Colleen Farrelly
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Author of The Shape of Data (No Starch Press)
Jan 27
At what level did mathematics become too difficult for you?
It’s not really a level, though some material is typically encountered within certain degree programs. I’m on the applied side of topology/geometry/graph theory/probability theory. Most papers related to what I do make sense to me, though some take more work to understand than others, depending on how much background I have on the particular tools used. However, I do not understand much in number theory or some branches of algebra, statistics, or analysis. The papers have a lot of jargon and assumed knowledge I don’t encounter in my areas of research and application. Quite frankly, the algebraic way of thinking from high school never made much sense to me, and proofs based on those sort of logic usually elude me. I need the geometry-based, visual sorts of math.
That being said, elementary school math was probably the hardest for me, and I’d venture that we lose a lot of mathematicians to the way math is taught in k-8 courses. Rote memorization and mathematical thinking tend to be on opposite sides educationally, and rote memorization is the basis for math education where I’m located. Quite frankly, even high school courses encouraged memorization and drill-and-kill teaching rather than mathematical reasoning about problems.