Posts tagged “Math”
You aren’t clever. You’re pedantic.
If I say something about math or stats or programming, I can look forward to getting well-actually-ed by a guy. This is especially common on the internet but happens rather often in non-screen mediated interactions, too. It seems that if I don’t copy my point straight out of a textbook, it’s so wrong they must […]
Imposter
I minored in math in undergrad. In about the second week or third week of each math course, I would strongly consider dropping, convinced I wasn’t clever enough to pass. I made a B in one of those courses and an A in every other. No matter how many math courses I took, I still […]
Your documentation made me cry
I was reading through some documentation a few days ago. It’s nicely written – easy to understand AND not boring as hell. But then I came across this line: You’ll also (obviously) need a working C compiler. Ok, yes, that is obvious to me at this point in my life and probably to just about […]
Math is hard sometimes
An excised snippet of my conversation with Colin Kremer in which I expertly employ hyperbole in the description of a math course and Colin gets nostalgic about math homework. Math Freakout [mp3, ~1 minute]
Mathematicians’ glasses
Many of the papers I’m reading leap between equations with phrases like “The equation may readily be solved to give [next equation which looks totally unlike previous equation],” “The reader may easily supply the details [of the derivation I read this paper to learn],” and “[the next step I really need to make my model […]
What I’ve Noticed: Politicians don’t get economics edition
AZ governor and strong supporter of the bad-for-business anti-immigrant law, Jan Brewer, lies about immigrants and her own past. Anyone who grows such lovely hydrangeas couldn’t possibly be a spy! Knowing a little history goes a long way towards refuting people who try to rewrite it. It could also prevent our politicians from making the […]
Are we really doing this again?
John Tierney thinks that women just can’t measure up to men when it comes to math and science. His column is infuriating, but I’ll let Female Science Professor, Dr. Isis, dana at EotAW, and PZ Myers take it apart for me. FSP summarizes the article snarkily and succinctly: There are flawed studies that show that females and males […]