Silicon Valley has a lot of wanna-be Yodas. But Paul Graham has always seemed like the real deal to me.
Thus, as I’ve never known @paulg to be wrong at this level before, I must simply assume that I am not understanding what he is saying.
Because this seems dangerously wrong.https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1095993046276194304 …
-
This isn’t about numbers of individuals. It’s about impact and not marginalizing abstraction’s super learners by comparing them to those who benefit most from learning-by-doing. But yes, we all use a mixture of practice and theory. It’s just not simply one size fits all.
Ok, I get it. In fact this has given me a theory about why many math textbooks are the way they are. I thought it was because mathematicians had forgotten what it was like not to know what they knew, but maybe they actually are teaching the way they learn.
-
-
It’s quite interesting. Math has fantastic interplay between these communities. As does music. Also dance. I think your advice is quite solid within a class of folks. But I would be absolutely nowhere without abstractions as my leading tool & my people benefit from your wisdom.
-
Keep doing you. Just remember we’re out here too. And thanks. Peace out.
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
Yes. I've seen that in action. Most of the people who go on to become professors are the people who "just got it" and never had to think about how. The question from students is often "But how did you know to go from this step to that step?"
-
The answers included, "It's obvious," and "Experience." Both quite useless.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
I had trouble with many of my math textbooks in college. The incremental building within a chapter caused me not to get it until the end: the pieces didn’t make any sense until I could see the whole. This turned me off a bit and I stopped after only 3 semesters of calculus. :(
-
There’s also a particular pedagogy problem with math - normally the strategy is ‘teach the principles of the next course while you practice the techniques of the last course.’ That has issues if the students don’t have enough of the principles for the exercises to make sense 1/2
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
but when a good mathematician teaches you math 1-1, they don't do it that way. I think the textbook problem is because they get so used to writing proofs, they end up sounding like a proof even when they are really trying to teach.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
It took me ages to realise my students weren’t skipping the examples in textbooks like I always had. I loved reading textbooks as a student, but I never worked the problems and mostly ignored the examples. My engineering students mostly start with the problems and work back.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.