3 ms·

You’ve convinced yourself that you can never do it. It may interest you to know that the greatest mathematicians also feel that they are groping and may never a

You’ve convinced yourself that you can never do it. It may interest you to know that the greatest mathematicians also feel that they are groping and may never accomplish what they are trying to do. Two comments: notice that the equations written physics text books always use single letters for variables - possibly with sub/superscripts. This is to keep the notation compact. If they used long variable names as programmers do, the essence of the relation described would disappear in the clutter. That’s why math notation is as compact as possible. (APL is an example of a programming language that tries to emulate a mathematical style.) Second, try to look for the shape of an equation and what it’s trying to tell you about the relationship between the variables.

hnfong 4y ago
Noting that olympian runners and the physically disabled both want to run faster doesn't help. I get really angry when math types just drive by and claim everything is easy if you practice and have the correct mindset. Everyone has something they aren't good at, and that's OK IMHO.
- naikrovek 4y ago
  thank you.
- User23 4y ago
  I'm not a "maths type." My passion has always been for programming, not what people think of when you say "math." Of course the Curry-Howard correspondence tells us that programs are mathematical objects, but that's not what comes to mind for most people. I never said it was easy, I said you can do it. If you're smart enough to write a computer program you definitely have the required cognitive horsepower. Now if you want to only do the things in life that present no difficulty then that's your choice, but for your sake I hope you choose to push your boundaries and grow. In high school I was taught that if the algebra is hard to understand then look at the geometry, and if the geometry is hard to understand then look at the algebra. Some people are definitely better at one way than the other. Definitely learn where your strengths lie and use them, but don't assume that you're bad at something because you're bad at one of many ways of doing it. And yeah, you probably don't have the raw brainpower of a von Neumann or a Gauss (I sure don't), but so what? I'll never be a competitive weightlifter but I still lift because I enjoy seeing what my body can do. And I'll never win a Fields medal, Turing award, or probably ever even get a paper published, but I still play around with predicate calculus and other discrete math because I want to see what my mind can do. And as a happy side effect having some physical strength makes me more useful to other people, and knowing some mathematical reasoning does too, by making me better at writing correct programs.

hnfong 4y ago

Noting that olympian runners and the physically disabled both want to run faster doesn't help. I get really angry when math types just drive by and claim everything is easy if you practice and have the correct mindset. Everyone has something they aren't good at, and that's OK IMHO.

naikrovek 4y ago
thank you.
User23 4y ago
I'm not a "maths type." My passion has always been for programming, not what people think of when you say "math." Of course the Curry-Howard correspondence tells us that programs are mathematical objects, but that's not what comes to mind for most people. I never said it was easy, I said you can do it. If you're smart enough to write a computer program you definitely have the required cognitive horsepower. Now if you want to only do the things in life that present no difficulty then that's your choice, but for your sake I hope you choose to push your boundaries and grow. In high school I was taught that if the algebra is hard to understand then look at the geometry, and if the geometry is hard to understand then look at the algebra. Some people are definitely better at one way than the other. Definitely learn where your strengths lie and use them, but don't assume that you're bad at something because you're bad at one of many ways of doing it. And yeah, you probably don't have the raw brainpower of a von Neumann or a Gauss (I sure don't), but so what? I'll never be a competitive weightlifter but I still lift because I enjoy seeing what my body can do. And I'll never win a Fields medal, Turing award, or probably ever even get a paper published, but I still play around with predicate calculus and other discrete math because I want to see what my mind can do. And as a happy side effect having some physical strength makes me more useful to other people, and knowing some mathematical reasoning does too, by making me better at writing correct programs.