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> If calculators are so good at math, is learning math itself useful? What's your answer? Surely it was proven to be "not useful"? I don't think I ever met a p

• seb1204 1y ago
  Well, if you don't know math because the calculator does it you would also have no understanding of the concepts e.g. addition, subtraction, whole numbers or fraction etc. so you would not know how to in use or what to do with a calculator. It's a tool that is useful to do something you know how it works faster.
  • throwaway290 1y ago
    But that's very different with LLMs and that stuff. You don't need to know how to write an essay or write a song. That's kind of the point.
    • hackable_sand 1y ago
      LLMs don't know how to write an essay or a song. To be able to direct an LLM you would need to know how to do those things yourself.
      • throwaway290 1y ago
        LLM don't "know" anything. It's a program. But those programs get fed so many (mostly stolen) essays and songs that it outputs a convincing essay or song. So the end result is this. you don't need to know how to write an essay but you get an essay written for you. It's very different from using calculator and knowing math or using ProTools and knowing how to make a song.
• nkrisc 1y ago
  > Surely it was proven to be "not useful"? I don't think we're living in the same world. I have met plenty of people who, despite having a calculator, can't solve their own problems because they don't know what to do with it in order to solve their problem.
  • throwaway290 1y ago
    Examples pls. I know people who can do mental math and it's maybe only sometimes useful in some games.