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I was a maths minor and dropped out of a MSc in Applied Maths. I took many courses that would be considered advanced by most, such as Stochastic Calculus, Parti

by doozy 10y ago

I was a maths minor and dropped out of a MSc in Applied Maths. I took many courses that would be considered advanced by most, such as Stochastic Calculus, Partial Differential Equations, Multivariate Statistics, Time Series Econometrics, etc. But I left academia over a decade ago, and have never used any of that. I have, however, used a few things above 8th grade maths, such as linear algebra, regression analysis, and some basic numerical analysis. I used once a FFT. All in all the author is spot on. And I believe an advanced degree in maths is not a legitimate requirement for anything but a handful of positions, and most of those aren't particularly desirable. I still remember fondly my days studying Baby Rudin, though. Definitely one of the courses that made an impact in my education. But in hindsight, it's been as useful in my career as my study of Latin.

vidbina 10y ago
I use Latin quite frequently to infer the meaning of words in a number of languages including but not limited to English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Quite oddly, I'm generally not even aware that I'm inferring meaning of a word by simply studying the roots. In that sense I'm quite grateful for being taught a limited portion of its fundamentals while in high-school. All I am saying is that we may use certain bits of knowledge or certain dormant skills without our awareness to their utilisation. All of our former experiences help us shape intuition, the same intuition which we may use to make decisions in seemingly unrelated fields. I have therefore become somewhat careful in dismissing a skill, domain of knowledge or lesson for apparent lack of use. The human brain is a fascinating machine; even while we sleep ideas and solutions take shape and who's to say which information is used to form those mental artefacts?

by doozy 10y ago

vidbina 10y ago

I use Latin quite frequently to infer the meaning of words in a number of languages including but not limited to English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Quite oddly, I'm generally not even aware that I'm inferring meaning of a word by simply studying the roots. In that sense I'm quite grateful for being taught a limited portion of its fundamentals while in high-school. All I am saying is that we may use certain bits of knowledge or certain dormant skills without our awareness to their utilisation. All of our former experiences help us shape intuition, the same intuition which we may use to make decisions in seemingly unrelated fields. I have therefore become somewhat careful in dismissing a skill, domain of knowledge or lesson for apparent lack of use. The human brain is a fascinating machine; even while we sleep ideas and solutions take shape and who's to say which information is used to form those mental artefacts?