Why is science and mathematics considered "hard"? What makes it so challenging? Why do people need motivation just to try it? Why do people feel that it is physically and mentally draining to solve a maths problem or do a small project in physics class?
Science and mathematics aren't difficult unless you're exceptionally dumb. Pretty much anybody above 100 IQ can be proficient in their STEM field provided that they put the work in.
>>7689821
what a stupid answer
>>7689811
> Why is science and mathematics considered "hard"
Because they actually are "hard".
Most of what you learn in any STEM degree was, at some point in time, considered to be cutting edge research. The closer you get to present day knowledge, the more and more complex the topics tend to become. Once you get within the 50 year mark, shit starts to get pretty wild.
>>7689811
why is getting a gf considered "hard"? What makes it so challenging? Why do people need motivation just to try it? Why do people feel that it is physically and mentally draining to go to social gatherings or to approach a girl in a bookstore?
Because math is ruthless. If you make a mistake, it's easy to verify. Doing mistakes (and correcting them) is the best way to get better at math. Most people are so clinged to their ego that they can't process a mistake without going into a negative thought loop.
Do math ---> Make mistake ---> Conclude you're shit at math ---> Stop doing math
vs.
Do math ---> Make mistake ---> Correct mistake and learn ---> Repeat ---> Git gud at math
Because you can bullshit your way out of pretty much everything else and obtain a result that seems plausible, if not correct, whithout too much effort, or at least whitout the same rigor as in maths.
maths is like a tower with each advancing level dependant on the lower level(s). math becomes difficult when people move to the next level with just a mediocre understanding of the previous level. then, a compounding negative effect starts to take place. then, the "math is hard" whining ensues. if you ask me, people shouldnt advance to the next chapter if they didnt at least score a least 90% on the end of chapter problems and exams.
A)The 'Unsexyness' I.E. boredom factor. It's impossible to get excited about working out a math problem because nothing is really at stake except being wrong or right.
B)Complex symbology. Theres a great many symbols and signs strewn throughout a math equation all of which have to be understood perfectly and made operated perfectly in order for the equation to turn out right.
C)Biology, While to some extent the human brain has become hard wired to learn languages it is in no way evolved to do math easily.
D)>>7690059
Math and Science degrees is a bunch of memorization, sometimes memorization of arbitrary rules. 1 leads to 2 and so on.
I find alot of the students in STEM, in particular mathematics, do not do good in composition, probably because there is more than one way to interpret things and requires a left brain thinking pattern or actual creativity.
>>7690035
So, why can't a lot of STEM majors "bullshit" their way through a lot of humanities courses, like art or creative writing?
>>7690091
So wouldn't you say that humanities courses require as much rigor as STEM courses, just a different sort?
>>7690095
I certainly would. If you want to be good at ANYTHING you have to put your brain on it. You tend to want to put your brain towards something you're good at. Math people to Math creative towards creative etc.
>>7690059
This.
Also, a lot of it has to do with the fact that we're a bunch of fucking space monkeys who's minds weren't really designed for this stuff. Our bodies/minds were designed for hunting on the savannas of Africa, not sitting in a room for 3 hours straight contemplating quantum physics or differential geometry. So when we sit and do heavy math/physics, it drains us.
Also, what the other guy said is 100% true and I've seen it many times. If you still have trouble doing algebra, you're going to have a shit load of trouble doing calculus because a lot of the operations in calculus involve knowing your algebra. If you can't do calculus, you're going to have trouble doing differential equations, etc., etc. Physics also depends on knowing your math because you have to put all of your attention on formulating a mathematical model for your particular physics question. If you're struggling to solve the mathematical part (or you don't understand enough to cast the physics in a mathematical form), it will be difficult to make it through.
>>7689865
That anon said anyone with a brain can do it if they try hard enough. I agree with that anon.
I think it is simply that most people don't have brains
>>7689949
>girls
>physically and mentally draining
but that's a fact of life
>>7690130
Yet people without brains can still memorize enough shit to pass a lit or history class.
>>7690076
>left brain thinking
>implying
>>7690089
They can, because anyone's opinion is a special snowflake.
>>7690127
We invented language and within a few hundred years of writing down the equations for motion, had figured out the approximate age of the universe, the existence of black holes, and unified two fundamental forces of nature with our mathematics. I think our minds are very much built for this.
>>7690089
I am a maths major, both of my parents were science fiction writers. I have never found writing or humanities to be difficult.
While I cannot speak for all of STEM, I can say that your statement does not gold because there exists someone who breaks it.
>>7690139
How about you read what he actually said, he said "a lot of STEM majors," not all.
>I can say that your statement does not gold
ayyyylmao are you sure you're good at humanities?
>>7690137
And yet, there is no conceivable reason why we couldn't have written down the equations of motion much earlier. Considering that our species has been around for 200,000+ years, if we were really good at this stuff, it would have happened much earlier than a few hundred years ago.
Also, yes...we figured out the approximate age of the universe, after a few hundred years of UTILIZING THOUSANDS OF THE GREATEST MINDS OF OUR SPECIES. You act like fucking 10 guys did it all.
>>7690127
Not all of Africa is savannah though. It's a very diverse continent with many environments that humans have adapted to. And I am not sure if all humans came from Africa.
