j2kun

59 ms·

901.
by j2kun 10y ago
Try this physics paper[1] explaining how pretty much every model we have of physics is broken in fundamental ways. Things you take for granted because of what you've read in popular media (eg., heat death of the universe) are simply sp
902.
by j2kun 10y ago
> I, as a nobody, won't be read. So I need to gather followers. I do so in the traditional way of commenting, liking, recommending, doing all kinds of community stuff. But again, this can be gamed. This is not impact, but merely hou
903.
by j2kun 10y ago
There is a large, emerging body of research in which one proves the impossibility of solving problem A by finding an algorithm for solving a different problem B. For Mulmuley et al. (it's been a while since I was in the thick of this)
904.
by j2kun 10y ago
I think the first chapter definitely has no prerequisites (it introduces sets and categories), but it's also a core mathematics textbook intended for upper-level undergraduate and early graduate students in pure mathematics. So it re-t
905.
by j2kun 10y ago
> for beginners a traditional presentation based on sets would be much easier to digest. If you read the referenced book, you'd know the author does exactly this.
906.
by j2kun 10y ago
The linked article explains how a single human brain neuron is a lot more complex than previously thought. Obvious is also a word we should avoid using in discussions about brain biology.
907.
by j2kun 10y ago
I read somewhere[1] that because we know far more now about human neurons than we did five years ago, modern CNN's are better compared to a _single_ neuron (but are probably still simpler than them). I'm far from an expert in brai
908.
by j2kun 10y ago
Sadly, editing is also volunteered by the same academics.
909.
by j2kun 10y ago
This is anything but straight. New Yorker is also not straight, but hackers are not the intended audience of New Yorker articles. Normal people prefer stories about people to conceptual discussions. FWIW I think there's some good reaso
910.
by j2kun 10y ago
Exactly how I felt the first time I read it :)
911.
by j2kun 10y ago
Go read the first few chapters of Algebra Chapter 0, and do the exercises. There's a free copy online somewhere... This is the book that really demystifies it from the ground up.
912.
by j2kun 10y ago
I think the GP's point is that just because something is possible in principle, complexity is still a barrier in practice, probably a much more serious barrier than accepting an idea on principle
913.
by j2kun 10y ago
Yup! My goal was more to explain the math than anything else. I was planning to extend this for 25519 and discuss the alternate standard forms, but instead I'm trying to finish up that darned book.
914.
by j2kun 10y ago
This may only be sort of relevant, but I write a math/programming blog on which I implemented a (very inefficient) elliptic curve crypto library from first principles. This includes all the math background, and implementations of a few
915.
by j2kun 10y ago
Commander Keen games were a staple of my early video game experience.
916.
by j2kun 10y ago
The "babbling" samples here are really fun. Would make for a great "Sims" language.
917.
by j2kun 10y ago
Thanks! I'll be looking into these. From a first glance, Coding the Matrix looks to be excellent and exhaustively complete, but also very verbose. From Mathematics to Generic Programming appears to be the kind of book I want to avoid.
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Why science – and open science – matters now more than ever(neurochambers.blogspot.com)
1 points by j2kun 10y ago|0 comments
919.
by j2kun 10y ago
Yes but don't forget he is primarily a researcher (and an extremely famous one at that).
920.
by j2kun 10y ago
I should also mention that I don't expect every programmer to find career value out of the book. I like math, I hear from a lot of programmers who want to like math more (for fun or side projects or work), and I feel like I'm in a
921.
by j2kun 10y ago
When I look at Better Explained most of what I see is "a friendly guide to the logarithm" and "intuition for the law of cosines" (though Kalid does have some more advanced topics). I haven't seen his book so I can&#
922.
by j2kun 10y ago
In anticipating a book like this, would you ideally want to learn the math context and notation (provided one goal of the book is to teach that), or skip that entirely in favor of the underlying ideas (as in your example with Newton's
923.
by j2kun 10y ago
Shameless promotion: I'm writing a book in which I introduce mathematics for programmers specifically. If you found yourself here you may be interested. https://jeremykun.com/2016/04/25/book-mailing-list
924.
by j2kun 10y ago
That being said, you're proposing introducing a dynamical system, and dynamical systems are freaking hard to get right. Extremely sensitive, with counterintuitive consequences. If you want the engineers to even understand why pages a
925.
by j2kun 10y ago
I'm writing a math book for programmers. https://jeremykun.com/2016/04/25/book-mailing-list/
926.
by j2kun 10y ago
Problem is, when every fake news story comes from a new fake news website, clicking hide doesn't help for the future.
927.
by j2kun 10y ago
You mean, with English words? You know, English was also optimized for being written on paper... Doesn't mean it's broken.
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by j2kun 10y ago
> designing abstract logical structures for human beings to use Moreover, you do realize that computers were invented by mathematicians, right?
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by j2kun 10y ago
Indeed, Slack has native support for ~2k emojis, but not basic math symbols. It's clearly a matter of priorities, not feasibility.
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by j2kun 10y ago
Of course people comment math. What do you think the thousands of math books are for?

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