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Fuck Your Miracle Year

rogersbacon.substack.com

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Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#101

Post by paulryanrogers »

Banana699 wrote: post #81
paulryanrogers wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public education is a baseline. Literacy, civics, a bit of math and biology are things that can help no matter what vocation people end up with. Without it folks might end up pigeonholed into whatever their family does or a narrow selection of trades within the local community.

This common way of thinking is flawed in several ways. 1) The baseline is extremely low, and getting lower by the year I will take math as an example. High school, at the best possible setting, leaves you knowing single variable calculus. Is this enough? no, it's nearly zero. To be able to understand anything about math in the modern age, you have to know : - Formal logic - Linear Algebra and Differential Equations a…

The baseline is meant to serve the greatest number of people possible. Diff. Eq. is far beyond the average person and less useful for them to know for their lives than basic statistics and critical thinking.

I'm not saying US K12 is perfect. Rather that it isn't trying to cater to 90th percentile, independent learners. For those hopefully the parents will recognize greatness and seek a more fitting alternative.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#102

Post by mattkrause »

javajosh wrote: post #35
pjbeam wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was shocked to (re)discover that high school algebra is a multiyear course. And trigonometry is a year long. What?

I learned algebra in middle school, in one year. What is this insanity of which you speak?

“Algebra” by itself is meaninglessly broad. You could certainly teach “solve [some simple kinds of] equations for an unknown” in a few months; you could also have a whole mathematical career as an algebraist.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#103

Post by nanidin »

oldstrangers wrote: post #93
sillysaurusx wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the punchline?

You're projecting a lot of weird insecurities onto a throwaway joke about Einstein being an alien because his achievements were Out Of This World. Clearly no one thinks Einstein was an actual alien. It's remarkable that I'm actually having to type this out. Relax stranger, there's no weird Freudian argument to be found here.

I don’t think you’re arguing in good faith as “out of this world” did not appear until this comment.

This would be similar to calling Einstein a cow, then waiting an hour to say it’s because he’s outstanding in his field.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#104

Post by sillysaurusx »

oldstrangers wrote: post #99
sillysaurusx wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn’t talking about your Einstein portion. Your whole comment was cynical. If you don’t want to discuss it, that’s fine. But it’s not up to everyone else. I think joining a YC startup to disrupt the food industry is a pretty interesting thing. Most people spend their lives not disrupting anything at all. It doesn’t make them worse people, but it would be nice if they’d not snipe at people who do those things.

MY cynical comment is your point of contention? In response to the absurdly cynical article we're discussing in the first place? The one literally called 'Fuck Your Miracle Year'? You have nothing to discuss which is why there isn't a discussion to be had here. You attacked me with an incredibly weird reaction to joking about Einstein being an alien, then doubled down and demanded I explain humor to you. Both article…

“This article is pretty bad. I’ll make it worse by acting equally poorly in the comments.” Is that your logic?

I do have things to discuss — your behavior, and why you’re so aggressive.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#105

Post by tomrod »

oldstrangers wrote: post #96
colechristensen wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Einstein wasn’t that special, he wasn’t superhuman, if you transported the same person in time significantly he would have likely been entirely unremarkable. He had many contemporaries just as capable with complements equally as impressive. He got famous which was a result of a few of his accomplishments being of topics and characters which got the attention of popular culture. He was also simply primed with being a…

Quoted post unavailable.

For this thread: praise, then acknowledgement of reality.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#106

Post by atq2119 »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #56
throwaway1777 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually disagree. It’s kind of a power law distribution thing where 1% of the people make 99% of the real scientific breakthroughs. We should absolutely optimize for geniuses.

> 1% of the people make 99% of the real scientific breakthroughs That is maybe the single most dubious statistic I've seen thrown out so offhandedly in my entire time on HN.

I mean it's bound to be true and actually more extreme than that if you're taking the entire population as your reference. If you take as reference the subset of people who are trying to get to scientific breakthroughs, then yeah, it's dubious.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#107

Post by timbaboon »

oldstrangers wrote: post #89
angrais wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused... Are you suggesting Einstein was not human, e.g., an alien?

I'm surprised that I'm having to explain this to multiple people but yes, it's just a joke.

Well, I enjoyed seeing the ridiculous responses you got… so thank you :D

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#108

Post by oldstrangers »

nanidin wrote: post #103
oldstrangers wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're projecting a lot of weird insecurities onto a throwaway joke about Einstein being an alien because his achievements were Out Of This World. Clearly no one thinks Einstein was an actual alien. It's remarkable that I'm actually having to type this out. Relax stranger, there's no weird Freudian argument to be found here.

I don’t think you’re arguing in good faith as “out of this world” did not appear until this comment. This would be similar to calling Einstein a cow, then waiting an hour to say it’s because he’s outstanding in his field.

So in your mind it makes more sense that I was genuinely calling Einstein an alien? That the hyperbole of calling someone an alien didn't possibly register as being in jest?

Do you wait for the comedian to explain the joke before you're able to clarify their position?

I don't think you're commenting in good faith because none of the alternatives for what I could've meant make any sense.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#109

Post by Dr_Birdbrain »

oldstrangers wrote: post #57

I don't understand either one of these articles to be honest. We're talking about Einstein and Newton as if their success is reproduceable if we just give people time to think? We don't have miracle years now because people like Einstein are impossibly rare. That's assuming Einstein was even human. We also don't have "miracle years" because the term doesn't actually mean anything. It's not real. Maybe the pressures o…

No post body was provided.

Re: Fuck Your Miracle Year

#110

Post by oldstrangers »

timbaboon wrote: post #107
oldstrangers wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised that I'm having to explain this to multiple people but yes, it's just a joke.

Well, I enjoyed seeing the ridiculous responses you got… so thank you :D

Weirdest 30 minutes of my life. Wow.
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