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When I was in grade school I really enjoyed math, and was really good at it. But some time around the beginning of college I hit a wall and started to resent ma
by mnutt 8y ago
When I was in grade school I really enjoyed math, and was really good at it. But some time around the beginning of college I hit a wall and started to resent math. I was supposed to be good at this stuff!
I hope I never find myself in that spot with software. This talk has the right mindset that it's possible to figure out just about anything if you dig deep enough, but a) you have to put in the work to dig, and b) there's seemingly infinite depth so we have to keep a humble and open mind.
- prevedmedved 8y agoYou were lied to. The stuff you were exposed to in grade school wasn't math. In America you don't get exposed to real math until junior year in college, even in STEM degrees.
- 0x445442 8y agoNot sure why you got down votes for this because you speak the truth. It reminds me of a time when I was in a lower division Physics class and the professor announced to the class that calculators would not be allowed during the test. Since most of the class was made up of engineering students there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But the professor explained that calculators wouldn't be needed because if there was any numbers at all in the answers they'd be trivial to calculate. This came as quite a shock to a lot of students who'd been equating math with numerical operations.
- mnutt 8y agoProbably downvoted for making hyperbolic generalizations? Also, your anecdote about kids feeling more comfortable on calculators has nothing to do with what is or isn’t math, and comes off as another kids-these-days story.
- mnutt 8y agoThe standardized tests were god-awful and the curriculums were hit-or-miss, but I meant that I liked math itself. I think it began when my parents got me a book called “I Hate Mathematics”.