Live data from Hacker News

HN-like math research discussion for Ph.D.s

hessix.com

31–40 of 122 posts

Re: HN-like math research discussion for Ph.D.s

#32
post #22

Search is hidden behind registration wall AND I was not allowed to register (without affiliation). You should open search or registration.

Agree on search, it is now open for non users. Affiliation is to avoid content dilution. Any alternative ideas are welcome (and as you can see with search, implemented)

I'm a recent math graduate, working for a couple years before going back for a PhD. I'm a little sad about the affiliation requirement because I'd really like to be able to read and ask questions, even if I am a fool (relative to the rest of the community). As someone who does not get to work in an academic setting or regularly attend conferences, I wish I could still have opportunities to participate in these communities.

I don't know if Hessix was meant to include people like me, but I would really love to be a part of it.

Re: HN-like math research discussion for Ph.D.s

#34
post #29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m sure a maths researcher can handle it No, not at all. Each maths researcher will understand (and care about) only a fraction of these. Maths research (like most subjects) is broken into highly specialised subfields, and experts in one often cannot readily understand research in others. New research papers are the cutting edge of the field, pushing out the boundary between known maths and unknown maths, and this…

Mathematics has a problem that also crops up on the fringes of programming; if a genius creates something at the limits of their understanding it is typically very hard to follow. Academics as a whole doesn't really tackle the issue of taking knowledge and bedding it down into digestible form. Individually a lot of people do great work, but as a body they don't seem to see as that as their role. So far the solution i…

I think that you make some excellent points.

I think we need to stop conflating maths and abstraction with genius and general intelligence: it's too important to be politicised. I also think we should assume that any healthy adult can learn to do maths well by virtue of nothing other than having a human brain. If the normal healthy adult does not do maths well then that should be treated as a pedagogical problem rather than a reason to stratify society.

I think that maths in many ways can be treated analogously to language, and I think what we need to do is express maths in a way better suited for normal human language faculties. I very much like the artificial language Lojban as an architecture ingraining combinatorial and first-order logic into regular self-expression. Imagine speaking Lojban your whole childhood and having this rich vat of lived logical analogies to draw on when learning.

Effecting minds in this way and focusing on median improvements in the functionality of the majority is in my opinion has many many times more potential than any sort of elite screening or stratifying programme.

Re: HN-like math research discussion for Ph.D.s

#35
post #22

Search is hidden behind registration wall AND I was not allowed to register (without affiliation). You should open search or registration.

Agree on search, it is now open for non users. Affiliation is to avoid content dilution. Any alternative ideas are welcome (and as you can see with search, implemented)

What is the means of determining affiliation, I wonder? I entered my email, which is .edu and it didn't like it.

Re: HN-like math research discussion for Ph.D.s

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree on search, it is now open for non users. Affiliation is to avoid content dilution. Any alternative ideas are welcome (and as you can see with search, implemented)

I'm a recent math graduate, working for a couple years before going back for a PhD. I'm a little sad about the affiliation requirement because I'd really like to be able to read and ask questions, even if I am a fool (relative to the rest of the community). As someone who does not get to work in an academic setting or regularly attend conferences, I wish I could still have opportunities to participate in these commun…

Absolutely dragon96 drop. Its by no means meant to be elitist. I just don't know any other way to avoid low quality content. Please send me an email at hsx at hessix dot com and ill send you a registration link.

Re: HN-like math research discussion for Ph.D.s

#38
post #29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m sure a maths researcher can handle it No, not at all. Each maths researcher will understand (and care about) only a fraction of these. Maths research (like most subjects) is broken into highly specialised subfields, and experts in one often cannot readily understand research in others. New research papers are the cutting edge of the field, pushing out the boundary between known maths and unknown maths, and this…

Mathematics has a problem that also crops up on the fringes of programming; if a genius creates something at the limits of their understanding it is typically very hard to follow. Academics as a whole doesn't really tackle the issue of taking knowledge and bedding it down into digestible form. Individually a lot of people do great work, but as a body they don't seem to see as that as their role. So far the solution i…

[deleted]

Re: HN-like math research discussion for Ph.D.s

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree on search, it is now open for non users. Affiliation is to avoid content dilution. Any alternative ideas are welcome (and as you can see with search, implemented)

What is the means of determining affiliation, I wonder? I entered my email, which is .edu and it didn't like it.

It auto checks affiliation and PhD status from a limited list of universities. If there is no match it puts the registration temporarily on hold until I can quickly check myself
Post reply on HN