don’t even start, New Year’s Day they gave us just one day off, what a rip-off. This mentor just knows to rub elbows at various academic conferences; sees others publish in top journals, thinks that direction might be a new hotspot, and makes us track it.
Under her, there’s just me and another guy; we’ve been assigned over ten hotspots to track. She doesn’t guide core work at all, hotspots come one after another—now I don’t even browse Weibo anymore; seeing Weibo hotspots gives me a headache.
Every time asking about core work, it’s ‘go ask your doctoral supervisor’; am I supervised by her or is she supervising her own doctoral supervisor? If so, why not communicate directly with her doctoral supervisor?
General Manager Lin, all I can say is cherish life, stay away from Chinese female doctoral supervisors—one and all are pitfalls. Every one I’ve contacted who followed a Chinese female doctoral supervisor complains. When applying for PhD, be extremely cautious. I had no choice, got lured by the North America top 10 name, knowingly heading toward the tiger mountain.”
The complaint voice from the speaker crossed the Pacific Ocean to the distant shore; the other party’s face changed instantly—good thing she paid for consultation, or she’d fall into the pit without realizing.
After the call ended, Lin Ran said: “So, junior sister, I’ll push this senior brother’s WeChat to you later; you can chat with him in detail about the specifics.”
This dispelled her last concerns.
If not pushing WeChat, there’d be possibility of hiring someone to fabricate; pushing WeChat makes faking too costly.
“Two thousand secured, but now how to chat with Sister Xiao Man next—really a headache.” Lin Ran sighed deeply after exiting the video conference.
