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Lessons I Wish I Had Been Taught (1996) [pdf]
- sebg 2y agoLove these reflections from Gian-Carlo Rota In the past, similar discussions have occured: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Gian-Carlo+Rota https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Gian-Carlo+Rota
- mkl 2y ago(1997) The last time it was discussed, four years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23722803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23722803
- bambax 2y agoYes it does come back on HN frequently; it's worth a re-read every time though! ;-)
- dang 2y agoYup! Related: Gian Carlo Rota's Ten Lessons - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40113970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40113970 - April 2024 (2 comments) Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32081288 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32081288 - July 2022 (62 comments) Ten Lessons I Wish I Had Been Taught (1997) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23722803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23722803 - July 2020 (52 comments) Lessons I Wish I Had Been Taught (1996) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15989599 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15989599 - Dec 2017 (28 comments) Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11747598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11747598 - May 2016 (20 comments) Lessons I wish I had been Taught - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3220746 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3220746 - Nov 2011 (20 comments) Ten Lessons I Wish I Had Been Taught - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=110091 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=110091 - Feb 2008 (1 comment) "Ten Lessons I wish I Had Been Taught", by Gian-Carlo Rota - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=85611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=85611 - Dec 2007 (1 comment) Also related: Gian-Carlo Rota on Alonzo Church (2008) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9073466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9073466 - Feb 2015 (1 comment but it's so good I put it in https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights) and Lessons I wish I had learned before teaching differential equations [pdf] (1997) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38248532 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38248532 - Nov 2023 (248 comments) Lessons I wish I had learned before I started teaching differential equations [pdf] (1997) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32530035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32530035 - Aug 2022 (177 comments) 10 lessons I wish I had learned before I started teaching differential equations - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19005798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19005798 - Jan 2019 (2 comments) Lessons I Wish I Had Learned Before Teaching Differential Equations (1997) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15163979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15163979 - Sept 2017 (108 comments) Ten lessons I wish I had learned before teaching differential equations (1997) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11207183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11207183 - March 2016 (118 comments) and 10 Lessons of an MIT Education - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32115290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32115290 - July 2022 (17 comments) Lessons of an MIT Education - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31775074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31775074 - June 2022 (1 comment) Lessons of an MIT Education - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15628869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15628869 - Nov 2017 (247 comments) "10 Lessons of an MIT Education" by Gian-Carlo Rota - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=53322 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=53322 - Sept 2007 (14 comments)
- gjvc 2y ago[dead]
- Frummy 2y agoThat’s pretty good. Feynman keeping problems in his mind constantly, like a monk, is easy said but difficult to do. Attention and the harmony required to maintain it, in this day and age, is a few new theorems the reward for that? I guess you have to enjoy the process of working on problems like that as well, to dedicate your attention to it all day long even passively.
- mightybyte 2y agoI really like an expansion of this idea that I heard somewhere awhile back: Keep a few significant problems in your mind...and also keep a few significant solutions / problem solving techniques in your mind. Then when you encounter new problems, check them against your set of solutions and see if any of them apply. Also, when you encounter new problem solving techniques, check them against your set of problems to see if they're applicable. Whenever you encounter a new problem or solution that seems unusually significant, add it to the list that you keep track of
- almostgotcaught 2y ago> heard somewhere awhile back: This is verbatim how Feynman describes it in "surely you're joking" (the chapter with spinning plate and QED iirc).
- mightybyte 2y agoAhh ok. I think my source was someone else, but it sounds like they were probably citing Feynman. Good to know.
- pm215 2y agoHamming's _You and Your Research_ (another HN perennial) has a variant on the theme too: "Most great scientists know many important problems. They have something between 10 and 20 important problems for which they are looking for an attack. And when they see a new idea come up, one hears them say ``Well that bears on this problem.'' They drop all the other things and get after it. "
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- robinhouston 2y agoIf you enjoyed this, I am sure you will enjoy Rota’s funny and charming book _Indiscrete Thoughts_. It includes this essay, together with many others.
