3 ms·

Yet to see a "Gentle Introduction to" that didn't freely and accurately translate to poorly written, impenetrable prose whose purpose is to gratify the ego of t

by harry8 5y ago

Yet to see a "Gentle Introduction to" that didn't freely and accurately translate to poorly written, impenetrable prose whose purpose is to gratify the ego of the author in demonstrating how they are unbelievably more clever than any reader who could conceivably require any kind of "introduction" Is that bad luck on my part? (I've given up on thinking I'm particularly or especially dense - while making no claims to be some species of super-genius) Or is that the generally accepted genre?

Koshkin 5y ago
Many of the scientific treatises of today are formulated in a half-mystical language, as though to impress the reader with the uncomfortable feeling that he is in the permanent presence of a superman. Cornelius Lanczos
SantalBlush 5y ago
After having had difficult topics explained remarkably well by a few math teachers, I'm convinced that the "gentle introductions" you're talking about are meant to be confusing. Or perhaps, in some cases, they don't grasp the material as well as they let on. edit: For anyone who wants examples of good introductions, check out 3Blue1Brown's YouTube channel.
- Koshkin 5y ago
  Or, the infamous Curse of Knowledge? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge
anon_tor_12345 5y ago
>gratify the ego of the author I'm sorry that you're not mathematically literate but that is no reason to cast aspersions on expositors that have 1) zero obligation to cater to your needs 2) receive zero compensation for producing such expository pieces (since they don't count towards publication records) >the generally accepted genre? Indeed "gentle introduction" does not mean spoon food, it means exposition that includes niceties like motivation, examples, and diagrams. It is gentle relative to a research monograph (at which I'm sure your indignation would be astronomical). Here's my recommendation to you on how to learn mathematics if you're serious about it but don't have the patience to struggle through "gentle introductions" like absolutely every single other practicing mathematician did: head down to your local university math department and ask about grad students willing to tutor. The going rate is ~$100/hr for the kind of spoon feeding you seem to be looking for. Quite steep I know but it's highly skilled labor after all (I'm sure you make about that as a software dev for whom this is above their skillset). But you'll be interested to that it's an inversely sliding scale for just how much spoon feeding is necessary (I personally go as low as $25 for very highly motivated students).
- dang 5y ago
  As you know, you can't attack other users like this on HN, regardless of how knowledgeable you are or feel you are. Therefore I've banned this account. If you don't want to keep getting banned on HN, please follow the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - harry8 5y ago
    Your shop, your rules, obviously. I think that's a shame fwiw and write now against any bans based on a cursory read of their last 3 months of comments or so. As I also did against the disappearing of the comment itself. You may know better for many reasons. I note our concerns and goals are not necessarily aligned. YMMV.
    - dang 5y ago
      When someone has a long history of abusing HN, the standards are different. Normally I'd just post a warning in cases like this. Actually, even if this were the first time this particular account had posted abusively, I'd have used a warning rather than a ban. But there are enough abusive comments in this account's history also, and this comment was a particularly clear case of reverting to a long-established pattern.
paulpauper 5y ago
How should it have been done. Tensors are pretty complicated. It's like advanced calc plus advanced linear algebra. Maybe watch dome youtube videos on general relativity. Those are sometimes better than texts because clarity is essential.
- harry8 5y ago
  There are great tutorials, textbooks, explanations, sibling post mentions Grant Sanderson's 3B1B youtube channel and I agree with that example whole heartedly. I haven't seen or read any that have the words in their title "A Gentle introduction..." It's those words I'm talking about as an indicator of being anything but what they claim in the general case. I'm very open to counter examples.
harry8 5y ago
There's a flagged dead reply to this that attacks me. I think the author has missed the point and the point isn't very important anyway. I agree totally that the author of this or any other freely available material owes me nothing. Nor do I owe them. I mention this only because I don't think the comment should be flagged or dead. Ymmv.

by harry8 5y ago

Koshkin 5y ago

Many of the scientific treatises of today are formulated in a half-mystical language, as though to impress the reader with the uncomfortable feeling that he is in the permanent presence of a superman. Cornelius Lanczos

SantalBlush 5y ago

After having had difficult topics explained remarkably well by a few math teachers, I'm convinced that the "gentle introductions" you're talking about are meant to be confusing. Or perhaps, in some cases, they don't grasp the material as well as they let on. edit: For anyone who wants examples of good introductions, check out 3Blue1Brown's YouTube channel.

Koshkin 5y ago
Or, the infamous Curse of Knowledge? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

anon_tor_12345 5y ago

>gratify the ego of the author I'm sorry that you're not mathematically literate but that is no reason to cast aspersions on expositors that have 1) zero obligation to cater to your needs 2) receive zero compensation for producing such expository pieces (since they don't count towards publication records) >the generally accepted genre? Indeed "gentle introduction" does not mean spoon food, it means exposition that includes niceties like motivation, examples, and diagrams. It is gentle relative to a research monograph (at which I'm sure your indignation would be astronomical). Here's my recommendation to you on how to learn mathematics if you're serious about it but don't have the patience to struggle through "gentle introductions" like absolutely every single other practicing mathematician did: head down to your local university math department and ask about grad students willing to tutor. The going rate is ~$100/hr for the kind of spoon feeding you seem to be looking for. Quite steep I know but it's highly skilled labor after all (I'm sure you make about that as a software dev for whom this is above their skillset). But you'll be interested to that it's an inversely sliding scale for just how much spoon feeding is necessary (I personally go as low as $25 for very highly motivated students).

dang 5y ago
As you know, you can't attack other users like this on HN, regardless of how knowledgeable you are or feel you are. Therefore I've banned this account. If you don't want to keep getting banned on HN, please follow the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- harry8 5y ago
  Your shop, your rules, obviously. I think that's a shame fwiw and write now against any bans based on a cursory read of their last 3 months of comments or so. As I also did against the disappearing of the comment itself. You may know better for many reasons. I note our concerns and goals are not necessarily aligned. YMMV.
  - dang 5y ago
    When someone has a long history of abusing HN, the standards are different. Normally I'd just post a warning in cases like this. Actually, even if this were the first time this particular account had posted abusively, I'd have used a warning rather than a ban. But there are enough abusive comments in this account's history also, and this comment was a particularly clear case of reverting to a long-established pattern.

paulpauper 5y ago

How should it have been done. Tensors are pretty complicated. It's like advanced calc plus advanced linear algebra. Maybe watch dome youtube videos on general relativity. Those are sometimes better than texts because clarity is essential.

harry8 5y ago
There are great tutorials, textbooks, explanations, sibling post mentions Grant Sanderson's 3B1B youtube channel and I agree with that example whole heartedly. I haven't seen or read any that have the words in their title "A Gentle introduction..." It's those words I'm talking about as an indicator of being anything but what they claim in the general case. I'm very open to counter examples.

harry8 5y ago

There's a flagged dead reply to this that attacks me. I think the author has missed the point and the point isn't very important anyway. I agree totally that the author of this or any other freely available material owes me nothing. Nor do I owe them. I mention this only because I don't think the comment should be flagged or dead. Ymmv.