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JulianMorrison comments on Causal Diagrams and Causal Models - Less Wrong
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This slammed into my "math is hard" block. I will return and read it, but it's going to be work.
But on pondering that, I think I realized why math is hard, compared to prose text that just presents itself as a fait accompli to my attention. (And why it is not hard, for some people who are savants.)
We are not executing mathematical computations. We are emulating a crude mathematical computer which takes the kind of explicit algorithms that are fed to students. No attempt is made to cultivate and tune a "feel" for the result (which is what executing computations would be like, since it's what the other hard computations we do - like reading - feel like).
Just putting that out there.
I just focus on understanding ideas when I'm not willing to do math work.
The rough and nontechnical explanation of this post that I've gotten is: You can't tell what causes what when you've just got two things that come together. But when you've got three things, then you can make pairs out of them, and the relationship between the pairs can tell you when something isn't causing something else. (Unless there are complicating factors like Friedman's Thermostat, see the comments below.)
But I want to do math work. My inability to think in math is a serious weakness.
Coursera's mathematical thinking class is more than half over. But I'm really enjoying it, so you might keep an eye out for repeats.
Agreed, I would like that too. Advice and resources would be nice.