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Elliptic Curves: The Great Mystery

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Re: Elliptic Curves: The Great Mystery

#3

Post by Twisol »

voldacar wrote: post #2

This is so much better than anything from Quanta. Anyone trying to write about math should read this and take notes.

Even as someone with mathematical training, my eyes started skipping lines a few paragraphs in. This content is good, for sure, but you have to be in the right headspace to follow along. Quanta's material is serving a different need.

Quanta tells you about it. This article tells you it. Both are valuable!

Re: Elliptic Curves: The Great Mystery

#4

Post by voldacar »

Twisol wrote: post #3
voldacar wrote: post #2

This is so much better than anything from Quanta. Anyone trying to write about math should read this and take notes.

Even as someone with mathematical training, my eyes started skipping lines a few paragraphs in. This content is good, for sure, but you have to be in the right headspace to follow along. Quanta's material is serving a different need. Quanta tells you about it. This article tells you it. Both are valuable!

This draws you into the math instead of running away from it. I feel like a reasonably smart (and motivated) person with no knowledge of group theory or number theory could follow along here and understand the material. I feel like the people who write Quanta articles want me to remain ignorant.

Re: Elliptic Curves: The Great Mystery

#5

Post by staplerr »

Twisol wrote: post #3
voldacar wrote: post #2

This is so much better than anything from Quanta. Anyone trying to write about math should read this and take notes.

Even as someone with mathematical training, my eyes started skipping lines a few paragraphs in. This content is good, for sure, but you have to be in the right headspace to follow along. Quanta's material is serving a different need. Quanta tells you about it. This article tells you it. Both are valuable!

Even as someone with mathematical training, my eyes didn't start skipping.

Re: Elliptic Curves: The Great Mystery

#6

Post by Twisol »

voldacar wrote: post #4
Twisol wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even as someone with mathematical training, my eyes started skipping lines a few paragraphs in. This content is good, for sure, but you have to be in the right headspace to follow along. Quanta's material is serving a different need. Quanta tells you about it. This article tells you it. Both are valuable!

This draws you into the math instead of running away from it. I feel like a reasonably smart (and motivated) person with no knowledge of group theory or number theory could follow along here and understand the material. I feel like the people who write Quanta articles want me to remain ignorant.

> (and motivated)

Look, that's the important part, right? If I wanted to learn the material, I could. But I'm not really interested in learning the material right now, or following the arguments exactly. It's a great article when you're in that mindset.

Quanta, I don't have to be ready to learn the material. I can get a little awareness of what's going on, I don't have to follow specific arguments over a series of paragraphs -- it's news, not lecture. Sometimes that's what I need, to keep aware of what's going on without having to learn it straight up.

I'm a fan of channels like Mathologer and 3B1B, so I'm no stranger to sitting down and following a lovely argument all the way through. I just object to the idea that Quanta is serving the same need as this article and doing a worse job. I just think it's serving a different need altogether.

Re: Elliptic Curves: The Great Mystery

#7

Post by Twisol »

staplerr wrote: post #5
Twisol wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even as someone with mathematical training, my eyes started skipping lines a few paragraphs in. This content is good, for sure, but you have to be in the right headspace to follow along. Quanta's material is serving a different need. Quanta tells you about it. This article tells you it. Both are valuable!

Even as someone with mathematical training, my eyes didn't start skipping.

I could have made my argument without that line. Thanks for checking me.
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