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Math isn't that hard to learn, it's just that it requires lot of tutoring and lot of thinking. The reason why people today don't possess that much mathematical

by kiba 14y ago

Math isn't that hard to learn, it's just that it requires lot of tutoring and lot of thinking. The reason why people today don't possess that much mathematical knowledge is that they don't maintain their knowledge of mathematics. So, when it comes to learning calculus or other advanced mathematics, you have a swiss cheese foundation. That swiss cheese foundation simply means you didn't mastered the previous required materials. So it's hard to learn. I did the really elementary to high school materials in the past two years on and off. Math concepts didn't really get harder to learn. They're easy or hard to learn at time, but there's no difficulty ramp to speak of. Then what happens afterward is that you start forgetting about how to do things like logarithmic operation, how to simplify trig identities, and so on after a week or two, or sometime days. So you need to continuously review them everyday or do enough real world problems that you know how to do them for life. The skills and knowledge that we master requires daily maintenance, or otherwise you lose your ability to do them. It's just like fitness. A person who stop long distance running for a while will no longer be able to run as long.

Xcelerate 14y ago
> Math isn't that hard to learn [...] calculus or other advanced mathematics Most people's concept of what "math" is, isn't advanced math. Advanced math is incredibly complex. (I honestly kind of chuckle when people tell me they are "really good at math".) Read Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~anindya/fermat.pdf http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~anindya/fermat.pdf), or Godel's incompleteness theorem and tell me if you understand any of that. Math much easier than his proof, yet vastly more difficult than calculus, is used in many areas of physics and chemistry. And I think it is this kind of math to which the original article was referring. People like to quip that Einstein wasn't good at math, because he had mathematicians helping him with his work. What they don't understand is that Einstein's skills in math blows everyone else's out of the water; it's just that they weren't up to the level of an actual mathematician.
- kiba 14y ago
  it's just that they weren't up to the level of an actual mathematician. I guess what I am doing and learning is really elementary. But I like to think my point about having foundational knowledge and the willingness to practice everyday still stand. I know what I am doing and learning isn't what mathematican really do day to day. They make up new stuff, prove things, and solve problems in creative ways. I just commit to memory or practice steps on how to solve exercise sets, although the way I do is way smarter and time efficient than what people do when I was in high school. I don't know if all that practice will eventually pay off in some way, but I know that I just really hate forgetting stuff that I learned in high school math class. ( Yes, I really do "incredibly boring" math homework everyday despite finishing high school three years ago)
- continuations 14y ago
  Exactly. Calculus is not hard. Multivariate analysis is not hard. That's because they are very basic math. Proving Poincare conjecture or Riemann hypothesis is insanely hard and completely beyond the grasp of us mere mortals.
- rdouble 14y ago
  He's not talking about advanced math, he's just saying you don't need to be good at math to be a good biologist. Much like a computer scientist needs to know math, but they don't often need to be that good at it.

by kiba 14y ago

Xcelerate 14y ago

> Math isn't that hard to learn [...] calculus or other advanced mathematics Most people's concept of what "math" is, isn't advanced math. Advanced math is incredibly complex. (I honestly kind of chuckle when people tell me they are "really good at math".) Read Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~anindya/fermat.pdf http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~anindya/fermat.pdf), or Godel's incompleteness theorem and tell me if you understand any of that. Math much easier than his proof, yet vastly more difficult than calculus, is used in many areas of physics and chemistry. And I think it is this kind of math to which the original article was referring. People like to quip that Einstein wasn't good at math, because he had mathematicians helping him with his work. What they don't understand is that Einstein's skills in math blows everyone else's out of the water; it's just that they weren't up to the level of an actual mathematician.

kiba 14y ago
it's just that they weren't up to the level of an actual mathematician. I guess what I am doing and learning is really elementary. But I like to think my point about having foundational knowledge and the willingness to practice everyday still stand. I know what I am doing and learning isn't what mathematican really do day to day. They make up new stuff, prove things, and solve problems in creative ways. I just commit to memory or practice steps on how to solve exercise sets, although the way I do is way smarter and time efficient than what people do when I was in high school. I don't know if all that practice will eventually pay off in some way, but I know that I just really hate forgetting stuff that I learned in high school math class. ( Yes, I really do "incredibly boring" math homework everyday despite finishing high school three years ago)
continuations 14y ago
Exactly. Calculus is not hard. Multivariate analysis is not hard. That's because they are very basic math. Proving Poincare conjecture or Riemann hypothesis is insanely hard and completely beyond the grasp of us mere mortals.
rdouble 14y ago
He's not talking about advanced math, he's just saying you don't need to be good at math to be a good biologist. Much like a computer scientist needs to know math, but they don't often need to be that good at it.