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Understanding papers depends on what your field is. For example, I'm interested in optimization/signal processing/machine learning and finishing up my educatio
by skierscott 12y ago
Understanding papers depends on what your field is.
For example, I'm interested in optimization/signal processing/machine learning and finishing up my education. In the related journals I can barely understand the notation and miss the higher level concepts.
On the other hand I'm taking a class that required me to read a journal paper written by the professor. It was strange: I could understand it. I followed it and most of the finer details too.
I would say that OPs statement is true: 99.99% of papers published by math profs are incomprehensible to almost everyone. Not only do they use foreign notation there's also a lot the don't say because it's assumed the reader knows enough to prove it -- hence "left as an exercise for the reader..."
- acadien 12y agoJust because someone doesn't understand how a jet engine works doesn't mean its incomprehensible to them. It just means they haven't spent the time and effort to understand it. There are very very few topics out there in this world that you cannot understand if you've had the proper training. Granted a lot of topics may take a couple of years to understand, or even a decade. But guess what, it took the author that long to understand it too.