I should have loved biology • Hacker News Board

Re: I should have loved biology

#231

Post by lmm » Sun, Jul 10, 2022, 10:54 PM UTC

april_22 wrote: post #208

todd8 wrote: post #186

I had been putting off quantum physics and time was running out. I was worried forth semester physics at MIT was going to be tough, but then through some miracle of providence the EE department decided that a solid state chemistry chemistry class plus Into to Biology could be substituted for quantum physics. Because I had already taken a solid state chemistry class, all I had to do was take a basic introductory biolo…

The amount of things you need to learn in biology is truly hard, though from what I've heard, there's nothing harder than quantum physics, since it's so fundamentally different from how we're used to seeing things.

QM is fine, straightforward even. A bunch of philosophers (and Feynmann) try to make it sound harder and weirder than it is.

Re: I should have loved biology

#232

Post by rsp1984 » Sun, Jul 10, 2022, 10:55 PM UTC

It's not just biology. It's basically every subject in high school. The amount of knowledge in the world has exploded in the last 100 - 150 years, yet our school system refuses to adapt and pretends we're still in the early 1900s. Back then you actually could get a good and reasonably in-depth overview of what makes the world work before going to college or work.

But those kinds of aspirations are completely futile these days. People in the ministries of education and other responsible bodies will argue that high school's purpose is not to educate on a subject in depth but to give a broad overview of many subjects but that's completely besides the point. Because the point is that the only way that they are able to "give you a broad overview" these days is by force-feeding you ever more facts and knowledge in sliced up classes, compressed into ever more shallow and boring text books and then letting you puke it all out in brain dead exams, many times a year for many different subjects, in parallel. Bulimia learning.

Which is beyond sad, because basically every subject can be the source of wonder and amazement if taught the right way and with enough time to explain and explore. Which is why we need to let our kids choose the subjects they are interested early in school and get comfortable with the fact that they won't have any knowledge about other subjects when they leave high school. There simply isn't any other way.

Re: I should have loved biology

#233

Post by oldstrangers » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 1:09 AM UTC

For the love of everyone with a large monitor set your body element to margin: 0 auto;

body { max-width: 500px; margin: 0 auto; font-family: vollkorn, serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.2em; }

Re: I should have loved biology

#234

Post by synergy20 » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 2:22 AM UTC

watwut wrote: post #209

synergy20 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, there is the "education first" mindset. When a culture puts education first(e.g Eastern Asia countries), it not only means they will sacrifice their limited resources for education, it also means teachers are well respected and well paid across the society, relatively speaking. Further, when a country focuses on CRT and LGBT+-education and Equity-grading at K-12 these days, school is no longer a place…

Schools dont focus on CRT and I guarantee you that the kids are not loosing anything by LGBT not being taboo anymore. If anything, schools and educations are harmed by scaremongering and mythmaking like you do.

About 18% born after 1995 are claiming they're LGBT+, I have friends that are LGBT+ so no worry about the scaremongering part, but some of those folks are going too far these days. Specifically I don't get it why it has to be on K-12's agenda where my kids attend with my tax money and they told me that it's offensive to address classmates if you use the wrong he/she, these days you better ask "how am I supposed to address you?", it's ridiculous.

Re: I should have loved biology

#235

Post by ramraj07 » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 2:58 AM UTC

dinvlad wrote: post #229

ramraj07 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a difference between YOU understanding everything vs. ANYONE understanding everything though.

For sure - and I don't think we necessarily have the ANYONE part either :-) The reason for that is folks who build systems often leave, and the details of why or even how they did something leave with them. At some point, there's no one in the company who understands certain things. And the analogy with biology actually goes even further - just like in software, we "know" the code (DNA), but how does that translate t…

So someone builds something and they leave, and you can’t figure out their code? Or more importantly, you’re suggesting it’s impossible to figure out that code by anyone? Seems a stretch don’t you think?

Re: I should have loved biology

#236

Post by gorgoiler » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 4:33 AM UTC

DNA is like source code written one line at a time with a million branches each with a different engineer that merge once or twice after 20 years of random hacks whose merge conflict resolution is non deterministic and error prone yet amazingly produces syntax errors very rarely*.

I take umbrage with the idea this is a technology from millions of years in the future. It’s literally the background noise technology that just shows up if you do nothing for 16 billion quarters.

*unless you merge with a first cousin.

Re: I should have loved biology

#237

Post by josht » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 4:34 AM UTC

rsp1984 wrote: post #232

It's not just biology. It's basically every subject in high school. The amount of knowledge in the world has exploded in the last 100 - 150 years, yet our school system refuses to adapt and pretends we're still in the early 1900s. Back then you actually could get a good and reasonably in-depth overview of what makes the world work before going to college or work. But those kinds of aspirations are completely futile t…

O Captain! My Captain!

Re: I should have loved biology

#238

Post by TheDong » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

keeptrying wrote: post #213

smokey_circles wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> psychology for example while I'm pretty despondent with the replication crisis in psychology, medicine isn't much better. but to dismiss it outright is pretty ignorant. curious how you explain the state of America if your assertion is psychology and mental health are "relatively useless" fields

the western medicine solutions are useless. Eastern techniques seem to be much more practically useful for handling mental health tecniques.

> the western medicine solutions are useless.

We have done science here, made hypothesis and tested them. "Western medicine", including therapy and anti-depressants, have been shown to have real, significant, reproducible positive impacts.

It's also difficult to compare to "eastern techniques" since that's a fairly vague term. Perhaps drinking tea, meditating, and getting acupuncture has a more positive impact on one person than taking an anti-depressant, but for another person, anti-depressants may be wildly more effective. Perhaps arranging ones house and diet to maximize "positive chi energy" will help one person, but have no impact on another.

What eastern techniques are you specifically claiming are practical and useful, and for what scenarios? Are the studies that show anti-depressants to have effect wrong, or are they useless because they're inferior in your opinion?

Re: I should have loved biology

#239

Post by popcube » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 6:23 AM UTC

rsp1984 wrote: post #232

It's not just biology. It's basically every subject in high school. The amount of knowledge in the world has exploded in the last 100 - 150 years, yet our school system refuses to adapt and pretends we're still in the early 1900s. Back then you actually could get a good and reasonably in-depth overview of what makes the world work before going to college or work. But those kinds of aspirations are completely futile t…

In my country, we keep teaching the 200 age old part of sphysics or mathematics in high school.

Re: I should have loved biology

#240

Post by popcube » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 6:26 AM UTC

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #202

todd8 wrote: post #186

I had been putting off quantum physics and time was running out. I was worried forth semester physics at MIT was going to be tough, but then through some miracle of providence the EE department decided that a solid state chemistry chemistry class plus Into to Biology could be substituted for quantum physics. Because I had already taken a solid state chemistry class, all I had to do was take a basic introductory biolo…

Biology classes kinda get easier in the later years (at least they did for me), because although they start of with a lot of "don't worry about why this happens, just know that it happens", we got to the "this is why it happens", and it all starts to fall into place. There are some fundamental principles, so far as we actually know them, in biology, however it does seem to be taught in a broad-to-narrow direction tha…

because at least in molecular biology, there are no basic rules, how can we know any "rule' if the only example is p53? but it is useful, so this is now condition.