[Sobeyet]

I hate math, and gave up on trying to maximize my academic potential when I went to business school, but found this an interesting read: http://www.quora.com...ced-mathematics

It's a very thorough explanation and the basic concepts can be expanded to any field of expertise. The general approach is perfect for high-level problem solving.

[Deceax]

Wtf? An asian that hates math?

[Guinthel]

sobe was adopted by black people didn't you know

[Sobeyet]

Deceax, on 20 January 2012 - 05:06 PM, said:

Wtf? An asian that hates math?

Don't worry, I'm still better at it than you. I just prefer more profitable ventures.

[Deceax]

I was always decent in math but Calculus was the only thing that really started kicking me in the balls in college
Its kind of funny though because whenever I have to code some physics or math shit it clicks really fast.

[Sobeyet]

Deceax, on 20 January 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

Calculus was the only thing that really started kicking me in the balls in college

Asians take Calc in high school.

[Deceax]

I was ok with differentials but integration by parts is where it started going downhill. True story I took my calc 2 final after smoking a blunt and realized about three minutes in that it was a horrible mistake.

[Sobeyet]

Deceax, on 20 January 2012 - 11:07 PM, said:

I was ok with differentials but integration by parts is where it started going downhill. True story I took my calc 2 final after smoking a blunt and realized about three minutes in that it was a horrible mistake.

I went to Six Flags before I took my SATs and came back with a wicked hangover and dizzy as shit.

760 verbal / 730 math.

/asianflex

You don't want to know how drunk I was for the GMATs.

[Hecatus]

Sobeyet, on 20 January 2012 - 10:53 PM, said:

Deceax, on 20 January 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

Calculus was the only thing that really started kicking me in the balls in college

Asians take Calc in high school.

Truth. Finished all parts of calc by the end of junior year >>

Also was gonna make fun of the non 800 sat math asian but he seemed pretty outta it so I'm impressed xD

[Guinthel]

Sobeyet, on 20 January 2012 - 10:53 PM, said:

Deceax, on 20 January 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

Calculus was the only thing that really started kicking me in the balls in college

Asians take Calc in high school.

everyone takes calc in high school

[Sobeyet]

Hecatus, on 21 January 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

I'm impressed xD

Here's me not giving a shit

Guinthel, on 21 January 2012 - 02:50 PM, said:

everyone takes calc in high school

Except for Decocks apparently.

[Wrathblood]

Poor Deceax. I took Calc my freshman year of college, like some of my friends. Of course, that year happened to coincide with my senior year of high school, but I was kind of a slacker that way, being non-asian and all. I had one Chinese friend who had junior status and was taking graduate level math classes by the time he graduated from HS, but he was kind of a nut, though not as much as the guy who was taking Linear Algebra as an 8th grader. I mean, he was smart and all, but people who can do that tend to be fairly off kilter. Oddly, I don't think any of my HS friends got an 800 on either part of the SAT, which is kind of surprising with the benefit of hindsight. Also, their collectively somewhat mediocre career performance (I'd throw in the qualifier "so far", except that they're all like 40 now and their career trajectories are presumably pretty well established by this point) goes a long way toward proving that there's a hell of a lot more to being successful in life than just being really smart.

[Sobeyet]

Wrathblood, on 21 January 2012 - 10:46 PM, said:

Poor Deceax. I took Calc my freshman year of college, like some of my friends. Of course, that year happened to coincide with my senior year of high school, but I was kind of a slacker that way, being non-asian and all. I had one Chinese friend who had junior status and was taking graduate level math classes by the time he graduated from HS, but he was kind of a nut, though not as much as the guy who was taking Linear Algebra as an 8th grader. I mean, he was smart and all, but people who can do that tend to be fairly off kilter. Oddly, I don't think any of my HS friends got an 800 on either part of the SAT, which is kind of surprising with the benefit of hindsight. Also, their collectively somewhat mediocre career performance (I'd throw in the qualifier "so far", except that they're all like 40 now and their career trajectories are presumably pretty well established by this point) goes a long way toward proving that there's a hell of a lot more to being successful in life than just being really smart.

Well there's the whole thing about how you define success and whether someone even wants to achieve such an arbitrary definition. My best friend (since 7th grade, we were born 3 days apart, attached at the hip, yadda yadda) was a director at a big 4 accounting firm when he was 25, made comfortably over 200k, but he got sick of it and started his own business. He's probably going to be popping out a kid in the next year or two so now he'll actually have time to spend with the family. I was making 100k when I was 22 (hence the Porsche), but had to average 70-80 hours a week at work and I was miserable. I swung pretty far the other way with the whole Brooklyn-starving-artist phase (my grad school friends still make fun of me for that) but now I can work my ~40 hours a week (and 4 weeks vacation + sick days, whoo) and I still do okay. I don't make nearly as much as I would have if I stayed on the track I was on my early 20s, but I can afford a decent lifestyle and my obscenely high rent. And family's a big part of it too, I consider it a giant waste of time and energy, but most people that have one would tend to frame their success around it.

