3 ms·
For me, the intimidating bit and source of "math anxiety" is that there's only one right answer. You either get it or you don't. At the time, I had a fear of fa
by electrondood 3y ago
For me, the intimidating bit and source of "math anxiety" is that there's only one right answer. You either get it or you don't. At the time, I had a fear of failure and this caused a lot of stress, especially at the chalkboard in front of the class.
I preferred humanities, where there was wiggle room and you could bullshit your way around the gray areas. That all ended when I became a dev, where failure is nearly constant so there's no time for feeling bad about it.
- kandel 3y agomathematicians: Humanities are stressful because you don't know what's the right answer!
- hgsgm 3y agoGood academics fear the difficulty of good humanities. Bad academics enjoy having the excuse. This is why "humanities" in general have a terrible reputation, but the individual people who've done great work are respected.
- Tainnor 3y agoAs someone who has studied both humanities and "hard" subjects, I'd definitely say that I respect really good researchers in the humanities just as much as I would a Fields medalist, but there's a much lower bar and there's a lot of shoddy research being done (as well as really bad students who just coast by somehow, something which is much harder to do in math-heavy subjects). Then there's also the problem that there's not even a clear consensus on what great research is in a "soft" field. I might find someone highly accomplished, but someone else might think the opposite. With maths, either someone proves a theorem or they don't, there's almost no middle ground (Mochizuki notwithstanding).