信息论视角下的“从0到1”

December 1, 2025

信息论视角下的创新 0→1 vs 1→∞：游戏规则完全不同 创新为什么复制不了：过程本身就是价值 为什么 0→1 几乎一定需要又广又深的知识 关于 Peter Thiel 的”秘密” AI 到底能帮上什么忙？ 信息论视角下的创新 “从 0 到 1”这个词已经被说烂了，可 0→1 为什么就是比 1→∞ 难那么多？真正的创新，好像还需要一些看起来”不务正业”的广博知识。现在 AI 似乎什么都能做，它能不能迈出这最关键的”第一步”，也值得想一想。 换个角度，用信息论来看，这些问题其实有一个挺直观的解释。 在信息论里，熵衡量的是系统的不确定性。熵越高，越混乱、越难预测；熵越低，结构越清楚。 一个领域里所有可能的理论、技术路线和架构，可以看作一个巨大的假设空间。创新的过程，就是不断获取信息，把走不通的假设排除掉。 所以创新很少是突然冒出来的灵感，更像一个持续降低熵的过程，在迷雾里一点点摸出秩序。 0→1 vs 1→∞：游戏规则完全不同 要理解 0→1 为什么难，得先看它和 1→∞ 有什么不同。 当”1”已经存在，大家玩的是优化游戏。iPho…

0 to 1: An Information Theory Perspective

December 1, 2025

Information Theory and Innovation 0→1 vs 1→∞: Different Rules of the Game Why Innovation Cannot Be Copied: The Process Is the Value Why 0→1 Needs Both Breadth and Depth Peter Thiel’s “Secret” What AI Can (and Cannot) Help With Information Theory and Innovation “From 0 to 1” has become a cliché, but the questions behind it are still hard. Why is going from 0 to 1 so much harder than going from 1 to $\infty$? Real innovation also seems to need broad knowledge that can look like a distraction. And now that AI seems able to compute almost anything, it is fair to ask whether it can take this first step. Information theory gives a simple and intuitive way to…

不确定性和可微分成像

December 25, 2024

激光过敏 漫长的徘徊 理解的种子 不确定性的本质 代码不等于计算成像 从全息到成像 闭环 反思 参考文献 激光过敏 计算机本科毕业后，我转到光学工程读研究生，可身体好像不太适应这个新环境。每次进实验室，我都会恶心、头痛、头晕。这样过了好几个月也找不到原因，最后我得出一个结论：我一定是对激光过敏。 现在回头看，真相很简单，我只是缺少基础的光学知识。导师看出我的困难，就多给我分配计算方面的工作，尽量少让我做实验。但在光学工程里，实验是绕不开的。虽然又怕又难受，我还是只能硬着头皮去做。 难题一个接一个。首尔国立大学的安全规定不允许一个人做实验，可实验室离办公室很远，我又是组里唯一的女生，每次做实验通常都要提前约好三个人。在很多难熬的时刻里，有一个周末我记得特别清楚。我偷偷溜进实验室（我不是教大家违反学校的规定），本来想做一组简单的测量，结果把规格不对的螺丝拧进了光学平台，偏偏卡在光路的关键位置。公制和英制的螺丝混在了一起，我想尽办法也拧不出来。被实验室的黑窗帘围着，积压了很久的情绪一下子爆发，我一个人在只亮着一束红色激光的黑屋子里大哭，一…

Uncertainties and Differentiable Imaging

December 25, 2024

The Laser Allergy Years of Wandering Seeds of Understanding The Nature of Uncertainty Code Is Not Computational Imaging From Holography to Imaging Closing the Loop Looking Back References This post is also published in Nature Research Communities. You can access it via the link. The Laser Allergy After my BS in computer science, I switched to optical engineering for graduate school. My body did not seem to like the new place. Every time I walked into the lab, I felt sick, with headaches and dizziness. After months of this, I came to a conclusion. I must be allergic to lasers. The truth was simpler but just as hard. I did not have the basic optics knowledge that my classmates took…

Notes on Optical Experiments

January 12, 2024

Planar-convex lens alignment Reflection of metal Tubes Unwanted factors Reflection / refraction Aperture stop Planar-convex lens alignment Incident to planar incident to convex Reflection of metal Tubes Laser output Laser with tube Unwanted factors Reflection / refraction Sensor and glass substrate reflection Sensor glass reflection/refraction Aperture stop larger aperture smaller aperture

Be focused like a laser

November 22, 2023

“The power of focusing can be seen in light. Diffused light has little power or impact, but you can concentrate its energy by focusing it. With a magnifying glass, the rays of the sun can be focused to set grass or paper on fire. When light is focused even more as a laser beam, it can cut through steel.” This passage stopped me when I recently reread “The Purpose Driven Life”. A professor gave me the book 18 years ago, when I was a second-year undergraduate. Ideas we read long ago can sit quietly in the mind, like scattered light, until the right moment brings them into focus. What surprised me most was how far this passage had followed me…

새해를 맞으며

January 1, 2023

写在前面 师者之心 师承有脉 有教无类 克己复礼 性别平等 厚德载物 写在前面 2022 年 10 月，我躺在吉达 Fakeeh 医院的病床上，收到师兄发来的消息，说导师病危。我两只胳膊上全是输液留下的针眼，几乎动不了，还是摸索着拿起手机回邮件。从知道他做手术，到确认他去世，我一直盼着会有奇迹。11 月 7 日噩耗传来时，我正在吃止痛药，心里的痛和身上的痛搅在一起。之后我好几次想把这些写下来，可每次打开文档都哭得写不下去。对我来说，导师既像父亲，也是老师和朋友，是支撑我坚持理想主义的人。他的离开，加上生活里的种种变故，让我有一段时间精神恍惚，一直在坚持和放弃之间来回挣扎。今天，我终于有勇气把这些零乱的想法整理出来。 2024 年 4 月 28 日 @ Tucson 师者之心 我的导师 Byoungho Lee 教授是一位很有情怀的学者。他常在实验室网页的留言板上写东西，祝贺团队的研究成果，也聊生活里的小事，推荐读过的书和领域里的新动态。每年元旦写文章迎接新年，他从 2003 年一直坚持到 2021 年，从没中断。我的韩语不好，但总会查着字…

The Ideal Manager for Computational Imaging

December 10, 2022

Why the Field Is Cross-Disciplinary Optical Hardware Computation Signal and Image Processing Communication Keep Learning Building the Team References Computational imaging sits where optical hardware, algorithms and signal processing meet. I have worked in both computer science and optical engineering departments, and I have seen how this mix brings both good chances and real problems. One of the hardest problems is finding managers who can lead people across these fields. Why the Field Is Cross-Disciplinary In a traditional imaging system, the optics and the computation are designed separately. In computational imaging they are designed together. This takes more than putting experts in the same room. Someone has to understand how an optical choice changes what the computation needs, and the…