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College-level means undergraduate-level? If so, how is algebra/calculus not that hard? Abstract algebra is one of the hardest stuff I've come across. Calculus?
by kovac 4y ago
College-level means undergraduate-level? If so, how is algebra/calculus not that hard? Abstract algebra is one of the hardest stuff I've come across. Calculus? Do you think it's not that hard to prove convergence/bounds/limits of random series and sequences... I agree though that calculus is not that hard, compared to the rest.
Programming is child's play compared to undergraduate mathematics taught in math departments. It's important that you take a module from the math department, not from a physical science or engineering department if you want to experience what it is like.
- kthielen 4y ago> Programming is child's play compared to undergraduate mathematics taught in math departments. One thing you might learn in math is to avoid making overgeneralized statements that you can’t support. A valid substitution in your statement for “programming” is writing a compiler. And for “undergraduate mathematics taught in math departments”, basic differential calculus. Yet we regularly teach smart high school students and first-year undergraduates calculus, and almost never try to teach them to write a compiler, contradicting your proposition. But what do I know? I’m just a dumb programmer. I can’t read your mind, so maybe you had something a little more specific you wanted to say.
- ThrowawayR2 4y ago> "Yet we regularly teach smart high school students and first-year undergraduates calculus..." High school students are taught plug-and-chug calculus where one uses rules and formulae without any real understanding of the underlying subtleties that make calculus work.
- kthielen 4y agoBulletproof counter argument, you sure showed me.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]