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To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

quantamagazine.org

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Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#11

Post by Hydraulix989 »

grogenaut wrote: post #10
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good programmers.

What if they have an computer with no games and no internet. As to your response... Should inmates be deprived of all distractions, especially trivial ones? How often do you BuzzFeed or candy crush or Facebook?

> How often do you BuzzFeed or candy crush or Facebook?

I'm definitely an outlier here, sample size one. :-)

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#12

Post by GuiA »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #4
nojvek wrote: post #2

I wonder if inmates have access to computers, would they become good programmers?

Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good programmers.

Sure, just like give anyone access to a library and they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature.

That's missing the point though. The point is access and opportunity. Even if only 5% become programmers, it's a net win overall (and that's not even counting the people who might play Candy Crush but still use the computer to better themselves in other ways - learning, filing taxes, etc.).

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#13

Post by state_less »

koolba wrote: post #9
ccvannorman wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give a man a computer, feed his mind for a day. teach a man to computer ...

More like give a man a computer and he'll start looking at porn.

What if s/he had to write a perl script to download it though?

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#14

Post by danielahn »

stablemap wrote: post #5

Everyone I know who went to his MAA farewell address said it was wonderful. Definitely follow their link to read or hear the whole thing: https://mathyawp.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/mathematics-for-hu...

There's a link at the top of your linked site to an audio recording - maybe it was recently edited in

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#15

Post by xor1 »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #8

Based on all the supposed benefits of doing math, it sounds like people would be better off studying philosophy. Same benefits but a much broader appeal, and far more applicable to most people's everyday lives. When I finally "discovered" philosophy in college, I was angry that we hadn't been exposed to it at all in middle or high school. Instead, I'd been forced to waste years on things like math, biology, etc. that…

Could you expand on this? I'm curious what you mean. My only exposure to philosophy was an intro course in college.

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#16

Post by henrik_w »

ccvannorman wrote: post #6
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good programmers.

Give a man a computer, feed his mind for a day. teach a man to computer ...

"Give someone a program, you frustrate them for a day; teach them how to program, you frustrate them for a lifetime." - David Leinweber

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#17

Post by xor1 »

GuiA wrote: post #12
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good programmers.

Sure, just like give anyone access to a library and they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature. That's missing the point though. The point is access and opportunity. Even if only 5% become programmers, it's a net win overall (and that's not even counting the people who might play Candy Crush but still use the computer to better themselves in other ways - learnin…

There's nothing wrong with his response given how the original post was worded...

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#18

Post by mkalygin »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #8

Based on all the supposed benefits of doing math, it sounds like people would be better off studying philosophy. Same benefits but a much broader appeal, and far more applicable to most people's everyday lives. When I finally "discovered" philosophy in college, I was angry that we hadn't been exposed to it at all in middle or high school. Instead, I'd been forced to waste years on things like math, biology, etc. that…

I would like to add that in most cases it is crucial to understand philosophy behind everything. Whatever you try to learn, if you don't understand the way of thinking, don't see a roadmap, then you don't understand a subject.

In schools and colleges this is not always the case that we learn philosophy of a subject. Especially in schools. This is sad.

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#19

Post by catnaroek »

henrik_w wrote: post #16
ccvannorman wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give a man a computer, feed his mind for a day. teach a man to computer ...

"Give someone a program, you frustrate them for a day; teach them how to program, you frustrate them for a lifetime." - David Leinweber

It's a good kind of frustration, though. It reminds me of Terence Parr's motto:

> “Why program by hand in five days what you can spend five years of your life automating?”

Link: http://parrt.cs.usfca.edu/

Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics

#20

Post by curiousgal »

GuiA wrote: post #12
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good programmers.

Sure, just like give anyone access to a library and they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature. That's missing the point though. The point is access and opportunity. Even if only 5% become programmers, it's a net win overall (and that's not even counting the people who might play Candy Crush but still use the computer to better themselves in other ways - learnin…

>they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature.

Unless you count Madame Bovary.

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