RE: What are your overall opinions on people who are idiots in math?
October 16, 2022 at 2:17 pm
A perspective:
“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”
― Robert Heinlein
In my experience, there are very few people who *cannot* do math. There are many that are not willing to put in the work required (whether due to lack of interests, lack of time, lack of good resources, etc). And it may well take going back to elementary school and really learning arithmetic before tackling algebra, trig, and calculus.
But it is also true that for many people the amount of time spent in learning the language of math will have minimal reward. Anything through algebra is simply learning the alphabet. Calculus is basic reading. It is only much later that you get to good literature and poetry.
“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”
― Robert Heinlein
In my experience, there are very few people who *cannot* do math. There are many that are not willing to put in the work required (whether due to lack of interests, lack of time, lack of good resources, etc). And it may well take going back to elementary school and really learning arithmetic before tackling algebra, trig, and calculus.
But it is also true that for many people the amount of time spent in learning the language of math will have minimal reward. Anything through algebra is simply learning the alphabet. Calculus is basic reading. It is only much later that you get to good literature and poetry.
