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The article author includes “Excel” in their “basic” math definition. That covers a whole lot of stuff past eighth grade. For example, I use multivariate regre

The article author includes “Excel” in their “basic” math definition. That covers a whole lot of stuff past eighth grade. For example, I use multivariate regressions in Excel quite frequently to help us understand some data I’ve gathered. Yes, it’s just a few keystrokes, but if I didn’t have a basic understanding of what it were doing, it would just be magic, and I’d never be able to tell if the output was bogus or not. Knowing the basic ideas behind complex numbers helped when I was doing some computer graphics work on a game a few years ago. Having a basic intuition about what a derivative is comes up all the damn time when doing just about anything involving stuff that changes over time. I don’t use a lot of calculus, and I especially don’t calculate things by hand much, but knowing the general concepts helps a lot. Statistics I use massively and I think is super important. Every single day, I need to at least understand what a standard deviation is, how basic probability works (I like poker), bayes theorem, etc. Boolean logic and discrete math comes up quite a bit when I write code. Non-Euclidian geometry came up a lot when I was writing code related to mapping and calculating distances on a curved Earth. All that being said, I still can’t remember how to do long division :)

WillPostForFood 4y ago
I don't doubt many of HN readers use some advanced math daily or weekly, but I'm skeptical that more than 1-2% of the general population does.
- trashtester 4y ago
  I probably use math all the time. Even when writing the sentence before this, I was thinking in statistical terms. Your statement above makes a similar estimate for the upper bound for people who use math, itself a mathematical statement. People who don't learn statistics, are doomed to think in terms of anecdotes, or to trust some authority. Math is necessary to do a proper independent evaluation about a lot of questions in our world, be they political, economical or scientific. In the office, you cannot double check the work of the "experts", making it very hard to lead effectively, handing them all the power. In elections, those who don't understand statistics and science (that require math) are vulnerable to charlatans and demagogues. Economically, not knowing math means you have trouble evaluating risks and expected benefits of investments and exposures.

WillPostForFood 4y ago

I don't doubt many of HN readers use some advanced math daily or weekly, but I'm skeptical that more than 1-2% of the general population does.

trashtester 4y ago
I probably use math all the time. Even when writing the sentence before this, I was thinking in statistical terms. Your statement above makes a similar estimate for the upper bound for people who use math, itself a mathematical statement. People who don't learn statistics, are doomed to think in terms of anecdotes, or to trust some authority. Math is necessary to do a proper independent evaluation about a lot of questions in our world, be they political, economical or scientific. In the office, you cannot double check the work of the "experts", making it very hard to lead effectively, handing them all the power. In elections, those who don't understand statistics and science (that require math) are vulnerable to charlatans and demagogues. Economically, not knowing math means you have trouble evaluating risks and expected benefits of investments and exposures.