3 ms·
> (though hardly approachable unless you already have a good handle on, say, eigenvalue decomposition, outer products = rank 1 matrices, positive semi-definiten
by patrick451 3y ago
> (though hardly approachable unless you already have a good handle on, say, eigenvalue decomposition, outer products = rank 1 matrices, positive semi-definiteness, etc.)
These are what are known as prerequisites. This expectation on HN that all science and math should be made approachable without requisite prior knowledge is so bizarre to me. On the other hand, if blog post is about move semantics, nobody chimes in "ha, try understanding that without knowing about constness first".
- gwgundersen 3y agoI have a theory that whatever popularity my blog has comes from writing to the level of the reader. My favorite example of the opposite behavior is how every blog post on a topic involving Bayesian inference seemingly must start with Bayes’ formula.
- jacobolus 3y ago> expectation on HN that all science and math should be made approachable without requisite prior knowledge I doubt anyone expects this, but there are sharp trade offs involved. The more accessible you make a presentation, the wider the possible audience. With each year of additional technical training you expect, the total audience drops significantly; a math article targeting people whose math training only made it to an introductory calculus course can be read by perhaps 1000 times as many people as a math article with prerequisites from grad-school pure math coursework.
- FabHK 3y agoAnd depending on what audience you're writing for, you might want to say something about the prerequisites. This article didn't (maybe the blog is read mostly by mathematicians or maths students; the author is not necessarily delinquent in their duties). But given that, I outlined some prerequisites so that readers here know what to expect.