“No mathematician in the world would bother making these senseless distinctions: 2 1/2 is a "mixed number " while 5/2 is an "improper fraction." They're EQUAL for crying out loud. They are the exact same numbers and have the exact same properties. Who uses such words outside of fourth grade?”
― A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form
― A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
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“Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.”
― A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form
― A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form
“The reason that the American Navy does so well in wartime is that war is chaos, and the Americans practice chaos on a daily basis.”
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Corey’s 2024 Year in Books
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