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The above statement is true with the assumption that the topic being discussed is truly above the level of understanding for undergraduates. For the majority of

The above statement is true with the assumption that the topic being discussed is truly above the level of understanding for undergraduates. For the majority of the papers, that assumption is not true though. Papers are hard to read has more to do with the idea that if it's not filled with jargons, its chance of getting published is greatly reduced. Papers are not rewarded for being easy to understand. People/organizations get rewarded for publishing "complicate" papers. That misalignment is the issue.

knzhou 7y ago
Depends on the field. Many CS papers can be understood by undergrads because CS is a very young and very broad field; the path to the frontier in any direction is short. Theoretical physics and math are not like that. They have been building cumulatively for centuries.
- Silhouette 7y ago
  Theoretical physics and math are not like that. They have been building cumulatively for centuries. For state-of-the-art research in obscure specialisms, of course you're right. However, numerous papers and books cover more mundane subjects and there is no good reason they could not be readily accessible to anyone with an undergraduate-level background or at least a masters delving a bit deeper into the field of interest. Often the problem isn't dumbing down the material, it's simply poor communication skills. Put another way, while our cumulative understanding of mathematics now covers a very broad range of areas, that doesn't necessarily mean the depth to reach a good understanding of any particular specialism has increased at the same rate. On the contrary, given that even the most specialised of theories must be something that an individual can come to understand and build upon within a single career, there is an inherent limit to how deep our understanding of the subject can go. That limit fundamentally depends on how efficiently we can build the layers of more elementary understanding on which the start of the art must rest.

knzhou 7y ago

Depends on the field. Many CS papers can be understood by undergrads because CS is a very young and very broad field; the path to the frontier in any direction is short. Theoretical physics and math are not like that. They have been building cumulatively for centuries.

Silhouette 7y ago
Theoretical physics and math are not like that. They have been building cumulatively for centuries. For state-of-the-art research in obscure specialisms, of course you're right. However, numerous papers and books cover more mundane subjects and there is no good reason they could not be readily accessible to anyone with an undergraduate-level background or at least a masters delving a bit deeper into the field of interest. Often the problem isn't dumbing down the material, it's simply poor communication skills. Put another way, while our cumulative understanding of mathematics now covers a very broad range of areas, that doesn't necessarily mean the depth to reach a good understanding of any particular specialism has increased at the same rate. On the contrary, given that even the most specialised of theories must be something that an individual can come to understand and build upon within a single career, there is an inherent limit to how deep our understanding of the subject can go. That limit fundamentally depends on how efficiently we can build the layers of more elementary understanding on which the start of the art must rest.