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Proof you can do hard things

blog.nateliason.com

11–20 of 330 posts

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#11
Self-image really is important, especially on the dimension of self-efficacy. There are compounding effects in both the positive and negative direction though.

I’ve used this same idea to dig myself out of ruts. When things are fucked up I’ll start paying attention to small things and deliberately “defer” progress on a few bigger things that are harder to do and more costly to fail. Each small win helps build momentum into the next-biggest challenge.

I’ve found this super useful for avoiding “habit destruction” during major life events/travel/moving.

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#12
There are infinitely many hard things. It is hard to learn Japanese. We don't require that every high school student attain basic proficiency in it though.

The reason we learn calculus in high school is because it is foundational for many advanced STEM fields, and we will yield better results during university for the small percentage of students who go into those fields by forcing everyone to learn it in high school. Or, moreso, that's a viable justification for learning it today. Had history taken a different shape maybe we would learn something else, or maybe not. But the point is that calculus is not an arbitrary hard thing we learn for arbitrary reasons.

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#13
I think there is an similar argument for Greek and Latin in grammar schools. And the same for ancient Chinese in Chinese schools. Partly for cultural immersion and partly for brain gymnastics.

Math, and proof based Math such as Number Theory and Analysis is definitely in the same league if not for a career in academics.

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#14
post #6

You take calculus to understand the nature of change over time, which is the foundation of physics. The formulas to do integrals aren't important but the concept of integrals is. Honestly I think we should try to focus on differential equations instead but maybe it's necessary to do calculus first.

It’s the foundation of a lot more than just physics.

It’s absolutely crucial to economics and business, and it is a travesty that it isn’t a required part of lower division curriculum. You cannot grasp micro/macro/applied/business economics without understanding relationships between changing variables.

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#15
I don't want to be overly rude, but this is nonsense. The reason to learn calculus is that it's incredibly useful in several domains and never learning it prevents you from become a skilled practitioner in those domains which in turn reduces your future earning potential.

Basically: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/why-i-couldn39t-be-a-math-...

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#16
One of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard a math teacher tell me/the class is “you’ll probably never use this outside of this classroom”! And I’ve heard this story before, so it seems slightly common?

I entered college without a rock solid foundation in mathematics and it made things much more difficult.

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#17
post #8

Am I just hopelessly old fashioned? Or is this not most of the justification for bachelors degrees?

I suspect it's the justification for many PhDs. If you don't go into academia then chances are the content isn't that relevant, but the experience of having to problem solve in uncharted territory is a great confidence booster and skill to have.

Re: Proof you can do hard things

#18
I hate the framing of problems or domains as hard, since it kept me from pursuing them further for many years. And the years later when I tried my hand at those problems, I found that it wasn't nearly as hard as it was being made out to be.

Historically many problems have also been hard until people figure them out, and then they stop being considered hard problems. In recent years this has been mostly true of AI-related topics.

A lot of people have achieved mastery over really hard problems and synthesized their learnings over countless hours, making the information much more easily accessible for future generations.

If you keep hearing someone talk about how some field is hard you should take that as an opportunity to challenge yourself rather than shy away from it. One field that has recently interested me is organic chemistry, which I'm interested in learning mostly because of how many people I've heard talking about how it's so challenging. May I find a worthy opponent.

Edit: This is relevant to HN when talking about C and C++. People talk about these languages as if they're some magical beasts, but in reality you can get really far with them by treating it as a serious endeavor. People will talk about how they don't have full mastery over the language, but you don't need anything close to that in order to be effective. If you know how to program in other languages you can pick up C++ just as easily and start being effective very quickly. No mastery required. It's not that hard.

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