4 ms·

Yup, symbols are the hardest. A few years ago (on sort of a whim?) I read a ML science paper without first having much of the foundational knowledge; I'd end u

Yup, symbols are the hardest. A few years ago (on sort of a whim?) I read a ML science paper without first having much of the foundational knowledge; I'd end up having to go off on more than a few Google dives per paragraph, just to understand what they were talking about. But you can't Google an equation, or a symbol in an equation - at least I couldn't, and get meaningful results.

stirfish 5y ago
The biggest advantage computer scientists have over mathematicians is that our variables can be more than one character
- MaxBarraclough 5y ago
  Mathematicians allow multi-character identifiers when it comes to functions, though. sin, abs, det, etc.
  - Lhiw 5y ago
    Mathematicians just never left the "less characters = less typing" phase when it comes to variable names. I'm willing to bet a lot of it comes down to whiteboarding instead of writing it on a computer.
  - Koshkin 5y ago
    But those are not variables.
- sirwhinesalot 5y ago
  Not in academic papers unfortunately... And while math symbols are somewhat standard across papers, every CS paper comes up with their own meanings for half the symbols they use. Sometimes they are nice enough to say "we use random squiggly arrow to mean x", but then you need to keep a table of symbols on the side to even read the paper. Other times they just reuse "common" symbols and expect you to know, even though that symbol has been used for more than one purpose over time. It's all very tiresome.
MaxBarraclough 5y ago
> I read a ML science paper without first having much of the foundational knowledge; I'd end up having to go off on more than a few Google dives per paragraph, just to understand what they were talking about. That's pretty much the norm with scientific publications, no? They're intended to be read by people with advanced degrees in the field.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  You know you have a problem when even advanced degrees in a close field isn't enough, because your symbols are different. (And yeah, ML has this one.) We should have iconographic dictionaries for Math.
  - MaxBarraclough 5y ago
    One man's i is another man's j.

stirfish 5y ago

The biggest advantage computer scientists have over mathematicians is that our variables can be more than one character

MaxBarraclough 5y ago
Mathematicians allow multi-character identifiers when it comes to functions, though. sin, abs, det, etc.
- Lhiw 5y ago
  Mathematicians just never left the "less characters = less typing" phase when it comes to variable names. I'm willing to bet a lot of it comes down to whiteboarding instead of writing it on a computer.
- Koshkin 5y ago
  But those are not variables.
sirwhinesalot 5y ago
Not in academic papers unfortunately... And while math symbols are somewhat standard across papers, every CS paper comes up with their own meanings for half the symbols they use. Sometimes they are nice enough to say "we use random squiggly arrow to mean x", but then you need to keep a table of symbols on the side to even read the paper. Other times they just reuse "common" symbols and expect you to know, even though that symbol has been used for more than one purpose over time. It's all very tiresome.

MaxBarraclough 5y ago

> I read a ML science paper without first having much of the foundational knowledge; I'd end up having to go off on more than a few Google dives per paragraph, just to understand what they were talking about. That's pretty much the norm with scientific publications, no? They're intended to be read by people with advanced degrees in the field.

marcosdumay 5y ago
You know you have a problem when even advanced degrees in a close field isn't enough, because your symbols are different. (And yeah, ML has this one.) We should have iconographic dictionaries for Math.
- MaxBarraclough 5y ago
  One man's i is another man's j.