Mathematical genius is fragile
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Mathematical genius is fragile
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Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#2The author lost me at "Mathematical genius resides within every one of us — most people just don’t know it yet."
The movie Ratatouille captured the sentiment much better, "a great chef can be anyone". Which is not the same as "anyone can be a great chef". It seems the author is mixing up those two.
I fully agree that gender, background, schooling, etc is not the key determination of genius. However, saying anyone could be a genius is disingenuous.
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#3The author lost me at "Mathematical genius resides within every one of us — most people just don’t know it yet." The movie Ratatouille captured the sentiment much better, "a great chef can be anyone". Which is not the same as "anyone can be a great chef". It seems the author is mixing up those two. I fully agree that gender, background, schooling, etc is not the key determination of genius. However, saying anyone cou…
A 7ft tall pro basketball player resides within every one of us.
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#4The author backs up his assertion that mathematical genius is fragile by ... listing a bunch of people whose genius was apparently rather robust.
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#5The author lost me at "Mathematical genius resides within every one of us — most people just don’t know it yet." The movie Ratatouille captured the sentiment much better, "a great chef can be anyone". Which is not the same as "anyone can be a great chef". It seems the author is mixing up those two. I fully agree that gender, background, schooling, etc is not the key determination of genius. However, saying anyone cou…
Being a hard worker is easier than being seven feet tall, though. I know it's disingenuous to say hard work will get you everywhere, but working your ass off and being confident about it will get you pretty far.
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#6To the author of the article—you have a very tiny typo, garderning instead of gardening.
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#7The thing about first example is that the speed of brain development in child and adulthood geniality/iq/whatever are only loosely related. It is perfectly possible for a child to be bad in math in first few grades and good later on. It did not had to be test, it is perfectly possible for him to be slower at that age or him having lower attention span. (That assumes school systems that wont give up on such child as bad early on.)
The situation of women now is a lot better then it was in 19 century. There is some bias and unequal expectation toward gender, but nowhere near as was at the time. While all the kids now know what is supposed to be girly toy/profession and what is boyish, there is no particular stigma facing working females nor female mathematicians. The 'it could easily play out like that now' is far from being accurate.
I don't think you are helping equality when you compare stigma of being women who knows stuff with unequal representation of genders now. One, you are lowering her achievement and strength of will which had to be huge. I would say she was anything but fragile. Two, you are not doing service to women now - our situation is not the same as situation hundreds years ago and talking about it as it would helps no one.
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#8The thing about first example is that the speed of brain development in child and adulthood geniality/iq/whatever are only loosely related. It is perfectly possible for a child to be bad in math in first few grades and good later on. It did not had to be test, it is perfectly possible for him to be slower at that age or him having lower attention span. (That assumes school systems that wont give up on such child as b…
It is better for women now than it was before, but it is still far from perfect.
Just look at the turn over rate and exit rate of women in these fields.
Even the women who objectively "make it" are being driven out of the industry in droves.
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#9The thing about first example is that the speed of brain development in child and adulthood geniality/iq/whatever are only loosely related. It is perfectly possible for a child to be bad in math in first few grades and good later on. It did not had to be test, it is perfectly possible for him to be slower at that age or him having lower attention span. (That assumes school systems that wont give up on such child as b…
It is better for women now than it was before, but it is still far from perfect. Just look at the turn over rate and exit rate of women in these fields. Even the women who objectively "make it" are being driven out of the industry in droves.
Driven out by who? A mass group of secret conspirators?
Re: Mathematical genius is fragile
#10The author lost me at "Mathematical genius resides within every one of us — most people just don’t know it yet." The movie Ratatouille captured the sentiment much better, "a great chef can be anyone". Which is not the same as "anyone can be a great chef". It seems the author is mixing up those two. I fully agree that gender, background, schooling, etc is not the key determination of genius. However, saying anyone cou…
Being a hard worker is easier than being seven feet tall, though. I know it's disingenuous to say hard work will get you everywhere, but working your ass off and being confident about it will get you pretty far.
It depends, so actual math problems involve creativity and not brute force, though most of the problems in schools involve trying known recopies/algorithms to solve something if you check the problems people solve on international competition all of those involve creativity. But of course without hardwork you will not have a solid base for your creativity to work with.