How to fall in love with Math - Response

In his recent opinion editorial, “How to fall in love with Math”, Manil Suri makes a plea to his audience to understand Mathematics from a different perspective and states various examples on how to do so. Though the idea of falling in love with Math seems exciting, I find that some of his arguments are lacking in substance.

The author mentions that Mathematics should be appreciated in the same way as one can appreciate art without acquiring the ability to paint, or enjoy a symphony without being able to read music. What he does not note is that we are able to appreciate paintings and symphonies because they please our senses of sight and hearing respectively. However, the complex mathematical equations do not please any of our senses until we develop advanced mathematical skills. Thus it is quite difficult to appreciate profound mathematical ideas if we cannot perceive their meaning. For instance, it has been stated that Math can be better understood through enjoying the eye candy of fractal images - those black, amoeba like splotches, surrounded by bands of psychedelic colors. My question to the author is that how can anyone, except a mathematician, relate a mathematical rule to such images when he or she does not even know what these images look like.

Secondly, the author claims that human beings are wired for mathematics and that at some level, perhaps we all crave it. I don't think the author provides any substantial evidence to back this statement up. I have seen many college students struggling with Mathematics courses. If we had been wired for it, perhaps all of us would have eventually excelled at it, which is sadly not the case. From my experience, I believe that some people have innate mathematical skills similar to the domain of music and painting. I would have liked my beliefs to be challenged by the authors’ viewpoints, but convincing evidence hasn’t been provided.

The author also says that in schools, the opportunity to immerse students in interesting mathematical ideas is usually jettisoned to make more time for testing and arithmetic drills. Fortunately, in the institutions where I have received my education, only two to three examinations are held throughout the course of the year. The rest of the curriculum was solely based upon developing a strong understanding of the mathematical concepts and theorems in the students. However, even that approach did not lead to a large proportion of the student body ‘loving’ mathematics.

By virtue of being a mathematics professor, the author has based his arguments in such a way that they are meant for audience that is already in love with mathematics thus having an understanding of the concepts and images being referred to. This defeats the purpose of attracting scholars from other fields of life towards Mathematics.

Meme fun

This meme relates to the life of a college student who is burdened with the tests and assignments he has to complete on a daily basis. The fact that the meme personifies a nonliving thing makes it humorous. It gives us an insight into the frustrations and stress a college student has to deal with. Also, it is funny because it it gives us a peep into the mind of a student who tries to postpone work to as late as possible, as reflected by ‘20 days’ rather than a few. It closely relates to my experience in school when I had to complete lengthy assignments daily and it was affecting my participation in other activities like cricket and music.

This meme relates to a person who is tired and exhausted with his work and is desperately waiting for the weekend to come so that he may relax. What makes it interesting is that it also personifies a nonliving thing and informs us about the need for relaxation and leisure in one’s life. It is humorous in the sense that it illustrates the importance of a Friday night in the life of a student. No matter how unburdened the week has been, a college student always looks forward to a Friday night.

This meme is about brian’s bad luck and carelessness. It tells us how hard work and labor can go waste if attention is not paid to the basics. The picture of a geeky boy gives this meme a humorous implication. He seems like a boy who would be most affected by grades and tests, and makes a stupid mistake to undo all his hard work. It relates to an experience of mine in fifth grade when I had studied hard for a test but realised the next day that the test was on chapter 5 and not on chapter 4.

This meme tells us that being too careful is also detrimental. It makes us laugh about the fact that how bad luck can ruin our most careful actions or moves. The fact that the boy is laughing at his own rotten luck makes this meme work. This kind of a situation has taken place several times with my mother who tends to keep her stuff very carefully. The fact that the boy is smiling away instead of looking for his lost item is also quite interesting and it creates a kind of agitation in the mind of the viewer.

Comedy can only reach its full potential when you're allowed to joke about any subject, no matter how offensive - Change my View

The opinion that I agreed with was - Comedy can only reach its full potential when you’re allowed to joke about any subject, no matter how offensive. I agreed that finding humor in topics like rape, terrorism, racism etc. would allow a form of relief from the stress and negativity that comes from these topics. Also, I felt that the audience should participate in the act of comedy with an open mind and try to acknowledge the humor presented, since something that might be offensive to one might be humorous to others, and vice versa.  

My opinion was shifted considerably by the argument that a comedian's job is to make people laugh. A comedian may definitely joke about any subject but if no one finds his jokes funny because they are offended by them then he is failing at his job miserably. Stand up is a field with instant feedback. It allows the audience to respond instantly to the material. Thus, comedy reaches its full potential when a comedian delivers his material in accordance with the type of audience he is dealing with.

My opinion was also shifted by the argument that people tend to be heavily influenced by comedians and tend to adopt the views of the comedians into their worldview. There are studies that have shown that when people make jokes about subjects like rape, they influence others to have a decreased desire to punish rapists and decreased view of rape as a problem. Thus, if offensive comedy causes people to feel better about such subjects then its net effect is rather detrimental. In that case, I realize that comedians should not joke about anything offensive to their audience, no matter how hilarious it might be. Comedy is a form of entertainment, and should not be designated the power of having unwanted enduring effects on the lives of the audience.

I was forced to reevaluate my viewpoint by the argument that comedians do have a social responsibility towards the audience they are dealing with, and should try to avoid the usage of dark humor which they feel would bring out the full potential in their act. They may be highly mistaken. Comedy may reach its full potential through wit, imagination, slice of life observation, free form improvisation, satire etc.  A remark that makes people more unhappy than they were before they heard it, is not comedy. That would just affect the mood of the audience in a way undesired by both the presenter and the audience itself.

To conclude I would like to mention that “people should just have a good humor about their bad situation” is a very easy thing to say when you have never experienced it.

My favorite website

The software that I am familiar with is:

Microsoft Office

My favorite website is quora.com. It serves as an online portal whereby users can post questions and receive answers from experts and other knowledgeable users in the relevant domain. It allows them to choose from various topics like food, education, health, science, sports etc and browse through questions and answers posted by others alongside producing original content. It serves as an immense pool of knowledge from which users can choose and pick elements that interest them.

I like quora because of the vast range of topics that are covered and the quality of answers that comes as a product of the rich community that has developed around the content. On one hand people discuss numerous social, economical as well as political problems whereas on the other hand, people also share memes and jokes on relevant questions. Thus, this website provides us with a combination of humor and knowledge. Quora’s distribution channel makes sure that you view the most relevant content in your feed, which is also highly valuable.

What makes quora unique is that it encourages experts in various domains to impart their knowledge by demonstrating a need in the social community like nowhere else on the web. Readers’ feedback via votes furthers this objective to bring together a valuable social network that thrives on information.

I have contributed to quora by answering questions related to domains I am familiar with, to the best of my ability. Specifically, I have contributed to sports channels like cricket and tennis and others related to computer programming and mathematics. I believe I contribute to the website even by reading/upvoting answers and being an active part of the rich community. This provides encouragement to the answerer and completes circle of engagement Quora thrives on.

The kind of discourse on quora varies from being humorous to being educational. It solely depends on the subject matter and thus it is as variegated as the subjects are on quora.