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Everyone is capable of, and can benefit from, mathematical thinking

(www.quantamagazine.org)
166 points sonabinu | 2 comments | 21 Nov 24 01:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.427s | source
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benreesman ◴[21 Nov 24 04:15 UTC] No.42201045[source]▶
I’m far from being any kind of serious mathematician, but I’ve learned more in the last couple years of taking that seriously as an ambition than in decades of relegating myself to inferiority on it.

One of the highly generous mentors who dragged me kicking and screaming into the world of even making an attempt told me: “There are no bad math students. There are only bad math teachers who themselves had bad math teachers.”

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1. thefaux ◴[21 Nov 24 05:41 UTC] No.42201473[source]▶
Sadly, when I was a postdoc, an eminent mathematician I was working under once shared a story that he found amusing that one of his colleagues was once asked a question in the form: "This might be a stupid question, but..." and the response was "There are no stupid questions, only stupid people."

Run into too many people like that, who I daresay are common in the field, and it's easy to see how people become dispirited and give up.

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2. benreesman ◴[21 Nov 24 06:12 UTC] No.42201598[source]▶
I think we can recognize Pauli for his identification of one of the few magic gadgets we accept around spin statistics without accepting his educational philosophy: “Das ist nicht einmal falsch.”

He was right on the nature of the universe, he was wrong on making a better world. I for one forgive him on the basis of time served.