/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11519389]

Want to take mathematics in college in the hopes that it would create a strong logical framework in me.
But I have been told by math grads that maths eventually turns your thinking 'numerical'. What the fuck is 'numerical' thinking?

[Anonymous No.11519402]

>>11519389
>What the fuck is 'numerical' thinking

Constantly thinking about the number of dicks you can fit into a single one of your holes

[Anonymous No.11519411]

Whoever says that is retarded, i haven''t seen a number higher than 9 this semester in math

[Anonymous No.11519441]

Maybe they just meant you'll be more inclined to analyze every situation you're in. That happened to me.

[Anonymous No.11519516]

>>11519441
Over analyzing? I hate that so fucking much.

[Anonymous No.11519524]

Most high-level mathematicians are shit at basic arithmetic

[Anonymous No.11519572]

>logical framework

That's not how it works. You'll find out how a few things work, but mostly just learn tricks, gimmicks, methods on how to solve problems. That's not really logic, you throw away the step by step proof in favor of seeing the answer as soon as possible. I doubt this is of much use outside of the sciences, definitely no use in humanities, although I would consider anyone without the ability an idiot.

[Anonymous No.11520024]

>>11519411
t. kindergartner
mods!

[Anonymous No.11520713]

Bump

[Anonymous No.11520727]

>>11519389
Actual math pretty much connects to philosophy with stuff like chaos theory and systems dynamics at the ultimate upper levels. You're thinking of oriental (in the pejorative sense) math like statistics or other bullshit.

[Anonymous No.11520744]

>>11519389
Math isn’t about numbers, no one thinks about numbers all the time. The danger is you’ll look around and see differential equations everywhere, or see analogues to Fourier duality all over. Math is a pretty rich language, but it becomes tempting to try to describe everything with mathematical analogies. Still worth studying as long as you don’t become some filthy Platonist.

[Anonymous No.11520763]

>>11520744
>Still worth studying as long as you don’t become some filthy Platonist.
Yes hello please be so kind as to point me to where I can find a number

[Anonymous No.11520990]

>>11519389
Idk, but probably that you start seeing the patterns between numbers and functions moreso than the logical axioms that dictate them.

[Anonymous No.11521008]

>>11519411
This but unironicly. Most people assume that a math major would be a lot of number crunching and calculations, but once you get into things like number theory, real/complex analysis and abstract algebra, your work becomes much more abstract and conceptual as opposed to solving for X or finding the area under a curve.

[Anonymous No.11521356]

>>11519411
I haven't encountered a number greater than 2pi in years. I can only dream of encountering a 9 you lucky bastard.

>>11519524
Can confirm.

[Anonymous No.11521360]

>>11519389
>What the fuck is 'numerical' thinking?
No clue.
There is a branch of mathematics called numerics, which concerns itself with computation of mathematical problems on a computer, but I doubt he meant that.

>>11519411
This, the highest chapter I got to this Semester was 8.
So that was the highest number I saw.

>>11521008
And if you have to actually calculate something you let the computer do that.
No reason to occupy yourself with such trivialities as figuring out arithmetic if you have a machine a billion times better then you.

[Anonymous No.11521693]

Logical framework can be built upon any major.

[Anonymous No.11521717]

>>11519389
The true goal of a mathematical education is categorical thinking. Those math grads are not there yet (if ever), seems.

[Anonymous No.11521737]

