4 ms·

I really wish Hollywood never talked about mathematics ever again.

pm90 8y ago
Why is that? I agree its somewhat disingenuous, and not representative of how mathematics is really done (most of which regular people would probably find pretty un-exciting and mundane). But it does increase visibility about those things. Instead of John Nash being someone who only mathematicians/academics knew of, his name is now (somewhat) more better known, isn't it? A book and a movie. To be honest, I grew up in a pre-internet, pre-wikipedia world, and without movies like those I maybe would have never heard/known about these folks and what they did.
- kevinventullo 8y ago
  I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I do want to point out that they didn't make a movie about John Nash because he was a great mathematician, they made a movie because he was a great mathematician who had schizophrenia. It's not obvious to me that this image of mathematicians in popular culture is better than no image at all.
  - adamnemecek 8y ago
    Yeah, for some reason people love this idea of a tortured "genius". I think that it makes the audience feel better. The idea that people can be smart and also relatively ok would make people jealous.
    - dondawest 8y ago
      Name one genius who ain’t crazy. Seriously: ONE. Hollywood isn’t making movies about “tortured geniuses” to pander: they’re doing it to reflect reality.
      - kevinventullo 8y ago
        Peter Scholze
        dondawest 8y ago
        $1000000000000000 says on a long enough timeline he will be proven crazy
      - adamnemecek 8y ago
        Don't confuse eccentricity and actual mental illness. Schizophrenia is something else than say OCD or anxiety.
warent 8y ago
Oh, come on. Hollywood can tell a compelling story to inspire people to get into fields they wouldn't have considered otherwise, even if only as amateurs and hobbyists. A lot of kids watching Iron Man are probably excited to grow up to get into machine learning and robotics.
- adamnemecek 8y ago
  They can tell a compelling story but I hate how they distort the reality. I feel like a lot of the plots are altered to fit this Hollywood format. Sometimes the antagonists feel forced. Or the friendships feel forced. Or the back story fells forced. I don't want a movie where they just take someone's name and likelihood and plaster the standard Hollywood tropes on it. I hate the "writing math on windows thing".
  - MPSimmons 8y ago
    But... people actually do write on windows and glass like that. It happened at the University I worked at, it happens at my current job. It's just a thing.

pm90 8y ago

Why is that? I agree its somewhat disingenuous, and not representative of how mathematics is really done (most of which regular people would probably find pretty un-exciting and mundane). But it does increase visibility about those things. Instead of John Nash being someone who only mathematicians/academics knew of, his name is now (somewhat) more better known, isn't it? A book and a movie. To be honest, I grew up in a pre-internet, pre-wikipedia world, and without movies like those I maybe would have never heard/known about these folks and what they did.

kevinventullo 8y ago
I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I do want to point out that they didn't make a movie about John Nash because he was a great mathematician, they made a movie because he was a great mathematician who had schizophrenia. It's not obvious to me that this image of mathematicians in popular culture is better than no image at all.
- adamnemecek 8y ago
  Yeah, for some reason people love this idea of a tortured "genius". I think that it makes the audience feel better. The idea that people can be smart and also relatively ok would make people jealous.
  - dondawest 8y ago
    Name one genius who ain’t crazy. Seriously: ONE. Hollywood isn’t making movies about “tortured geniuses” to pander: they’re doing it to reflect reality.
    - kevinventullo 8y ago
      Peter Scholze
      - dondawest 8y ago
        $1000000000000000 says on a long enough timeline he will be proven crazy
    - adamnemecek 8y ago
      Don't confuse eccentricity and actual mental illness. Schizophrenia is something else than say OCD or anxiety.

warent 8y ago

Oh, come on. Hollywood can tell a compelling story to inspire people to get into fields they wouldn't have considered otherwise, even if only as amateurs and hobbyists. A lot of kids watching Iron Man are probably excited to grow up to get into machine learning and robotics.

adamnemecek 8y ago
They can tell a compelling story but I hate how they distort the reality. I feel like a lot of the plots are altered to fit this Hollywood format. Sometimes the antagonists feel forced. Or the friendships feel forced. Or the back story fells forced. I don't want a movie where they just take someone's name and likelihood and plaster the standard Hollywood tropes on it. I hate the "writing math on windows thing".
- MPSimmons 8y ago
  But... people actually do write on windows and glass like that. It happened at the University I worked at, it happens at my current job. It's just a thing.