Oddbean new post about login | logout So glad I spent my prime years learning that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, and various sin and tan functions. Really useful stuff, thanks
The true irony is that these fields can be absolutely beautiful if you approach it from the perspective of curiosity rather than fact memorizing
If the kid is interested then it's cool. I was not, I liked computers 👨💻
Example A - a blend of both fields https://google-research.github.io/self-organising-systems/particle-lenia/
It wasn’t that you learned these things that was the problem. It was the omission of other things that should have been taught as well. Maybe sin cos and ran functions were something you didn’t end up needing but other core skills on how to think critically and operate in the world could have augmented it or just been the takeaway. Looking back there was a LOT of free time that could have been allocated to learning more.
I think some kids don't give a shit and are bad at things like this, and are made to feel bad about that with bad grades and sometimes no diploma. I think kids can start specializing by high school in what they like and their strengths
Oh I agree. This one size fits none bullshit that we constantly fund is garbage and I can’t fathom the opportunity cost on someone who could have thrived somewhere getting wrecked and labeled as a poor student (read: terrible peon).
You can always get a job as a school teacher
Yeah, just like elliptic curves. Who needs that noise? Oh wait, bitcoin does.... basic comprehension is needed, otherwise you get people that are only good at one thing and unable to understand anything else.
Considering we all took trig in high school, what % of adults over 30 do you guess can solve a basic f(x) function?
I hear ya, but education is the answer. You may not need it but it's there in case you do. You may not remember how to do it but you remember you once did and can look it up. You start cherry picking who learns what too soon and you start to see very ignorant people with crazy ideas. I'm taking to all the flat Earthers and Astrologists walking around....
I agree that education is the answer, but forcing kids to learn everything, especially if they aren't interested or good at it does more damage than good imo. Maybe those people wouldn't become flat earthers if their bad gpa lead to no university, or no high school diploma.. Despite being good at art or sports, and could have gone on a better track. But we decided all kids needs to know everything and if you don't do it ALL well enough, you're fucked for life. It's ok that some people are bad at math, we don't need everyone to be good at it and learn trigonometry. Imho
40%?
Lol
Have you heard of the mitochondrial Eve? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve