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Probably. I just happen to have had the most incredible physics teachers, and I know elite engineering schools do too: Feynman, that Eastern European lady who

by bertil 3y ago

Probably. I just happen to have had the most incredible physics teachers, and I know elite engineering schools do too: Feynman, that Eastern European lady who is way too loud and excited about science, the “let’s see if conservation of movement works, or if that bowling ball will crush my skull” guy. Every school had more than one. Steve Mould is a gift from above, but not a unique one… On the other hand what Randal Monroe from xkcd and Grant Sanderson from 3blue1Brown have alluded to, that felt like witchcraft unlike anything I’ve seen in class. I went to what should be one of the most demanding schools for statistics and it took me years to make sense of it. Re-opening my notes after things clicked was earth-shaking. And it wasn’t specific to the school: we also had economics teacher, and they were incredible: hilarious, terrifying, unforgettable. “Our task is to forecast inflation. We have tried many approach, mainly macroeconomics and bone reading. Bone reading was more accurate, but the minister didn’t think it involved enough suffering.” How do you forget that?

taeric 3y ago
Love the suffering joke! I do think that most physics benefits from the empirical nature of being able to test ideas. Statistics is tough because you can't really empirically test a lot of distributions. And then a ton of us (again, myself included) have a hard time seeing the subtle differences introduced with some framings. The Monty Hall one is hilarious for just how upset so many people get on being wrong on it. Note that I think with modern computers, you can start to test more distributions in simulations than you could dream of in the past. Has some of its own problems, of course, and it is a shame that we lose a lot of symbolic manipulation in the process. So, I still largely think it is getting people past their experiences. I think that is ultimately compatible with your point. I think I'm just calling into question how rosy the rest of the landscape isn't, in the learning environment.

by bertil 3y ago

taeric 3y ago

Love the suffering joke! I do think that most physics benefits from the empirical nature of being able to test ideas. Statistics is tough because you can't really empirically test a lot of distributions. And then a ton of us (again, myself included) have a hard time seeing the subtle differences introduced with some framings. The Monty Hall one is hilarious for just how upset so many people get on being wrong on it. Note that I think with modern computers, you can start to test more distributions in simulations than you could dream of in the past. Has some of its own problems, of course, and it is a shame that we lose a lot of symbolic manipulation in the process. So, I still largely think it is getting people past their experiences. I think that is ultimately compatible with your point. I think I'm just calling into question how rosy the rest of the landscape isn't, in the learning environment.