Lumifer comments on Is Scott Alexander bad at math? - LessWrong

31 Post author: JonahSinick 04 May 2015 05:11AM

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Comment author: epicurus 04 May 2015 07:07:48PM 1 point [-]

Cutting edge math is actually mostly about converting fuzzy stuff, at least the parts of math I am interested in(Algebraic Geometry - Grothendieck/Weil for example). Both the mentioned mathematicians worked in a field where people had some stuff that worked but no foundations.

Also, the foundations of math have been changing for quite a long time and continue to do so. I think your reaction to mathematics might be to badly taught mathematics rather than mathematics as practiced. However, I don't see an easy way to fix it.

To teach mathematics well would require a high amount of mastery and we don't have enough people like that around.

Comment author: Lumifer 04 May 2015 07:26:27PM 2 points [-]

I think your reaction to mathematics might be to badly taught mathematics rather than mathematics as practiced.

I doubt it -- I generally teach myself things and just ignore bad instruction. The underlying cause is likely to be the curse of the gifted -- I'm lazy and when I run into walls I usually go around instead of starting a wall disassembly project. And I was never attracted to math sufficiently to apply a lot of effort.