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I agree with this a lot. Math and statistics are just as valuable to individuals for the style of thinking and discipline, as they are for any particular result

by lmkg 17y ago

I agree with this a lot. Math and statistics are just as valuable to individuals for the style of thinking and discipline, as they are for any particular result. Just like the scientific method useful in any discipline making decisions based on evidence, even if you never need to drudge up those chemistry or physics equations. My degree is in mathematics. I'm an analyst so I work with numbers a lot, but I use nearly none of my "math background" in my line of work. I don't deal with limits or topologies or rings or primality or anything. Nonetheless, I still feel that my math background helps me a lot. Any time you're in the real world you have to work with intuition and experience and make a boatload of assumptions, and that's a perfectly reasonable way to make decisions if you're good at it. Math's precise, rigorous reasoning helps you challenge the soundness of your assumptions and your intuition, which is invaluable.

eru 17y ago
> [...] you have to work with intuition and experience [...] Yes, and you can also do exploratory math in this fashion. You just have to come back and prove everything eventually, if you want to be sure.
joe_the_user 17y ago
My degree is in math too. I think the article is bogus and kind of dangerous. Math is a matter of exact calculation. If the axioms are true, the premises will follow. Statistics seems like math but involves a group of hidden assumptions about "the world". It's crucial to know the difference between the two fields. Like mathematics, statistics offers an array of machinery producing results. Unlike mathematicians, statistician should be "gate keepers" as well as technicians. Ideally, a statistician should be there to say "just because you can your stock market data into a heat equation, it doesn't mean you should plug your stock market data in a heat equation". Unfortunately, the article seems to entirely neglect this aspect except in banalities that a non-math person would be entirely incapable of applying ("dig deeper" won't help you if you don't know why normal distributions matter and why not everything is normal).
gxs 17y ago
You know, I studied math in school for the same reason. When I was in middle school taking geometry, I blurted out to my teacher, pft, I will never use this crap anyway. She pulled me aside and said, no, not this specifically, but as you grow it will help you develop your mind and your critical thinking. I took it to heart, and years later I am a math major. I'm not especially bright. But I majored in math because I've always felt like the benefits of a math major are beyond the obvious. Like you stated, it gives you a framework for problem solving. More importantly, it forces you to reason your way through long solutions. It forces you to approach problems from different angles and also, in my opinion, increases the size of your buffer (?). In other words, you hold a lot of info in your head as you work through problems and that helps too. It stretches your brain. Thinking critically, like anything, is just another skill. What better way to get at it than using it everyday for 4 years? No, I've never used my math background to balance my checkbook. Hell, even as an analyst now I use my ppt skills more than anything putting decks together for clients. Getting through the math dept at my school was a bitch. I have very little natural talent. Even then, I wouldn't have it any other way.

by lmkg 17y ago

eru 17y ago

> [...] you have to work with intuition and experience [...] Yes, and you can also do exploratory math in this fashion. You just have to come back and prove everything eventually, if you want to be sure.

joe_the_user 17y ago

My degree is in math too. I think the article is bogus and kind of dangerous. Math is a matter of exact calculation. If the axioms are true, the premises will follow. Statistics seems like math but involves a group of hidden assumptions about "the world". It's crucial to know the difference between the two fields. Like mathematics, statistics offers an array of machinery producing results. Unlike mathematicians, statistician should be "gate keepers" as well as technicians. Ideally, a statistician should be there to say "just because you can your stock market data into a heat equation, it doesn't mean you should plug your stock market data in a heat equation". Unfortunately, the article seems to entirely neglect this aspect except in banalities that a non-math person would be entirely incapable of applying ("dig deeper" won't help you if you don't know why normal distributions matter and why not everything is normal).

gxs 17y ago

You know, I studied math in school for the same reason. When I was in middle school taking geometry, I blurted out to my teacher, pft, I will never use this crap anyway. She pulled me aside and said, no, not this specifically, but as you grow it will help you develop your mind and your critical thinking. I took it to heart, and years later I am a math major. I'm not especially bright. But I majored in math because I've always felt like the benefits of a math major are beyond the obvious. Like you stated, it gives you a framework for problem solving. More importantly, it forces you to reason your way through long solutions. It forces you to approach problems from different angles and also, in my opinion, increases the size of your buffer (?). In other words, you hold a lot of info in your head as you work through problems and that helps too. It stretches your brain. Thinking critically, like anything, is just another skill. What better way to get at it than using it everyday for 4 years? No, I've never used my math background to balance my checkbook. Hell, even as an analyst now I use my ppt skills more than anything putting decks together for clients. Getting through the math dept at my school was a bitch. I have very little natural talent. Even then, I wouldn't have it any other way.