quiver comments on Algorithms as Case Studies in Rationality - Less Wrong

27 Post author: abramdemski 14 February 2011 06:27PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 15 February 2011 10:15:39PM 0 points [-]

I'd hope that this doesn't hold for most undergraduate maths courses, but it's definitely false at the top end.

Comment author: abramdemski 16 February 2011 01:07:28AM *  0 points [-]

What do you mean by "most"? It seems to work pretty well all the way up through calc 1, imho.

Correction: I was wrong; there are some basic cases which knuth-bendix can't handle. It looks like it wouldn't be sufficient up to calc 1 after all.

Comment author: [deleted] 17 February 2011 03:05:05PM 0 points [-]

I was thinking of mathematics degree courses as a whole, rather than specific lecture courses, and in particular of the British system. The mechanics of calculus is taught at A-level in the UK, and here I'd definitely agree that following a standard recipe is most of what's required. But the key feature of a good university maths course is that it develops certain ways of thinking that enable you to tackle problems unlike any you've seen before, and this is the experience that I hope would be shared by all students of mathematics. This is a genuine hope though, not an expectation.

I liked your original post by the way.