[Corylus]

I've never ever been taught calculus nor have I had any lessons (classes) in English grammar.

I've been all the way through the education system here from nursery (kindergarten), A-levels (equiv. to majors) in all three sciences, degree, doctorate, to post doctorate researcher.

I regret the lack of high school instruction on the correct use of written english far more than I do any shortcomings in mathematics.

When I started University the public school kids had an immediate advantage over me as they could express/communicate their thoughts and ideas more accurately.

[Wrathblood]

Writing is a funny thing. I was an absolutely appalling writer through my early 20s, with all my years of education, writing classes, etc bouncing off me as unimpactfully as soup bounces off Hive's face. However, for much of it I didn't realize how awful I was because I inexplicably got the highest score in my high school on the English AP test my senior year (beating people who were both brilliant and actually superb writers). I can only assume my parents secretly found and bribed the test scoring folks.

I ultimately learned the basic rules of style, grammar and usage myself in the 1990s using that new-fangled contraption, the internet, while writing long emails to friends. I wasn't living particularly close to them, and I missed a bunch of them, so I'd compose these long, intended to be entertaining e-mails. For the first time in my life, I cared about something I was writing that was longer than a couple of sentences and desired for them to not merely get a passing grade, but to actually be worth reading. So after writing the first couple of them, I started really reading what I was writing and thought "Wow, the composition/english teachers I've had my entire life completely failed me. I'm writing unreadable dreck." So I started a process of writing and rewriting these emails and after a year or two I figured out how to write. Certainly, I could be a vastly better writer than I am now, but let me tell you that I was once one HELL of a lot worse.

TL;DR - Becoming a useful writer is just like any other kind of education. You have to want to write coherently and actually work on it to get better. Having access to good teachers can help if you make that first step, but if you don't want to take the first step they won't do you any good.

Personally I know as much math as I really want to know, but I do wish I had take more statistics classes.

[Sobeyet]

Wrathblood, on 25 January 2012 - 11:54 AM, said:

through my early 20s

in the 1990s

You're dating yourself Wrath.

Wrathblood, on 25 January 2012 - 11:54 AM, said:

TL;DR - Becoming a useful writer is just like any other kind of education. You have to want to write coherently and actually work on it to get better. Having access to good teachers can help if you make that first step, but if you don't want to take the first step they won't do you any good.

Strunk & White roll over in their grave every time you use TLDR!

As someone who learned English as a 3rd language, reading was probably the biggest contributor to my writing development. I came to NYC at 7 without speaking a word of English and I was fluent within the year (I scored higher than my teacher on the English Regents the following year, but then again this was the Bronx so teaching standards weren't exactly stellar). I used to consume 1-2 books a week, even stuff I was too ignorant at the time to fully understand (Hemingway, DFW, Kant, etc.). It's hard to quantify the exact effect, but over time you find your vocabulary expanding, you get a better feel for grammar, and you familiarize yourself with the flow of different writing styles.

Second biggest contributor was probably social pressure. As a minority immigrant who's a foot taller than everyone there are certain things you do in order to assimilate, and I always figured that if I can read/write/talk circles around the dumbass American kids I'd be a step ahead.

Third is just a personality trait, I'm obsessed with perception/presentation so I've always edited myself heavily when it comes to writing. I also started working full time at 19 so I've been around the office environment for a while, always shocking how poorly people communicate; even the so-called "educated" white collar folks.

If I ever had a kid I'd prioritize the following for his/her education:

• Social skills - Communication, self-awareness, etc.
• Reading/Writing - Comprehension, perspective, presentation to others.
• Creative - Art/Music/Dance

Speaking of which, I've linked it before but I like to watch this presentation once in a while:

[Wrathblood]

Dating myself? Please. My standards aren't that low.

Surprised you didn't end up going to Bronx HS of Science or Stuyvesant.

[Kaai]

I like that presentation and I have not seen it before, thanks sobie

[Sobeyet]

Wrathblood, on 25 January 2012 - 04:16 PM, said:

Surprised you didn't end up going to Bronx HS of Science or Stuyvesant.

Wasn't living in the city at that point. I was accepted into Hunter (they start admissions testing in 6th grade), but I ended up going to SF / LA for a year. Spent grades 2-5 in the Bronx (P.S. 8), 6 in Queens (Marie Curie Middle School), part of 7 in LA (John Burroughs Middle School), then the rest in White Plains.

Oh and if you liked the first one, here's a follow up presentation Ken Robinson gave 4 years later: