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Lessons of an MIT Education

math.tamu.edu

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Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#121

Post by throw54732096 »

jccalhoun wrote: post #74
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)

your mileage may vary. https://nicemangos.blogspot.com/2017/07/professor-jordan-pet...

I did not check every claim in that article.

What I did check, did not check out.

They show a video of Peterson arguing that being a CEO of a billion dollar company is basically pointless stupid competitiveness and men happen to be more pointlessly stupid in that regard, and the blog interprets it as him saying women should not try to be CEOs

That video is the center of the argument (the thing the post 'builds up to') in the blog's own estimation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU7AewaHr0Q

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#122

Post by csa »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #92
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…

My experience is that the curriculum and what is taught is the same in many places but the assignments & exams are much more difficult at top schools. My bar for what "learning" something meant became much higher after constantly being beat down by insanely hard assignments/exams. Now I think testing is just as important as teaching in determining how much someone learns - hard tests expose sloppy learning very quick…

> hard tests expose sloppy learning very quickly and give you feedback on what you didn't learn as well as you thought.

This is stated very well. I will be using this verbiage (specifically the "expose sloppy learning" part) in the future in my occasional defense of hard tests.

Thank you.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#123

Post by wolfgke »

foldr wrote: post #98
wolfgke wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First: I used your "nutty conspiracy theories" wording. > But then why do you judge the conspiracy theories to be nutty, if they are on just as firm an epistemological footing as actual history? But to elaborate on your argument: Because of the dubious epistemological footing indeed "actual history" has not the highest reputation to me. The reason I disregard lots of "nutty conspiracy theories" rather lies in the fac…

So, you believe that the moon landings weren't faked solely becuase of the credentials of the people who say that it was faked? You believe that the Holocaust happened solely because Holocaust deniers say crazy things about other topics? That seems really, really, off base.

> So, you believe that the moon landings weren't faked solely becuase of the credentials of the people who say that it was faked?

This is exactly one example for my "where falsification is much better possible" - in this case because of physics.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#124

Post by wallace_f »

_delirium wrote: post #118
rayiner wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The charactetization is incorrect. The liberal arts do teach “how.” Creative writing or political philosophy or history teaches you skills you can use to analayze scenarios and communicate with people in different ways to different effect. Where the author is correct is that in those fields the output isn’t falsifiable. Your math skills allow you to construct proofs that can be verified. Your study of history allows…

> and which makes their lifestyles possible Arguably computing as a discipline is an important part of what makes contemporary lifestyles possible, and most of it, especially the practical parts, resembles the liberal arts more than it resembles mathematics. Especially areas like programming languages overall operate more through argumentation and analogy than through proofs. Sure, there are subsidiary proofs involve…

>Especially areas like programming languages, in their applied parts, operate more through argumentation and analogy than through proofs.

I think the virtue is not in the value of the arguments, but whether the argumenrs are falsifiable.

Programming has the virtue that it has to work for it to have value. Social sciences and humanities have to convince someone that it would work.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#126

Post by brudgers »

michaelscott wrote: post #91
analog31 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every field has its own sugar water, and its own titration. Advertising and GUI design are the sugar water of computer science. The "coding interview" tells me that at least some aspect of programming is akin to titration.

I could give GUI design a tenuous connection if pressed, but what on Earth does advertising have to do with computer science?

Google hires a lot of computer scientists. Advertising is it's core business.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#127

Post by HiroshiSan »

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?"

Surely you're joking Mr Feynman is an autobiography and definitely does not reflect Feynmans life unbiasedly. Its a great book but if you want a more unbiased account of his life check out Genius by James Gleick.

Walter Isaacson also just came out with a biography on da Vinci and he has one on Benjamin Franklin, though I never finished it, it was written to the same standard as Einstein.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#128

Post by csa »

stonemetal wrote: post #51
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…

In general the answer he gives sounds like bullshit to me. Really, "unconsciously absorbed" "ambiance" is what going to MIT is about? >a gifted student will thrive in the company of other gifted students This I put a little more stock in. It is competitive to get in. So all of the people in your calculus one class had calculus in high school, and they are all particularly gifted at math. This means they are able to c…

> This means they are able to cover more, and go deeper in to the subject because there is no time "wasted" educating an "average" student.

Sort of.

Even in a class of motivated and gifted learners, there are some learners who are more motivated and/or gifted.

One of the most frustrating experiences for me at Ivy schools was having to slow the discussion down for the less-talented folks. Don't get me wrong, they were still (mostly) smart and knowledgeable, but there was a palpable difference in discussions that accommodated the slower people and those that didn't (e.g., office hours, some seminars, informal round tables, etc.).

In short, and imho, there is still time "wasted" educating an "average" student at these schools, it's just that the "average" is usually quite a bit higher.

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#129

Post by dougmwne »

czbond wrote: post #34
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…

People are machines - simply meat machines. The underlying mechanics and operating systems differ, but the processes and 'tasks to be done' are similar. =) IMHO

Meatsack.WhoIs:[your_owner] Meatsack.PurchaseRequest:[internal_organs]

Re: Lessons of an MIT Education

#130

Post by ta_1509903111 »

I liked the part about the hidden curriculums. Any idea how one would balance it with the actual one when you have plans to go to grad school?

For me, the hidden curriculum is in machine learning and AI. I was recently given a chance (as an undergrad) to join such company. I think this is my best chance to learn about the field in a qualitative way and possibly get my name on a research paper before I graduate with a BSc. I'd work under the supervision of Ph.D.'s in the field.

That being said, for my grad school efforts, I would need to keep my GPA in check, which is currently 3.2, but which would suffer a blow. My question is that does anyone have an idea whether admission boards (in private US colleges) tend to tolerate lower GPAs for whatever hidden curriculum I've found, given it's still academic and aligned with the actual degree I'm applying to? I'd be applying as an international student.

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