2024-25 Roster Thread #1: The Beginninging

[deadhead]

@Sombastate is supposed to recommend a book on Calculus to me, which I am excited for, which means that I must harbor an immense reservoir of self-hatred.

Calculus is a sort of litmus test, some people embrace it, others can't grasp it to save their life.

My "Waterloo" was probability and statistics, I could brute force it, but it never felt comfortable.
N-dimensional hyperplanes intersecting convex curved surfaces, no problem.
But the balls in the urn . . .

 

[ponder719]

If math is real then I have to take this seriously:

I cannot, and I will not.

How dare you insult the Flyers' decision tree so rudely?

 

[Chicken N Raffls]

Oh it's definitely real. Some of it is really weird as well.

The sad thing about age is the deterioration of math skills, in my 20s, with cigarettes and coffee, I was f---g brilliant. Blew off a Calculus II class to party for a whole semester, then worked through the textbook in one week and A'ced the final exam.

In graduate school, learned set theory to read Debreu's Theory of Value, taught myself Dynamic Programming, etc.

Now, it's Egyptian Hieroglyphics to me.
Still have a grasp of the intuition, but actually doing anything more complicated than percentages? Forget about it. The brain turns to mush.
When I read a paper I assume the editor approved the 10 pages of math and just focus on the explanation and the conclusion.

There's a reason the work that gets Physicists and Economists Nobel Prizes is mostly done by age 30.

I've been using a tape measure for work since my teens. These days I sometimes say to myself 3 and 3/4 and a 16th. And if I have to multiply anything beyond 12x12 it's straight to the calculator, unless one multiplier is 10. I figure out how much to tip by figuring 10% then double it and add more if the service warrants. In high school I was great at those mental math competitions. I'd be lost after like 2 or 3 steps now.

Slightly different, but I was talking with a friend the other day about how many phone numbers I used to know. Now I know five. My own, my parents' land line (my own growing up), both of their cells (had them forever, and they're the same except for one digit), and Kitten's (and I mostly know hers from picking up Chinese food)

 

[trostol]

 

[Sombastate]

@Sombastate is supposed to recommend a book on Calculus to me, which I am excited for, which means that I must harbor an immense reservoir of self-hatred.

Oh yes! My apology for the delay! thank you for the reminder.

"Infinite Powers" By Steven Strogatz is a very digestible read. It will make you want to fire up your Khan Academy calculus curriculum.

 

[Lord Defect]

I regret to inform you that math isn't real

This adds up

 

[Beef Invictus]

Calculus is a sort of litmus test, some people embrace it, others can't grasp it to save their life.

My "Waterloo" was probability and statistics, I could brute force it, but it never felt comfortable.
N-dimensional hyperplanes intersecting convex curved surfaces, no problem.
But the balls in the urn . . .

Probability, stats, and geometry were my math "things" that I could get without distress or aid. Geometry was taught by an old US Army artillery officer. Once the basics were covered in a systematic way that no one could fail to grasp (so, I suspect it was basically the military's own training course), all our problems revolved around how to make shells fall on top of Charlie or Saddam. I took right to the practical applications. This was foreshadowing.

Calc was next. None of it made a scrap of sense. It was the usual teach-style of "read this very abstract and detached passage in a book. Now you watch me solve some problems. Understand?" I did not understand a damn thing. 9 months with that teacher and I don't believe I learned a single thing from her, or from the textbook.

Had a tutor once a week for 3 months. Dudeman used practical applications for calc and trig. Working with real things relating to each other and solving real problems. It was all so easy and clear that I couldn't figure out why I ever struggled. That guy's 12 hours of instruction got me past my HS class and through a college course (which was more of "read detached gibberish then watch, you must understand now.")

Come to think of it, my teacher used craps and poker/blackjack to teach probability; more practical application leading to easy understanding.

Oh yes! My apology for the delay! thank you for the reminder.

"Infinite Powers" By Steven Strogatz is a very digestible read. It will make you want to fire up your Khan Academy calculus curriculum.

45% off! A great deal! Everyone buy this! New book club!

 

[Sombastate]

45% off! A great deal! Everyone buy this! New book club!

Let me know when you get it, I'll re-read it alongside you. I read it the week it came out, and would love to revisit it.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Let me know when you get it, I'll re-read it alongside you. I read it the week it came out, and would love to revisit it.

Haha, it's likely to take me months to read. The heavy books like that or Physics stuff I reserve for when I have the brain-energy to think hard and grasp things instead of going through the motions. Brain-energy is in short supply with two young kids, that's why it's taken me an eternity to get through Something Deeply Hidden

It is supposed to arrive tomorrow

 

[Beef Invictus]

2024-25 Roster Thread #2: Midseasonnar

Prior: 2024-25 Roster Thread #1: The Beginninging Our little mathematical interlude seemed like the first good discussion break in weeks, so let's sneak the new thread in.

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Onwards!