#why learn math

[then-ponder]

Truthfully, I am critical of most arguments that urge people to learn math. This is in particular because most public defenders of mathematics and math education argue with the implicit assumption that you should learn this if and only if it is useful. They will argue that because we can use all of our math to travel the stars and save our dying planet it is worth learning.

I do not blame them for this. After all this is a common practice under capitalism. The constant need to prove useful is a hellish practice in which all professions participate even if some have it easier than others. But it is harmful. It separates us from seeing math for what it is. Want it wants to be.

Many people would call math a science and there is a truth to that. Much of mathematics is a process of learning cold hard facts, even if the idea has been proven a million times over, but that ignores all the bits of it that we tend to not include. The parts about logic and reasoning, the parts about discovery, the parts that suggest a deeper explanation, the parts where intuition feels like magic and reality feels fake.

At the beginning of this post I said that “arguing math is useful is a harmful argument”. This is why. There is no discovery of facts. Logic, what should be the foundation of all mathematics, is not taught and proving that a statement is true goes ignored and is deathly fatal to students who seek the answers, yet are obscured. Worse, the facts we teach in math are plainly obvious to the student in a way that destroy any merit of the claim “ math is useful” because why would I use math when I could use logic. Why would I use the Pythagorean theorem when I know that two sides of a triangle are longer that the hypotenuse when I’m path finding and why the hell would I use a polynomial to describe anything. You use the language of usefulness you should be teaching useful things, but math can’t teach useful things. It’s math not a trade or a science.

And in truth mathematics isn’t useful. Nothing you point to that most people understand are useful things and the vast majority of research is on problems that most people either don’t care about or find utter nonsense. Truly I don’t mean this to be cruel, it’s just that the proof for 1+1 = 2 is a books worth of pages. And that’s the thing people can’t possibly be bothered to ask questions that a mathematician would lose years to. They just want a fucking answer and that’s fine, but this more explicit explanation is why Mathematicians don’t like ‘applied’ math. It’s because assholes take our prized possessions, our meow meows, and our blorbos and they throw them in a shredder and mangle them up till they have a thing that they like and then they give it to another person who fucking hates math because they got their degree in “I hate math but I love problem solving so I became a [insert stem field here]” so they can blow up that thing so that they can use it to solve something.

The truth is that math is a humanity because it is a reflection of our own reality. Quite like art. And the reason for studying art is the same reason you should study math which also happens to be the reason why math and art education sucks. You should learn about these things because you want to. No amount of money can justify it. You have to want it. And the thing is art is best taught as art. It’s not a just or simply a tool for people to make money. It’s an expression of the self - The very people who created it.

Many fear that if we allow people to stop studying the math people won’t. Fair, but high school math is not reflective of math. It doesn’t teach foundations, it doesn’t teach about the different sub-disciplines. It refuses to teach any math that can’t be directly applied to science and engineering. Of course people don’t want to learn that. You’ve ripped out the meat.

[snarfflarf]

ok im watching dimension 20: the seven right now and ive noticed izzy will ask things like "whats 13+6" and i gotta say the way brennan just simply responds "13+6 is 19" instead of laughing or making fun of her is all i need in life. find me a man who i dont have to hide my hands under the table with when im counting on my fingers

[reloaderror]

where is that “engage w academia as god intended”-post

[demonicseries]

worst part about studying math is the Headaches

[bvshboy]

not to be controversial, but I'm starting to hate the math defenders on this app, like some people take it weirdly personally if you say you hate math, and I know this is a hard pill to swallow if you were praised as a child, but it's literally not about you

[why-the-heck-not]

computer science was a hoax from the universe to get me to study math in the pretense of ”hehe coding’s cool look at all these things u can do” *some mf vectors looming just around the corner* ”noNO dont look there; look here!! It’s ’hello world’ but in green heheh wOoOoo now it’s blue !! u are a god of this website” *matrices sharpening their knives somewhere*

[thedeafprophet]

Alex having learning disabilities is a really important part of his character, esp in conjunction with his closest peers growing up to be an incredible academic and a renowned author and Alex just..... was never able to get that stuff like the other two could, and not helped by the fact he started learning later too.

he also doesn't know that he has these things. he pushes through it with an act of not caring but he geniuenly does still have some internalized ableism and self esteem issues on the matter that he really hasn't aknowledge , not helped from the spaces he travels in being so.... expectant of capabilities.

