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Lessons of an MIT Education

math.tamu.edu

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Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#101

Post by BeetleB »

bjourne wrote: post #41

> Lesson Six: You must measure up to a very high level of performance. I can imagine a propective student or parent asking, "Why should I (or my child) take calculus at MIT rather than at Oshkosh College? Isn't the material practically identical, no matter where it is taught, while the cost varies a great deal?" Is there any truth to this? Because it seem like classical university jingoism to me. "My institution is b…

>What matters most is the ambiance in which the course is taught; a gifted student will thrive in the company of other gifted students.

As someone who went to both a very average university and a top ranked school, I fully agree. There were only two differences between the two:

1. The top university packed more material in a course (not a good thing, in my experience).

2. The top university had more peers which drive you to be better. This I really felt a lack of in the average university. All the motivation had to come from within, and although it was somewhat beneficial, it was also very aimless and inefficient. Synergy really is a thing.

(As an aside, the quality of instruction was not very different - perhaps slightly better in the average university. In my experience the role your peers play is much more impactful than the role your teachers play).

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#102

Post by BeetleB »

hoke_t wrote: post #64
ploggingdev wrote: post #48

(Off topic) > Scientific biographies often fail to give a realistic description of personality, and thereby create a false idea of scientific work. Any recommendations for biographies which give a realistic look into famous scientists' lives? I am reading the Einstein biography by Walter Isaacson and it's pretty good so far. Completely off topic : how do you configure a LAN to have /~username urls (such as the linked…

Try "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman?"

While entertaining, I think biographies are better than autobiographies.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#104

Post by oddlyaromatic »

sokoloff wrote: post #72
dougmwne wrote: post #6

The author was quite harsh on the soft sciencies and humanities and I'm going to attempt a defense. First, he characterises these subjects as merely what, facts to be learned, instead of how, skills to be mastered. Let's take history, which seems very what, full of dates and names. A great course in history teaches you how to think differently and with deeper context about world events and your country's politics. I…

> [The author] characterises these subjects as merely what, facts to be learned, instead of how, skills to be mastered. Indeed. I owe a significant amount of my professional and financial success to being able to communicate my/my teams' ideas and breakdown and communicate company strategy to my teams. After a certain base level of excellence in engineering or another technical field, the distinguishing characteristi…

> I see so many great technical people who are unable to communicate effectively and suffer badly from this.

I learned a lot of my communication skills studying the arts, and staging plays, musical performances, etc. My best teachers about clearly communicating expectations and deadlines, and giving meaningful feedback in a respectful way, have been people in the arts.

At my first hackathon, I got the same vibe I often did in the last few days before a play or concert. Then when I started running a civic tech project, more and more patterns with working in the arts became apparent. Lots of volunteers, everybody has day jobs, you need to provide people with opportunities to do work they care about, but not pressure. And you need to provide leadership without being a dictator, and meet external milestones with a "show must go on" attitude when the time comes.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#105

Post by SiempreViernes »

sabujp wrote: post #81
xkcd-sucks wrote: post #69

MIT is a very good school, but shouldn't be fetishised. After several years of hiring people in the Boston area, I've seen just as many mediocre MIT grads as mediocre BU grads. In fact, the only person at my company to be fired for incompetence was an MIT graduate

was the person incompetent or did he/she not get along

> fired for incompetence

Surely that was clear enough?

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#106

Post by kelukelugames »

pault wrote: post #58
jack_pp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone interested in learning more about people (and yourselves) I highly recommend Jordan Petersons' lectures on youtube. I believe he has started working on an online university for the humanities with all the money he's bringing in from patreon (he wisely hid it recently but it was close to 60k per month last time it wasn't)

I really enjoy his lectures but people should be aware that he's been in the middle of some controversy over LGBT legislation in Canada and has attracted a following of vocal red pill types. The comments on his YouTube videos are kind of disturbing. His psychology lectures are great and I mostly share his views on post modernism, but I wouldn't want to be associated with his fan club.

Don't forget Peterson's claim that only men have high enough motivation to be successful in competitive industries. His view is problematic because some VCs grill female founders not on their products but on their motivation level and how they will take care of their kids. Most power couples I know hire nannies. It's common enough where people shouldn't ask.

Anyway, I concede people can be good in one way or another while also being a total shitstain. See Spacey, etc. But Peterson has always been too angry for me. He's like Colbert with no satire.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#107

Post by swiley »

bjourne wrote: post #41

> Lesson Six: You must measure up to a very high level of performance. I can imagine a propective student or parent asking, "Why should I (or my child) take calculus at MIT rather than at Oshkosh College? Isn't the material practically identical, no matter where it is taught, while the cost varies a great deal?" Is there any truth to this? Because it seem like classical university jingoism to me. "My institution is b…

I looked at the OCW stuff when I took calculus at a community college. They cover the same material but a lot of the homework and exams are made of word problems which makes it (arguably unnecessarily) very hard. After that I only used OCW for lectures and book suggestions and never for worksheets/exam/practice problems because if I want to study calculus then I'm going to focus on that.

You can take it either way. It's hard, but not in a way that makes you better at the subject.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#108

Post by brownbat »

frankling_ wrote: post #65
rayiner wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Falsifiability” is a word with meaning. If you identify a single counter example to a mathematical conjecture, the conjecture is wrong. That is not true for history, philosophy, psychology, or the other liberal arts.

Your statement is obviously false (counter example: analytic philosophy produces conjectures that are black-or-white-falsifiable on the exact same basis as mathematical conjectures). Since you are engaging in epistemology, you may appreciate that the above is also an example of what falsification looks like when it is not formal. I'd suggest reading some Popper.

Seconded. I'd add Wittgenstein and Quine to the list.

Two Dogmas would be a good place to end up.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#109

Post by guelo »

jack_pp wrote: post #30
dougmwne wrote: post #6

The author was quite harsh on the soft sciencies and humanities and I'm going to attempt a defense. First, he characterises these subjects as merely what, facts to be learned, instead of how, skills to be mastered. Let's take history, which seems very what, full of dates and names. A great course in history teaches you how to think differently and with deeper context about world events and your country's politics. I…

For anyone interested in learning more about people (and yourselves) I highly recommend Jordan Petersons' lectures on youtube. I believe he has started working on an online university for the humanities with all the money he's bringing in from patreon (he wisely hid it recently but it was close to 60k per month last time it wasn't)

Thanks but I'll take a pass on getting my education from an anti-education religious ideologue.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#110

Post by throw-away-8 »

ploggingdev wrote: post #48

(Off topic) > Scientific biographies often fail to give a realistic description of personality, and thereby create a false idea of scientific work. Any recommendations for biographies which give a realistic look into famous scientists' lives? I am reading the Einstein biography by Walter Isaacson and it's pretty good so far. Completely off topic : how do you configure a LAN to have /~username urls (such as the linked…

Heilbroner. The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers.
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