>>7690095
>>7690164
>>7690137
humanities, design, engineering, development, writing, arts, literature, philosophy, and analysis and interpretations require a lot more than memorization and monotonous labor and require a heavy amount of adaptation and knowledge of previous personal experience. maths and other sciences dont have to deal with most of those and do not require an amount of personal experience since they can just roll back to previous data of work done before them that remains unchanged under set conditions.
Progress in technology usually holds like this:
Hobby or art/ thinking outside the box > discovery > research > idea and design > production > test
It is never:
research in establish fields/ thinking in the box > discovery > production > test
tv has it roots from a glass blower playing with magnets and light.
also,
decision making is usually for people with an understanding ethics and can calculate different outcomes under various sets in a good time "thinking on your feet/street smarts" sort of way and not using monotonous equations.
That is why Jean Luc Picard is captain and not data
>>7689811
I think hard is subjective based on care/motivation
I'm studying mathematics, I tend to describe problems as fun, or a puzzle.
Talking to strangers is hard, because I would prefer not to do it.
>>7690316
Jean-luc is dumb shit. You'll never be smart enough to captain a ship
>>7690382
>is dumb shit
I Meant, YOU dumb shit
Guess I'm the dumb shit after all
I'm a computer science major and the reason I hear most people say it's hard, including myself, is that it goes against what we traditionally view as how we are supposed to think. What I mean is when you say write a paper it's a simple process of collecting your thoughts and writing em down, but with say math it's a process of figuring out how to write those thoughts then seeing if those thoughts are "right". To boot math isn't regurgitation like history.
>>7689811
People lack discipline and often forget the method used to get a solution.
>>7689811
Depends what level of math youre talking about, or the science, I'd say most people will have little problem grasping basic fundamentals of science or maths (I'm talking really basic like addition, subtraction etc. ). The problems arise when you start introducing more complex topics (relatively) which require a strong understanding of underlying principles. Even though a student may be able to apply pythagoras theorem with knowledge of the equation if they don't understand why they're doing it or why pythagoras theorem works they won't be able to apply that knowledge to other problems. I feel that schooling encourages application in maths over understanding which allows students to pass with minimal understanding of that level of math. When the problems become harder and the student does not have the understanding of simpler topics complex problems seem mystifying in their purpose and function. To them there will be no logical explanation as to why they cant use pythagoras on equalateral triangles and as such they will either
a) admit they have no idea whats going on and improve their understanding or
b) disengage from the subject and tell themselves that math is only for "smart people".
I'd suggest asking them what they're finding difficult and trying to engage them in the topic, either they refuse in which case you move on or you enlighten someone whilst improving your ability to impart knowledge.
That's the way I see it anyway.
50% of the population has a 2 digit IQ. yup... math will be difficult for them after reaching a certain point... somewhere around the area of fractions. LMAO!
>>7690135
differences in motivation and enthusiasm.
>>7690028
This, I think stubbornness is as much of a virtue in math/STEM as innate talent, as long as you're not so stubborn that you can't erase everything and start over from the beginning.
The iterative grindy process you need to git gud is not for everybody and it requires a special kind of hard-headed personality to endure it all.
>>7689811
Nice guy OP
*casually drops a lights-out, baller wallpaper*
Thanks, yo!
>>7691264
I only post nice pictures.
>>7690089
Depends on the person. I'm a comp sci major and I have no problem with humanities courses, but both of my parents were lawyers (i.e. both very high verbal IQ) so I might be an outlier as far as STEM majors go.
Also, bullshitting your way through anything requires a strong command of classical rhetoric, which is something that your average dyed-in-the-wool STEM turboautist is going to dismiss soon after he haphazardly decides all of philosophy is "U CANT NO NUFFIN."
>>7691275
Is that...Mammoth mountain?
>>7691303
I couldn't tell you.
>>7689879
this
Because we are are just dumb. Nearly every single person in the whole world understands 2+2, it's a basic level of math that all humans can understand, while very few people understand calculus. It takes a lot of mistakes trial and error approach by different methods for someone to understand advanced math. If we were smarter we could do it without trouble, some people can but they are a very small minority. It's just that the average intelligence of humans is too low to learn math easily.
>>7690028
damn, I do that a lot. need to stop
>>7691278
agreed re: bullshitting
The majority of creative writing (and other creative fields) relies on already having internalized the rules of grammar and syntax, having a larger than average vocabulary, and having an intuitive command of rhetoric, and then applying those principles across different, uh, morphological forms? The essay, the short story, the novella, the novel, poetry. Visual artists do this using their visual understanding of space, color, et cetera. To be a convincing bullshitter you have to understand how to persuade, and why persuasion works.
I was shit at math until I had learnt my third language and got a more intuitive grasp of what languages are, and how mathematics is a symbolic language. All languages are symbolic, in that words are abstract concepts that we use to model our observable reality; language-brained people seem to favor having exhaustive amounts of loosely defined symbols and grasping overall trends, whereas math-brained people favor having extremely few, rigorously defined symbols and grasping what must follow based on axiomatic understanding of what has been defined.
For example, I have a working vocabulary of about 70,000 words in English and it's rare for me to come across words I don't know or can't remember the meaning of in context, even when reading, say, Joyce; I imagine literature must be an altogether different experience for math-brained folks.
Math is like a puzzle where you need all the pieces in the right place to begin with
>any other "science" or humanities
>learn half the shit = know half the shit = answer half the shit = get half the points
>math
>whats that, you missed one part? Too bad, now you won't be able to continue without getting that part
It's for autists
>>7692071
Thinking there is a relation between math and autism Is autism. There is no relation.