[channelslam]

tbh carlos being n3 makes sense... people love to hyperfixate on the 2 slams but 1) he missed out on 3 masters due to injury & olympics 2) he had early exits in 2 ATP 500s 3) he didn't reach a masters SF outside of IW

like idk it annoys me when people act willfully obtuse and complain about the ranking system when it's a metric of its own and rightfully rewards year-round consistency above all. a slam is a slam, just like a n1 ranking is a n1 ranking. we're free to debate on which one is more "important" i guess but to imply one necessitates the other is weird lol

[studyblr-perhaps]

I really want to make a series of posts explaining in simple terms the different maths/physics concepts I struggled with when I first learnt them.

Would anyone be interested in it 👀👀?

[tribbles-the-lesbian]

🎉‼️One final down, 2 to go‼️🎉

🙂

I fell down the Reboot!Welcome Home rabbit hole last night when it was storming and I couldn’t sleep. Found myself drawing him on some math practice and now I’ve got my first actual drawing of the ✨traumatized✨ Mr. Reboot!Wally:

Of course he’s criticizing(?) the math and I have to agree with him. I love-hate math and I don’t know what the hell I’m going to use derivatives for but oh well

🙂

(here’s the sketch w/o the silly math)

Reboot!AU belongs to @bloodrediscream

[jtl-fics]

What does Kevin think about Neil’s math nerdiness?

Math Nerd AU

Kevin very much at first does not have an opinion on it because well who gives a shit about how good your new teammate is at MATH when Math doesn't really calculate all that much into Exy. It's not like Neil's calculating rebound angles or-

"Can you calculate exactly where the ball will go?"

Neil looks at him. "Where I throw it?"

Kevin frowns, "No, how many rebounds can you calculate the trajectory of for Exy?" he rephrases.

"Uh, probably 2. After that? No." Neil admits, "I only took physics as my science gen-ed because the math is kind of fun." Neil says.

Useless.

Once he realizes that Neil's Math Nerdiness is long-term a better shield for him after Kengo kicks it? He's a big fan.

[a-box-of-stupid-ideas]

I was rewatching school of crock last night and something like struck me as like weird, like crocker says that one of Peri's classmates is 5. That would mean that peri and irep where in like kindergarten as literal 1 year olds. Bro imagine being outsmarted by a one year old as a 5 year old😭. This literal INFANT was literally one of the most popular kids too. Like Peri could read and write and do maths at ONE, same goes with Irep. Like why ain't they wtf do baby do napping? playing? like in what world made Cosmo and Wanda send their little baby Peri into school this early. Like is it a fairy thing?? assuming goldie is a fairy of some sort, she seemed as old the Peri and Irep when she joined.

[warpedpuppeteer]

I don't know if it was the audio quality or not but it's so hilarious that Eddie just goes BUCK in such a loud voice. It's giving me 'I'm so cool with my queer best friend I'm so supportive' 😭✋🏽. "You look great together" and he sounds strangled, still talking in a high pitch voice. "Have fun, stay safe!", he probably says as he grins too wide while clutching his forgotten girlfriend's hand tightly.

[thepolitetimetravelinggentlemen]

I will learn many things, but French numbers after sixty is not one of them.

[thenegoteator]

[arrowheadedbitch]

They really do lean in to Ethan being the smarter one the longer the series goes on, don't they? To be fair, he always was *smarter* but Benny at least used to *kinda* try