Re:Marvin Minsky: What makes mathematics hard to learn? (2008)
by cmrdporcupine on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @11:22AM
(#10974157)
I failed math all through elementary school but somehow got into this industry despite that. The reality is I'm terrible at arithmetic, but fine at what most of CS is: logic in the form of boolean logic, symbolic stuff. As a kid I was much better with the symbolic than the arithmetic -- which I almost always got _wrong_. My brain stumbles over numbers. I'm terrible at it. I feel like my childhood education did a horrible disservice to me telling me I'm terrible at math, when I'm really just terrible (to the point of what I think might be a physical disability) with numbers.
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Re:Marvin Minsky: What makes mathematics hard to learn? (2008)
by TheOtherHobbes on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @08:10PM
(#10977536)
Some academic mathematicians are terrible at arithmetic.
There's no correlation at all between being able to add up a grocery bill in your head and being good at abstraction.
My accountant is very good at mental arithmetic. I don't expect him to win the Fields Medal any time soon.
This is more relevant than it should be. Too many people leave school thinking math is mental arithmetic, and have no idea what symbolic manipulation is, or why it's useful.