JonahS

The Truth About Mathematical Ability

There's widespread confusion about the nature of mathematical ability, for a variety of reasons: * Most people don't know what math is. * Most people don't know enough statistics to analyze the question properly. * Most mathematicians are not very metacognitive. * Very few people have more than a casual interest in the subject. If the nature of mathematical ability were exclusively an object of intellectual interest, this would be relatively inconsequential. For example, many people are confused about Einstein’s theory of relativity, but this doesn’t have much of an impact on their lives. But in practice, people’s misconceptions about the nature of mathematical ability seriously interfere with their own ability to learn and do math, something that hurts them both professionally and emotionally. I have a long standing interest in the subject, and I’ve found myself in the unusual position of being an expert. My experiences include: * Completing a PhD in pure math at University of Illinois. * Four years of teaching math at the high school and college levels (precalculus, calculus, multivariable calculus and linear algebra) * Personal encounters with some of the best mathematicians in the world, and a study of great mathematicians’ biographies. * A long history of working with mathematically gifted children: as a counselor at MathPath for three summers, through one-on-one tutoring, and as an instructor at Art of Problem Solving. * Studying the literature on IQ and papers from the Study of Exceptional Talent as a part of my work for Cognito Mentoring. * Training as a full-stack web developer at App Academy. * Doing a large scale data science project where I applied statistics and machine learning to make new discoveries in social psychology. I’ve thought about writing about the nature of mathematical ability for a long time, but there was a missing element: I myself had never done genuinely original and high quality mathematical research. After completing

103Feb 12, 2015

JonahS

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How does personality vary across US cities?

In 2007, psychology researchers Michal Kosinski and David Stillwell released a personality testing app on Facebook app called myPersonality. The app ended up being used by 4 million Facebook users, most of whom consented to their personality question answers and some information from their Facebook profiles to be used for...

Dec 20, 201669

An update on Signal Data Science (an intensive data science training program)

In December 2015, Robert Cordwell and I cofounded Signal Data Science (website), which we announced on Less Wrong. Our first cohort has just concluded, and overall went very well. We're planning another one in Berkeley from May 2nd – June 24th. The program is a good fit for people who...

Apr 9, 20169

Announcing the Signal Data Science Intensive Training Program

Note: We now have a website with up to date information here: http://signaldatascience.com/. (This post is coauthored with Robert Cordwell.) We’re writing to announce the inaugural run of Signal Data Science’s intensive training program. The program will train students in the core skills needed to work as a professional data...

Dec 19, 201533

Beyond Statistics 101

Is statistics beyond introductory statistics important for general reasoning? Ideas such as regression to the mean, that correlation does not imply causation and base rate fallacy are very important for reasoning about the world in general. One gets these from a deep understanding of statistics 101, and the basics of...

Jun 26, 201525

Intrinsic motivation is crucial for overcoming akrasia

tl;dr: If you struggle with motivational problems, it's likely that the problem is not intrinsic to you, but instead that you haven't yet found work that you find very interesting. How I discovered how to do great work Last winter I did something that I had never done before. I...

Jun 17, 201529

Autism, or early isolation?

I've often heard LWers describe themselves as having autism, or Asperger's Syndrome (which is no longer considered a valid construct, and was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders two years ago.) This is given as an explanation for various forms of social dysfunction. The suggestion is...

Jun 17, 201534

Accomplishing things takes a long time

At age 17, my future looked very promising. I had overcome a crippling learning disability, and discovered how to do research level math on my own. I knew that the entire K-12 infrastructure had failed to figure out how to teach the skills that I developed, and so I felt...

Jun 15, 201525

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JonahS

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JonahS

The Truth About Mathematical Ability

Cognito Mentoring: An advising service for intellectually curious students

Innate Mathematical Ability

Is Scott Alexander bad at math?

JonahS

How does personality vary across US cities?

An update on Signal Data Science (an intensive data science training program)

Announcing the Signal Data Science Intensive Training Program

Beyond Statistics 101

Intrinsic motivation is crucial for overcoming akrasia

Autism, or early isolation?

Accomplishing things takes a long time

The Truth About Mathematical Ability

Cognito Mentoring: An advising service for intellectually curious students

Innate Mathematical Ability

Is Scott Alexander bad at math?

How does personality vary across US cities?

An update on Signal Data Science (an intensive data science training program)

Announcing the Signal Data Science Intensive Training Program

Beyond Statistics 101

Intrinsic motivation is crucial for overcoming akrasia

Autism, or early isolation?

Accomplishing things takes a long time