- great_wubwub 2y agoIt may be funny and charming but Amazon wants $105 for it (or $35 to rent the ebook) and it's nowhere to be found in my statewide library system. wow.
- achenet 2y agoif you're the type of ruthless criminal who would commit horrific crimes like downloading a car, your diseased conscience may enable you to use pirate websites like library genesis to get it for free.
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoUm... am I missing something? Legalities aside, how does one download a car? Is that actually a thing?
- madcaptenor 2y agoIt's a reference to this old PSA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-pYiWGSN8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-pYiWGSN8w
- blipvert 2y agoRelated IT Crowd bit https://youtu.be/ALZZx1xmAzg https://youtu.be/ALZZx1xmAzg
- RobRivera 2y agoIf it were, I would
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- Snoddas 2y ago[flagged]
- notpublic 2y agoHaving read that article, I have to say that is spot on!
- ds_opseeker 2y agoIt hit "delve" on the penultimate point.
- xanderlewis 2y ago> After fifty minutes (one microcentury as von Neumann used to say) I like this. I also had to check: 100 years * 10^-6 = 52.56 minutes.
- jeffwass 2y agoAnd on a similar note : Pi seconds is a nanocentury!
- gniv 2y agoIt's a cute remark, but why is 50 minutes the right cutoff? For a technical talk it seems long. For an entertaining keynote it seems short. Movies are 90+ minutes.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- xanderlewis 2y agoAt both the universities I’ve attended, lectures lasted 50 minutes. The odd few we had that were 100 had a short break in the middle supposedly inspired by research on how attention levels decay and recover over time. Conference talks seem to usually hover around the 60 minute mark. I find movies have become too long — especially in recent years.
- meristohm 2y agoSame here, regarding movies- we preferentially watch films under two hours, ideally 90-100 minutes, because that both fits between our child's bedtime and ours, and it's a better economy of time for a story in that format, rather than an indulgent marathon. I doubt I will ever watch Heat again, unless over a couple days, and unless my child wants to I won't watch the Lord of the Rings again (and especially not The Hobbit movies; that was largely a waste of time, though I will gladly read The Hobbit at least once more before I die). Mad Max: Fury Road (Black & Chrome version) I watched for the third time recently, but over two days. Engaging conversation, though? I recently had the luxury of time and privilege of talking for three hours straight with a well-read college student. Not being a high school teacher anymore I'm out of touch with young-adult perspectives, and I have so many follow-up questions now.
- kkfx 2y agoHum... Mine personal ones would be: - teach enough IT at the right time, a teenager MUST know enough to produce nicely formatted docs with graphs, tables etc, LaTeX level, at least with some pre-made templates, how to take notes, do simple computations etc on a desktop, it's the writing ability of today, people MUST know enough or they will suffer for the entire life struggling with bad tech and allowing bad tech to spread; - teach like universities from the start, I do no know how does primary schools works in the USA, here in EU they teach with regular assignments and continuous checks instead of pushing children to take notes ALONE, study in their own notes and form their own knowledge valuating more their memory and conformism than the knowledge they really have acquired; - teach without frills, I do not need slides and co, I need lectio magistralis who INTEREST people and makes them feel the passion in any subject, than test the acquired knowledge making your students teach a lesson on what they have learnt, that's the way to prove themselves what they have understood instead of blindly remembered; - be clear, giving real life examples you audience should have lived sometimes.
- thfuran 2y ago>teach like universities from the start Do you know of any research suggesting that would be an effective way of teaching first graders?
- Miraltar 2y agoI'm wondering as well, because it seems to me that it would just cause most children to drop school very early
- JackFr 2y ago"Sticking Crayons Up Noses: A longitudinal study"
- screye 2y agoMost advice for creating high achieving people is meant for high achieving kids of high achieving parents. Independent study is perfect when the student has a strong base for subject navigation and requisite enterprisingness to investigate by themselves. A beginners needs to be hand held, because they often don't know what they don't know. Keeping the cognitive load low helps keep the student from developing aversion foe the subject. I only fully grasped this when I tried to learn drums as an adult. Training wheels and strictly guided practice is essential to reach the first level of competence. You can own your development journey after that. Exceptions exist, and those are the geniuses. To me, a genius is someone who can demonstrate competence in a field, despite bad pedagogy. They should never be used to guide teaching methods for the other 99%.
