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   clarity flowers (clarity@xoxo.zone)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 08:00:30 JST clarity flowers

   people always rail against math notation as "illegible" and "elitist gatekeeping" and "unreasonably opaque" and while I'm sympathetic to these arguments I think it's worth understanding this not as a property of some ivory tower elitism but of the percentage of math that is done by hand on chalkboards.

   "why don't mathematicians use descriptive names for things" because my arm is tired! have some sympathy.

   • Embed this notice
     clarity flowers (clarity@xoxo.zone)'s status on Wednesday, 22-May-2024 08:06:48 JST clarity flowers

     in reply to

     I'm sure they're out there, but I've never met an elitist mathematician (no, primary school math teachers don't count as mathematicians). They've all been enthusiastic weird nerds who love sharing this stuff with people.

   • Embed this notice
     clarity flowers (clarity@xoxo.zone)'s status on Thursday, 23-May-2024 01:10:51 JST clarity flowers

     in reply to

     • J Miller

     @JMMaok yeah that trackx

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     J Miller (jmmaok@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 23-May-2024 01:10:52 JST J Miller

     in reply to

     @clarity

     While economists are not mathematicians, they do a lot of math, and usually in the most incomprehensible Greek they can manage, whether in chalk or LaTex. And their elitist gatekeeping is legendary.

     May be the source of some of the complaints. My experience of actual mathematicians tends to match yours.

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     clarity flowers (clarity@xoxo.zone)'s status on Thursday, 23-May-2024 09:52:38 JST clarity flowers

     in reply to

     • Beldarak

     @Beldarak oof, yeah I can see that really being a struggle

   • Embed this notice
     Beldarak (beldarak@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Thursday, 23-May-2024 09:52:39 JST Beldarak

     in reply to

     @clarity I think the biggest reason why I suck at maths is because at school I had to chose between following the course or writing as much as I could before the board got erased, so I had a chance to figure shit out on my own at home... (I have a bad sight + color-blind, chalk board are my Nemesis)