
Stance and distance in popular writing about math - luu
https://mathenchant.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/stance-and-distance-in-popular-writing-about-math/
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todd8
The overall degree of innumeracy in society is disturbing, but what shocks me
is the widespread acceptance of it in polite society. I know people that have
spent years obtaining PhDs and almost gleefully admit they aren’t good at
math. I don’t mean that they don’t understand what graph isomorphism is; I
mean they don’t know how to divide one fraction by another.

The parent article touches on our culture’s writers and journalists treatment
of mathematics as a strange, peculiar interest in comparison to say the fine
arts. The vast majority of the people we see and hear and read in the popular
media seem to reside in a different world where drinking celery juice balances
your body’s energy fields.

I’m not the worlds most intelligent guy, but I’m glad to have my friends;
they’re smart, funny, and at least half can divide fractions. (or is it two-
thirds?)

