
Defeated Lobster
20% warning for being based
★★★
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2022
- Posts
- 1,202
Prior to my graduate studies, I tended to assume that mathematics was the one discipline completely immune to personality issues, individual delusions, and misdirection. Mathematics was solid, set in stone, its foundations perfect and monolithic.
Then I met reality.
I doubt most people who have not investigated actual mathematics as a career are aware of just how damaged and absurd it has become. The brighter citizens of Western civilization may chuckle at the pseudoscience that is psychology and sociology and the never-ending embarrassments it suffers due to its flaws—the Sokal incident and the recent investigation showing that over 50% of the papers going through peer review hold conclusions that are clearly patently false, as just two examples.
These citizens are unaware, however, that mathematics is in much the same state. It's just that most people don't care about math and avoid it at all costs.
What about your experience in Academia?
Then I met reality.
I doubt most people who have not investigated actual mathematics as a career are aware of just how damaged and absurd it has become. The brighter citizens of Western civilization may chuckle at the pseudoscience that is psychology and sociology and the never-ending embarrassments it suffers due to its flaws—the Sokal incident and the recent investigation showing that over 50% of the papers going through peer review hold conclusions that are clearly patently false, as just two examples.
These citizens are unaware, however, that mathematics is in much the same state. It's just that most people don't care about math and avoid it at all costs.
What about your experience in Academia?