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‘Meaningless’ does not mean ‘useless.’ You do not, for example, “really understand” math if you are not well-versed in category theory. And much of the high-sch
by Koshkin 7y ago
‘Meaningless’ does not mean ‘useless.’ You do not, for example, “really understand” math if you are not well-versed in category theory. And much of the high-school and engineering math is taught without any attempts to explain the reason why things are the way they are. You may not realize this, but people learn mostly by getting used to things.
- danharaj 7y ago> “really understand” math if you are not well-versed in category theory. I bet I could find a fields medalist who barely knows what a category is.
- seagullz 7y agoNot disagreeing with you. But two complementary points: The other ill of much of high-school and some engineering math teaching is not having adequate focus on "how to apply" the math in modeling real world problems. That, in turn, exacerbates further stages of learning the deeper "why" questions. Besides, "getting used to" part is apparently inescapable, at least at some point. After all, as great a mathematician as John von Neumann said "Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them."
- booleandilemma 7y agoIsn’t category theory only from like, the 1940s? We’ve had plenty of great mathematicians before then.