Must maintain the style

Lin Yuan still trained at the educational institution for two days, and naturally, in just two days, he wasn't trained on how to teach.

If one were to summarize the content of these two days of training, in a nutshell: one must maintain a high-class image.

More importantly, the educational institution, after seeing his graduate entrance exam scores, didn't even ask him for his admission letter.

Lin Yuan then realized: high-end tutoring institutions seem to have their own network of contacts in major universities, and it seems they all conduct background checks. That is to say, even if he had presented his admission letter, the other party would most likely still have done a background check.

Lin Yuan immediately felt fortunate, 'Good thing I didn't overdo it.'

Lin Yuan also learned from the educational institution: with the state's crackdown on the education and training industry, large tutoring institutions were hit hard, which ironically benefited smaller institutions like theirs.

This institution operates under the guise of talent training and no longer offers offline, centralized tutoring classes. Instead, it has started offering small-group, in-home instruction.

For a time, current students from several prestigious schools in Zijin City became highly sought after.

Compared to the immaturity of undergraduates, graduate students who had undergone the baptism of the postgraduate entrance examination were naturally more popular.

And the top two 985 universities in Zijin City were Zijin University and Fangxiang University.

Learning in these schools is very competitive, and the academic demands at the graduate level are far beyond what they are at the undergraduate level, so few graduate students have the energy to tutor.

Next were the six 211 universities in Zijin City.

Although they are all 211s, there is also a pecking order among them.

For example, Zijin's third-ranked—Zijin Aviation School. Relying on its strong aviation and aerospace specialized programs, it often feels indignant towards the two older brothers above it. It's almost as if it's saying, 'If you dare, come fight me in the sky.'

And Lin Yuan, as a prospective graduate student of Zijin Aviation School, was naturally quite popular.

More importantly, in the current era where AI is making strides and ChatGPT is exploding in the news, families with some assets always hope their children can access the latest technological information in society. Therefore, Lin Yuan's computer science background successfully added points for him.

Lin Yuan heard feedback from the institution that because he was a computer science major, he was much more popular than graduate students from Zijin University's mathematics or physics departments.

But in reality, Lin Yuan himself knew very well that graduate students from Zijin University's mathematics and physics departments should be much more valuable than himself.

Lin Yuan realized: a person doesn't necessarily get higher returns just because they are more valuable; ultimately, personal value is realized by meeting societal needs.

Taking the graduation salaries of various majors as an example, the computer industry has been popular for many years.

Lin Yuan once again felt the correctness of the computing power system.

Thankfully, he didn't let himself study a bland mathematics major.

Reality often contrasts with people's imaginations; in many people's minds, adhering to the idea that 'mathematics is the mother of natural sciences,' they feel that mathematics is very powerful and invincible.

However, statistical figures do not lie.

Lin Yuan was also curious and checked the salaries of mathematics graduates from various universities. On average, the mathematics department truly serves as a stepping stone for the computer science department. Because one only hears of mathematics majors transferring to computer science, not computer science majors transferring to mathematics.

So, the mathematics department is entirely: 'I recommend you study it, but I won't.'

Lin Yuan finally understood: the computer science major has a stronger tool-like attribute, while the mathematics major is too theoretical.

Engaging in theory is only for the cream of the crop, that tiny handful of people at the very top. With his current level, it's better to honestly focus on applications.

And for the general public, they understand even less about the intricacies of these tech-related things.

Technology is fair to everyone; understanding it or not has little to do with being rich or poor. It's about whether you are willing to learn and if you have a technological mindset.

Take the popular ChatGPT this year, for example; in reality, 99% of people in society don't understand it.

To quote the teacher responsible for attracting clients at that institution: 'Even if you explain the principles to those parents, they won't understand. Just adopt an attitude of 'you wouldn't understand even if I told you.' Do they buy designer bags and other luxury goods just because they are practical?'

At this, Lin Yuan suddenly saw the light.

It turns out the 'tutoring' industry has also become part of luxury consumption, and he himself has become the luxury item.

No wonder the institution emphasized—one must maintain a high-class image.

And the so-called maintaining a high-class image means never overly pandering to parents. Also, don't deliberately hide your poverty. You must exude the demeanor of a graduate student from a prestigious university.

Whether or not one can teach is not important; what's important is satisfying the emotional value of the client.

It's similar to the logic of buying a BBA nowadays.

So, Lin Yuan began his daily work routine in a high-end residential area at the foot of Zhongshan.

Lin Yuan, who wasn't nearsighted, even specially got a pair of glasses for this.

After taking off his yellow robe, Lin Yuan indeed looked like a scholar. As expected, 'people rely on clothes, horses rely on saddles.'

Lin Yuan had been to that residential area a few times when delivering takeout. The security guards at the gate would always confirm with the residents before opening the gate, and they would also require leaving an ID card and phone number, taking a photo of the delivery personnel for record, and setting a time limit for them to exit.

This time, Lin Yuan entered with a different identity and felt it was quite magical.

He still remembered the security guard at the gate, but the other party didn't remember him at all.

Lin Yuan was assigned to a small group science tutoring class for three fifth and sixth graders. The class location rotated among the three children's homes.

Although the summer vacation was not yet imminent and the semester was nearing its end, to Lin Yuan's surprise: the families of these three children didn't take the final exams seriously at all. To them, it was as if exams didn't even exist.

The content taught was not simply the math, physics, and chemistry Lin Yuan had originally expected.

On the first day of teaching there, all three parents were specially present. Their first request was, 'Teacher Lin, please tell the children more about your academic journey and university life. Also, talk to them about the history of technological development. For textbook material, just focus on the key points.'

Adhering to the principle of customer first, Lin Yuan let loose in his first class.

Simply because after he looked at the elementary school test papers, Lin Yuan felt: 'What in the damn hell is this?'

Considering the guidance of the computing power system and Lin Yuan's personal interests, he himself was more passionate about hands-on practice. And computer science is a subject that emphasizes practice. Therefore, Lin Yuan's view of the problems on the elementary school math papers was that they were 'damn hell.'

'This problem is deliberately setting a trap for you. How many flights of stairs did you climb from the first floor to the third floor? In the computer world, there's no starting from 1 at all; we're used to calling the first floor: Floor 0. Then the problem becomes: you climbed from Floor 0 to Floor 2, how many flights did you climb in total? Isn't that just two flights? Isn't the original problem just artificially increasing its own difficulty?'

'And this problem, it's playing a trick. The real purpose of understanding the problem is to cultivate your ability to extract abstract patterns from real-world things, not to deliberately complicate simple problems, deliberately mess up clear threads of yarn into a ball, and then throw it at you to untangle.

Rest assured. Anyone who dares to do this when writing code will definitely be kicked out.'

Although Lin Yuan had not participated in large software projects yet, he had read a lot of code from excellent open-source projects. He knew deeply: good design must be clear and logical.

Lin Yuan could only sigh, 'After so many years, why are you still experiencing everything we experienced back then?'

He finally understood why these parents didn't place so much importance on the final exams.

Anyway, the far-reaching middle and high school entrance exams were still a long way off, so why bother with 'gilding the lily' on elementary school courses.

Lin Yuan would come for half a day of class every Saturday or Sunday thereafter, with a class time of four hours, including time for bathroom breaks and snacks. These parents had even booked Lin Yuan's summer tutoring classes.

Thanks to his unconventional teaching style, Lin Yuan's hourly wage easily reached 200 yuan.

After two classes, Lin Yuan also gained some insights from chatting with these parents. They weren't entirely just burning money; they simply wanted their children to be exposed to knowledge beyond the classroom.

This made Lin Yuan even more aware: the biggest difference between people, perhaps, lies in environment and guidance.