The Joy of Intellectuals

Minh-Hoang Nguyen

HCM, 02-07-2026

Mehtab’s email

A few days ago, a PhD student named Mehtab Danaei from Alzahra University in Tehran, Iran, reached out to my mentor, Prof. Quan-Hoang Vuong, seeking advice and support in developing his doctoral dissertation.

The research question that fascinates him concerns the process through which suicidal ideation forms and persists among Iranian adolescents (13–18 years old). He hopes to employ Mindsponge Theory and Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics to develop a culturally adapted (hybrid) model for suicide prevention within a Middle Eastern and Islamic sociocultural context.

My mentor entrusted me with supporting him. Through our discussions, I could immediately tell that Mehtab is both intellectually humble and highly observant. It is precisely this keen observational ability that allowed him to recognize the limitations of applying Western-centric suicide prevention protocols in Iran. He realized that such approaches do not always align with the country’s unique cultural, social, religious, and educational realities, highlighting the need for a prevention protocol specifically tailored to the Iranian context.

This is an exceptionally ambitious research agenda. It requires the researcher to grapple with profound philosophical questions concerning the ontology of suicide, the epistemology of suicide assessment, and the methodology for investigating and developing effective prevention protocols. To carry such a project through to completion demands an extraordinary level of commitment, perseverance, and intellectual direction.

For that reason, I am more than willing to help Mehtab develop the research framework and discuss the theoretical and methodological questions he encounters, particularly because the theory and analytical framework he intends to use fall within my own area of expertise. I sincerely hope that he will be able to carry this project forward successfully and produce meaningful research outcomes.

Supporting Mehtab has also brought me a quiet sense of happiness. Knowing that I am able to help someone living far away, whose daily life is overshadowed by uncertainty and the consequences of war, gives me a peace of mind. It is not the kind of joy that makes one laugh aloud, but rather a quiet satisfaction that settles deep within, leaving the mind feeling lighter and more at ease.

Perhaps this is what society truly expects from intellectuals—not the pursuit of personal glory, wealth, titles, or using prestige to intimidate others, but the willingness to share knowledge where it is most needed [1]. And it is certainly not like Kingfisher in Bird Village, who tried so desperately to manufacture “innovation” merely to impress and intimidate the young Belted Kingfisher seeking directions, only to end up turning himself into nothing more than “a circus clown”—a rather tragic outcome for someone so determined to appear “innovative” [2,3].

References

[1] Vuong, Q.-H., Nguyen, M.-H. (2025). Developing Bayesian probabilistic reasoning capacity in HSS disciplines: Qualitative evaluation on bayesvl and BMF analytics for ECRs. arXiv, arXiv:2601.06038. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.06038

[2] Vuong, Q. H. (2024). Innovation. Wild Wise Weird. http://books.google.com/books/about?id=FUTvEQAAQBAJ

[3] Nguyen, M.-H. (2026). Ayn Rand and Kingfisher on zero-carbon bombs and a sustainable future. Visions for Sustainability, 25, 13474, 327-339. http://dx.doi.org/10.13135/2384-8677/13474