Math Haters are Common

[Julie]

I hate math haters, especially the ones that don't know anything about math besides how to add and multiply. That's as stupid as a four year old who's learning the alphabet hating to read. Math haters are narrow-minded.

[Sarah]

You're absolutely correct, Julie:  there are a lot of people out there who hate math.

If my eldest sister were posting this, she'd comment that she hates it when people say "math" when they mean "arithmetic."  Does this bother you, DfK?

[erika]

What if I were to be specific and say that I hate advanced algebra and statistical analysis?

Is that better?

[dave from knoxville]

What if I were to be specific and say that I hate have never had the right teacher who could fill me with a sense of wonder about advanced algebra and statistical analysis?

Is that better?

Fixed!

[Gregory]

I have never had the right teacher who could fill me with a sense of wonder about geometry

[Sarah]

Math is amazing.  I never had to do more than tenth-grade geometry, but when my sister fell in love with math when she belatedly went to college, I used to spend hours talking with her about things about which I understood barely anything:  unreal numbers, number theory, that kind of thing.  We had a lot of fun.  It was then that I learned how close math is to mysticism.

[dave from knoxville]

It's a good point. It probably applies even more so to physics, which I don't even try to keep up with anymore. Just basic reading on Godel's Incompleteness Theorem is enough to push you over the edge. That's a little like the formal math counterpart to the sentence (with apologies to Raymod Smullyan) "This sentence is false." Go ahead and play with it, it won't hurt you.

[Sarah]

Dave, have you heard the Beyond the Fringe bit that features a conversation between Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore?  If not, you should try to check it out; I think it will make you very happy.

[erika]

My disdain towards statistics doesn't have to do so much with being BAD at them... it's that I had to do stats for my last job a lot and I just got so tired of it.

I like words better than numberz. Even though my grammar isn't much better than my algebra ability.

[<<<<<]

If you wrote a full manifesto against math haters, I would read it.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I hate math haters, especially the ones that don't know anything about math besides how to add and multiply. That's as stupid as a four year old who's learning the alphabet hating to read. Math haters are narrow-minded.

theyre generally the same people who are awful at basic english grammar.
not always, but generally.

[Dan B]

Calculus was kind of fun, but I don't want to do anything beyond that.

[ericluxury]

I get hating math haters. Its similiar to computers in that some people don't even try and then they say they hate something. But as someone who can't for the life of me learn a second language, I understand math haters even if I am not one.

[John Junk]

I'm one of those people who was good at geometry, okay at my probability and statistics class (that's the math class you take in high school when you're too lazy/artistic/stupid for pre-calc or whatevs), but Algebra 2 was one of the first times I was like "I am honestly not smart enough for this.  I cannot understand what is going on."  I even tried to do tutorials after class with my teacher, and my dad would try to help me at home, and I still technically failed Algebra 2 out of sheer not-getting-it.  I honestly tried my best, and my best was honestly not good enough, but my teacher passed me with a D because he told me he knew I tried my best.  That was like a defining moment in my life, where I realized I had a very specific kind of brain. I was also like kicking ass in Advanced Placement Literature and shit at the time, so it's not like I was a dummy.  Just not a math guy.  So No, Math, I do not hate you, but you and I have separate paths to follow.

A.P. Biology also melted my brain.  Our teacher would anthropomorphize molecules and say they were carrying buckets full of smaller molecules around with them.  This was really hard for me to "get", because I kept thinking "A person is the walking, talking, bucket-carrying accumulation of molecules.  Molecules cannot have personalities or qualities that we understand.  How can a molecule 'carry' smaller molecules?  Am I to believe molecules have temperaments?" and then I would just imagine some proto-Osmosis Jones fantasy world and get distracted.  Also, science text books are poorly written and often eschew all laws of grammar, making them impossible for me to read.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

A.P. Biology also melted my brain.  Our teacher would anthropomorphize molecules and say they were carrying buckets full of smaller molecules around with them.  This was really hard for me to "get", because I kept thinking "A person is the walking, talking, bucket-carrying accumulation of molecules.  Molecules cannot have personalities or qualities that we understand.  How can a molecule 'carry' smaller molecules?  Am I to believe molecules have temperaments?" and then I would just imagine some proto-Osmosis Jones fantasy world and get distracted.

i was waiting for john junk to reply to this post: "walking, talking, bucket-carrying accumulation of molecules"
...ha.