>be humanitiesfag
>constantly encounter the outer fringes of maths in a hundred different branches of philosophy, from analytics to metaphysics
>be amazed by the mystical potential of maths being the language of reality itself
>be slightly in awe of STEMfags and assume they tap into this majesty through hard work, and humanitiesfags like me are missing out
>start learning maths
>it's fucking tough
>get to the point where I can just barely understand higher order university-level stuff
>eagerly start talking to esteemed, visionary, world-famous mathematicians at my university
>mfw I realize they are all complete, intuitive materialists in their outlook
>mfw they don't grasp an iota of the mystical or metaphysical aspects of higher maths
>mfw they don't even really understand what the concreteness of mathematical laws imply, and spend most of their time playing at meaningless quantitative number puzzles
>mfw even professional scientists are childlike retards who are genuinely content with puerile, reductionist accounts of the nature of reality
>mfw the vast majority of high level STEM people are ignorant of other branches of their own field, let alone other fields or disciplines altogether
>mfw the luminaries of STEM are the biggest reservoir of literally autistic toy collectors in the world
>mfw the vast majority are just average dumb normalfags aside from their single hyper-focused academic specialty
>mfw they don't read books (at all)
>mfw it is actually staggering how stupid they are in every single respect other than knowing one specific kind of maths really well
>mfw totally disillusioned
>mfw realising after all that work that maths isn't even the language of reality but a closed and self-referential puzzlebox for autistic fucking faggots

[Anonymous No.11522495]

>>11521737
>>be humanitiesfag
Stopped reading right there.

[Anonymous No.11522509]

>>11521737
>the luminaries of STEM are the biggest reservoir of literally autistic toy collectors in the world
STEM professors are by definition either autists or assholes, and sometimes both. The few rare normal ones know to keep their heads down.

[Anonymous No.11522512]

>>11521737
absolutely based

[Anonymous No.11522519]

>>11521737
This is stale pasta mommy

Mommy, no more

[Anonymous No.11522549]

>>11521737
brb burning my math textbooks

[Anonymous No.11522554]

>>11519389
>What the fuck is 'numerical' thinking?

>google

Basically its remembering the numerical processes and relations and applying them. If you know 345 x 27 is 9315, and you figure this out on paper, then are asked, what is 345 x 54, the person without numerical reasoning will begin working out 345 x 54 on paper as before. The person with numerical skills will double 9315, and will be able to explain why this answer is justified if asked.

This skill then scales up, and quantification can be generalized for quite a lot of things. You then get used to being creative with strategies on how to quantify whatever relationship or object, how to figure out what is the variable in any given problem.

Im guessing that is what they mean when they start seeing it everywhere. They are probably in the middle of some damned research and when people ask them about this or that, the residue of being in that one way of thinking probably slips into normally non-numerical topics.

[Anonymous No.11522589]

>>11521737
So what? We're really all just a step up from dumb monkey brains, and you expect humans to hold the secrets of the universe? It's much easier to criticize than produce workable alternatives. Even most concepts in high level physics are tautologies or circularly defined.

The best scientist I can think of who truly understands this is E.T. Jaynes, who makes a good case for empiricism and use of Bayesian statistics to be the only rational way to gain knowledge. Even if you can't do all the exercises or understand all the math, the text alone is worth a read for explaining why science is done the way it is. Pic-related.

[Anonymous No.11522606]

>>11519389
>giphy-facebook_s.jpg

[Anonymous No.11522695]

>>11520744
>Still worth studying as long as you don’t become some filthy Platonist.
kys

[Anonymous No.11522700]

>>11521737
This but unironically/not pasta. I think it should be mandatory for everyone who studies any STEM major to be required to double major with philosophy.

[Anonymous No.11522762]

Think of math as the vessel, and the subject it maps such as physics or finance or computer science as the liquid inside of it.
If you just study abstracted pure mathematics, eventually you won't see how it relates to the world. So it's important to learn it with another subject it applies to.
Any math I learned I learned it because I was trying to learn something else that required it.

[Anonymous No.11523013]

>>11520744
>Still worth studying as long as you don’t become some filthy Platonist.

[Anonymous No.11523027]

>>11521737
>me don’t understand thing
>me smarter than people who understand thing

[Anonymous No.11523071]

>>11522700
oh like that's any better kek

[Anonymous No.11523087]

Philfags should be beheaded whenever they try to learn new fields. They always fuck the interpretation up and speculate the most ridiculous shit.

[Anonymous No.11523130]

>>11523087

You're talking about >>11521737?

