PhilGoetz comments on Mechanics without wrenches - Less Wrong

33 Post author: PhilGoetz 15 April 2009 08:09PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (75)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: RobinHanson 15 April 2009 11:42:02PM 12 points [-]

I doubt understanding differential equations would help Congressfolk make better decisions. It is the economic concepts that would be useful for them, not so much the math.

Also, our basic ideology of democracy says that ordinary people can make wise decisions about policy without expert knowledge. So it is hard for voters to say politicians are unqualified without such knowledge without admitting that voters are also unqualified.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 16 April 2009 02:30:47AM *  2 points [-]

Math is so powerful in so many domains that it is embarrassing that out of 300,000,000 people, we can't find 500 to represent us who are well-educated in math. I second emeritusl: It's a way of thinking.

Excellent point about the ideology of democracy.