Re:Common False Beliefs in Mathematics
by Dove on Monday June 07, 2010 @01:13AM
(#1409918)
Yeah. Don't feel bad. I have a graduate degree in pure math, and my comprehension level is only about 30%.
Math is an extremely fractured field at a high level. And so much of it requires getting your head around new and difficult concepts, you can't translate between subfields well.
Someone who speaks fluent Java stands a decent chance of decoding reasonably compex C++ or Ruby or whatever. I mean, some languages are way, way out there, but once you've been around the block a couple times, it's all just code.
Not so in math. A professional geometer talking to someone who does PDEs or complex analysis or topology . . . they have nothing in common. And it would take any of them years of study to close the gap.
Math is an extremely fractured field at a high level. And so much of it requires getting your head around new and difficult concepts, you can't translate between subfields well.
Someone who speaks fluent Java stands a decent chance of decoding reasonably compex C++ or Ruby or whatever. I mean, some languages are way, way out there, but once you've been around the block a couple times, it's all just code.
Not so in math. A professional geometer talking to someone who does PDEs or complex analysis or topology . . . they have nothing in common. And it would take any of them years of study to close the gap.