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There's no such thing as not a math person
- Bostonian 4y agoMathematical talent, and IQ more broadly, does vary greatly. Instead of denying that, it is better to make true and realistic statements such as "you can get good results from machine learning frameworks even if you don't know enough multivariable calculus to understand the mathematical definition of gradient descent."
- eternityforest 4y agoI have a project exactly about this, cataloguing all the things I wish someone had told me, as a non-math person(https://github.com/EternityForest/AnyoneCanDoIt/blob/master/MathELI5.md https://github.com/EternityForest/AnyoneCanDoIt/blob/master/...). They can be understood without any real talent, and used in everyday life(If you're a programmer). But that's more like knowing a collection of calculator tricks than knowing math. I would probably have a very hard time even getting a D in high school math class. I don't think I'm much closer to the really life changing stuff, like what you need for an EE degree, or the general ability to comprehend systems with interacting parts and events that happen simultaneously, compared to an average grade schooler. Math is almost like drawing, in that people pretend you get started by following lists of steps, but each step by itself requires a mode of thought that takes lots of work to develop. It's like trying to learn to dance, and someone says "It's easy, just copy me", like as if the ability to copy a pose is just something everyone can do without training.
- ksaj 4y agoSometimes people are just discouraged because of teaching style. I was never a "math person" but in my 20's I became fascinated with discrete logarithms. And then when I turned 50, I took a course that was really heavily into differential equations. I shocked myself for a) understanding it, and b) enjoying what I learned even though it was so mathematically heavy.