- dotancohen 2y ago> Be Prepared for Old Age This sums up the last two years of my life exactly. Somehow I've become a fixture - and I've had a hard time identifying exactly what happened until I read this. Spot on.
- noso 2y agoI can relate to this experience as well. The transition catched me off guard. My advice would be to embrace the change while staying true to yourself. Live without regrets and, as Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, don't listen to the naysayers. I also love the fact the paper has the word "miffed", you do not hear this much!
- jp42 2y agoOver the time I can see my dad getting that feeling. He is 76, it took him years to make peace with that feeling. Apparently it's unfortunate reality that we all have to go through it.
- adamnemecek 2y agoGian-Carlo Rota is probably the best combinatorist of the 20th century.
- spennant 2y agoPersonal story: I sat in his office as an undergrad and he presented a problem to me concerning counting balls in boxes that had applications to quantum theory. It blew my freshman mind.
- mamonster 2y agoIs there any coherent argument for him to be considered more important than Lovasz(considering that Lovasz did most of his heavy work in the 80s)?
- adamnemecek 2y agoHe is generally considered to be responsible for creating modern combinatorics.
- richrichie 2y ago> The etiquette of old age does not seem to have been written up, and we have to learn it the hard way. It de- pends on a basic realization, which takes time to adjust to. You must realize that after reach- ing a certain age you are no longer viewed as a person. You become an institution, and you are treated the way institutions are treated. You are expected to behave like a piece of period furni- ture, an architectural landmark, or an incunab- ulum. This hits home hard. It is depressing to see that "boomer" is a derogatory term :)
- groby_b 2y agoYou _can_ avoid this. It seems (based on my experience, at least), a duration-of-tenure problem, not an age problem. Switching fields when you're heading towards "landmark" status does seem to do the trick. It's scary as heck, but you can avoid that corner for a while longer.
- richrichie 2y agoThat's a good point.
- teddyh 2y ago> Write Informative Introductions > Nowadays reading a mathematics paper from top to bottom is a rare event. If we wish our paper to be read, we had better provide our prospective readers with strong motivation to do so. True. > A lengthy introduction, summarizing the history of the subject, giving everybody his due, and perhaps enticingly outlining the content of the paper in a discursive manner, will go some of the way towards getting us a couple of readers. That does not sound like a very good way to accomplish this. I would instead recommend the approach explained here: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM> (It’s Larry McEnerney’s lecture The Craft of Writing Effectively)
- crazygringo 2y agoI suppose it depends on whether you're looking for readers outside of your sub-sub-field, or readers within it. If you're looking for readers outside your sub-sub-field, then it definitely sounds like a good way to me.
- teddyh 2y agoNo, I think that’s a common fallacy. The lecture I linked uses the example of someone writing a paper to get grants, etc. This is not ”outside your field”. Other academicians in your field are regular people too, and all readers (who are not your immediate teachers) will benefit from the techniques described.
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- reaperducer 2y ago"In the summer of 1979, while attending a philosophy meeting in Pittsburgh…" Too many people in the tech industry get tunnel vision and think that they should only focus on learning one thing. One discipline. One science. It becomes one truth. One religion. The true "smartest people in the room" are the ones who are well-rounded in a lot of disciplines and able to apply knowledge from one to another. The smartest people I know – whether they work at NASA, USC, or BNY Mellon – all started out in fields other than the one they ended up in, and bring a diversity of knowledge to what they do every day.
- fscaramuzza 2y ago> Running overtime is the one unforgivable error a lecturer can make. This is so true. It has happened too often that a professor has decided to explain the most difficult topic in 5 minutes overtime. Before lunch. What a mistake.
- anon3242 2y agoAt least a portion of this paper appeared in "The Princeton Companion to Mathematics" ed. Timothy Gowers