“What is love?” --Haddaway
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Don’t feel bad. I’m the one with a computer science degree and I barely remember how to do integrals. At this point, my mathematical knowledge is squarely in the realm of graph theory these days (graphs are awesome for optimization problems). Math for most people is overrated when you really need is the ability to do research and understand in logical in an informal way (basically problem-solving).
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I really don’t like being called a garbage human is the problem here. I don’t feel bad about being bad at maths, because I’m good at other things and feel like I’m still a part of this community. I feel bad, no, really angry, that people decide that I’m scum because I’m not a wizard at calculus or whatever apparently equals being a worth while person. Clearly some contingent here has decided that anyone who doesn’t do the same kind of work or think the same way isn’t a valuable a human being. It’s not the same as being judged for one’s race, or gender or sexual orientation, but it still fucking suck when you’re in a community that you made a choice to be in.
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What you did there, see it I do 
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Just remember that math is basically philosophy without the booze and funny jokes.
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It really sucks not to be heard here.
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There’s no agreed upon definition, but the oldest millennials are in their mid-late 30s now according to the majority of them.
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I was disappointed when I found out that Haddaway was his surname, and it wasn’t a reference to Geordie for go away
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That’s an interesting problem- enrollment drops, but not as fast as teachers. And it’s real. Of course I understand one problem here in Vancouver is that areas where it was once possible for a young family to live in have been priced beyond the means of many. So some schools are being crushed with students, while others need to shutter rooms because there’s just not enough students to fill the classrooms.
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That’s one interpretation, but politics isn’t about math, it’s about reconciling different wants and needs, we can want lower taxes and more public utilities and not have failed at math. Similarly, what we value isn’t easily quantifiable so as to make math the relevant bit.
Sure, it is irrational to want to be screwed over, which doesn’t mean that people don’t actually want this more than they may want something else, but it is even less reasonable to say that people are so rational that if only they were good at math they would want different things.
Edited to add:
We don’t stop wanting things because we can’t have them.
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You know that @anon61221983 is a PhD, right? Don’t talk down to her. Just because you have different experiences from her doesn’t mean either (or anyone’s) is invalid.
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The implication is that they have failed at LIFE.
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I suspect that this statement is ignorant as all hell.
My brother is very good at mathematics; he teaches high school math and science in remote indigenous communities.
I suck at mathematics; I have a doctorate in neuroscience and published most of the fundamental early research on my specialised area of study.
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Just missing a wee bit of emphasis to make it accurate.
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But I think what we’re seeing from these teachers who voted Republican is maybe they did want the government to bring back prayer in school, but they didn’t want education to be gutted and left to do. I think bringing back prayer in school is an atrocious idea, but I think a large majority (regardless of political affiliation) agrees that we want our kids to be literate and a large majority wants to be able to accomplish that in a way that is convenient to them (e.g., drop kid off a school down the street, send kid to meet school bus, etc).
When the schools start closing a day a week you get every teacher and every parent with school age children flipping out (this is the government cancelling your free daycare one day a week). I’m hoping this is a level of the population getting fucked that is sufficient to make people actually vote differently out of anger. We’ll see.
Yeah for sure. But those same people are capable of getting angry when things go awry and punishing whoever is in office for it. This looks like what is happening here.
I think there are only about two of those.
Mathematics has much better jokes than philosophy, and mathematicians drink plenty.
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And also
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‘Speak to my solicitors, Haddaway and Shite’. -My grandad.
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I don’t argue with my friends and colleagues, or try to educate them through directed questioning. I know I become extremely resentful and closed to conversation when someone does the same to me… I feel that it’s paternalistic and condescending, and I’m sure my friends and colleagues do, too.
So, even though I disagree with my friend and co-worker who is sure that contrails are loaded with aluminum particles that cause auto-immune disorders, and all will work out when the Affordable Care Act is finally destroyed, and whatever else she’s told me over the years… even though it’s clearly BS, I’m not going to have a better working relationship with her by calling her on it.
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Politely ignoring the views of political cranks is one of the cornerstones of American consumer society.
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