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A lot of people have voiced similar concerns on this thread and I strongly disagree, at least with the part where you say "no math=no value". I know plenty of p
by jxcole 15y ago
A lot of people have voiced similar concerns on this thread and I strongly disagree, at least with the part where you say "no math=no value". I know plenty of people at my work who probably can't add two fractions together but are still extremely valuable to the company as a whole. Managers, lawyers, graphics designers, salespeople, the list goes on. Though a passing knowledge of math may be mildly useful in a few situations, having no knowledge of the subject at all really isn't any kind of problem for some people.
I agree that everyone should learn math in school, but that's so they can learn how to think and analyze. If the skills have atrophied through disuse I would conclude that they have found other ways to achieve the same goals.
- onemoreact 15y agoManagers Sales people, and Lawyers with poor understanding of math as basic as adding fractions are vary risky. It's not that they can't preform most job fuctions it's that they are extreamly likely to make costly mistakes. When should I add one more person to keep people from charging as much overtime. Or the old should I offer overtime or comp time etc. As to sales people and Lawyers effective negotiation require them to be able to say: I can't drop the price any more but I can do X (which costs us less) etc. Graphics designers often use a lot of math directly when working out layout's and things. An intuitive understanding and lot's of effort can help compensate but it's a significant loss if they can't do simple math on how tall / wide things are when you scale them.
- absconditus 15y agoWhat about poor language skills? You made a mistake in nearly every sentence in your comment. I apologize if English is not your native tongue.
- Goronmon 15y agoWhat about poor language skills? You made a mistake in nearly every sentence in your comment. Then I guess he won't be using his comment history on HN as a reference for his next interview.
- onemoreact 15y agoI would argue that inside a company it's communication that's important not polish. It's only when your company is interacting with the public that polish becomes important.
- absconditus 15y agoI have found that those who write poorly in the corporate world generally think poorly as well.
- gnaritas 15y agoThat applies in general, not just in the corporate world. Lazy writing implies lazy thinking.
- MaysonL 15y agoYes, but... Lousy spelling and punctuation are not necessarily lazy writing.
- gnaritas 15y agoWhat else would you call them?
- jarek 15y agoNegatively motivated writing.
- drumdance 15y agoDyslexic. An ex-girlfriend of mine is very bright and gifted at logic (majored in philosophy), but her spelling and syntax are terrible.
- gnaritas 15y agoDisabilities don't count, I'm talking about people who can write better if they cared to try, not those who can't.
- yourapostasy 15y agoManagers, lawyers, graphics designers, salespeople, the list goes on. For salespeople, sums, differences, multiplication and division of fractions might not be the best example; calculus might be more appropriate. Some of the best salespeople I've ever worked with could effortlessly modify the deal numbers in their head on the fly during a negotiation. For example, it could entail working out a seemingly big "cash discount" number and offering it on the spot, knowing full well that it won't take so many points off the margin that the pricing team will throw a fit nor impact their commission such that they care. These are fairly simplistic one or two decimal place fractional arithmetic that are only moderately more complex for the layperson than tallying up the tip at a meal, but it puts a lot of pressure on the customers when they are told, "if I have to walk out of this meeting without closing, I won't ever get the authority to offer that discount again".