I don't know any of those theories and I feel quite ignorant and humbled. Extremely smart.
Terry Tao's generals (2012)
61–70 of 145 posts
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I keep making this mistake. I almost asked "why philosophy, didn't he study physics?" That does make me wonder: why DOES the qualification/position/status name mention only philosophy?
PhD is a license to teach (i.e. doctor) philosophy. Specifically, in "science" fields, natural philosophy. Natural philosophy was the original (and i think better) name for science, especially physics. It was understood to be an important subbranch of philosophy. I think its better name because it elucidates an important epistemological difference: science is a method, not knowledge. I learn science when I learn abou…
Holy cow, I had not until today realized that "doctor" comes from "docere" (to teach). Thanks for enlightening me!
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#63Thought this Oppenheimer anecdote may amuse the HN contingent. "Oppenheimer obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in March 1927 at age 23, supervised by Max Born.[28][29] After the oral exam, James Franck, the professor administering, reportedly said, "I'm glad that's over. He was on the point of questioning me."[30] " Franck had won the Nobel two years earlier. Sources: [Refs] quoted directly from Wikipedia artic…
My favorite? When Von Neumann(an Austrian aristocrat) walked into his oral exam, Hilbert asked another of the admistrators who his tailor was.
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#64I found these questions excellent prompts for chatgpt.
I imagine using chatgpt plus these questions would greatly help a grad student study for their comps.
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#65This seems a great way for system design interviews.
Interviewer: what do you know about transactions?
Candidate: Transactions can be serializable.
Interviewer: great, tell me the difference between final state serializability and view state serializability and prove that they are the same if neither of them has dead step.
Candidate: yada yada yada.
Interviewer: Can you tell me how to use such concepts in implementing a production database system? Please come with a few short illustrative examples too.
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
PhD is a license to teach (i.e. doctor) philosophy. Specifically, in "science" fields, natural philosophy. Natural philosophy was the original (and i think better) name for science, especially physics. It was understood to be an important subbranch of philosophy. I think its better name because it elucidates an important epistemological difference: science is a method, not knowledge. I learn science when I learn abou…
Holy cow, I had not until today realized that "doctor" comes from "docere" (to teach). Thanks for enlightening me!
Which makes you wonder why a medical doctor is called that?
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Holy cow, I had not until today realized that "doctor" comes from "docere" (to teach). Thanks for enlightening me!
Which makes you wonder why a medical doctor is called that?
For the same reason social science is called science. When words start to become prestigious many will attach that word to what they do.
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel good about myself if I can understand more than the first sentence of any of his posts. Some days I'll even settle for only the first. Great mathematicians are said to be exceptional at visualization. I wonder if the modern greats think in TeX or LaTeX on top of that. It is amazing how fast they post fully-formed, meticulously referenced blog articles or upload preprints.
After a while writing LaTeX becomes second nature. I used to type my master's classes notes straight in LaTeX.
Times have changed. We didn't have laptops in classes ... laptops didn't exist.
And I wrote my PhD in TeX. Not LaTeX ... that hadn't been invented.
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
PhD is a license to teach (i.e. doctor) philosophy. Specifically, in "science" fields, natural philosophy. Natural philosophy was the original (and i think better) name for science, especially physics. It was understood to be an important subbranch of philosophy. I think its better name because it elucidates an important epistemological difference: science is a method, not knowledge. I learn science when I learn abou…
Apparently it is also a license for your brother in law to brag about having a PhD in economics, despite not being able to hold a job for more than 2 years and currently working as a manager at a pest control company after being laid off from his last job.
I can imagine that many great academics might have difficulties 'holding a job'. A PhD is certainly something to be proud of, just as running a marathon, raising a great child or having a great corporate career.
Re: Terry Tao's generals (2012)
#70> primes of the form 4n - 3.
I think they mean 4n + 3 unless this is a joke I'm missing