[Anonymous No.11523295]

>>11523130
One instance of many, yes.

[Anonymous No.11523324]

>>11520744
>Still worth studying as long as you don’t become some filthy Platonist.

[Anonymous No.11523330]

>>11521737
Shit pasta

[Anonymous No.11523376]

>>11522589

[Anonymous No.11524206]

On the autobiographical extent of The Broom of the System
>the sensitive tale of a sensitive young WASP who's just had this midlife crisis that’s moved him from coldly cerebral analytic math to a coldly cerebral take on fiction... which also shifted his existential dread from a fear that he was just a 98.6°F calculating machine to a fear that he was nothing but a linguistic construct.

On the note of the OP and in light of this quote and its context, is there anyone with a background of understanding different thinking styles that can elaborate on this?

[Anonymous No.11524603]

>>11519389
I doubt it. The higher level the mathematics is, the less it involves actual numbers.
t. Math and English major

[Anonymous No.11524637]

>>11521737
you just went to a shitty school

[Anonymous No.11524659]

>could learn math for free online in his spare time
>instead wants to pay 100k for the privilege, while being forced to waste 3/4 of his time on non-math subjects and be unable to work any real job for 4 years, thus either living in poverty or undertaking yet more debt
>just to "create a strong logical framework"
>which you don't need math to do at all, in fact chemistry or engineering have more in common with "logical frameworks" than pure math does
Give up now OP, that's the stupidest thing I've read on 4chan this month and that's saying something.
>>11523087
>it's a philosofag muddles and attempts to surmount an argument by degrading everything to rhetoric in order to intentionally glass over and misrepresent the basic tenants episode, again
We should just shoot them. Philosofags are like hippos. Great to look at in their containment zone (zoo, university press, same difference). You let them loose and they just shit all over the place, eat the landscaping, and end up face down in a river.

[Anonymous No.11524678]

>>11519389
Watch some videos on YouTube of math professionals and graduate students from good schools. I think what they meant will be evident, though I can't say for sure. To become a facet in any field, you must give everything to it, so excellent students in math think constantly about math and numbers and everything is reduced to number and numerical associations. Average students would not suffer from this, nor will they have any significant impact after their degrees are complete. This phenomena is observable in nearly, if not every, specialization. Even gung ho feminazi's do it. They reduce everything to gender and gender politics, regardless of relevancy.

[Anonymous No.11525029]

>>11519389
lol, that depends on if you're doing proofs. If you can take proof based math courses at a tough college it WILL drastically improve your mental abilities in many ways.

[Anonymous No.11525040]

ITT: lots of extreme speculation and generalization

[Anonymous No.11525044]

>>11519389
Numbers are abstractions and reductions of real things that don't necessarily reduce and maintain it's meaning or utility.
It can make life boring and ugly.

See John Nash and game theory, which is the quintessential nonfunctional mathematics of behavior based on paranoid schizo on the part of Nash himself

[Anonymous No.11525065]

>>11521008
this

[Anonymous No.11525076]

>>11524659
Just end your life already, jesus

[Anonymous No.11525799]

>>11524206
Even if there is, he won't be on 4chan

[Anonymous No.11525805]

>>11525040
ITB*
If you actually changed and reprogrammed every individual in /lit/ we'd have a world with less people torturing themselves to give such a fuck all the time

[Anonymous No.11525809]

>>11525805
that said there are blessed people here that's why i come

[Anonymous No.11525811]

>>11524659
Career prospects of chemistry is less than mathematics, so, as you can tell, logical framework isn't the only factor I chose mathematics for.

[Anonymous No.11525815]

>>11523087
Mathfags frequently have atrocious interpretations of probability and statistics and how they ought to be applied.

[Anonymous No.11525829]

>>11521360
>No reason to occupy yourself with such trivialities as figuring out arithmetic if you have a machine a billion times better then you.
Sounds like Asimov's "The Feeling of Power" is coming true.