I’ll be honest, it’s surprising to me. I recently finished my doctorate in math and taught undergrads for much of that time, and I’m wondering how many of my “bad” students would have been great at the same fucking things if I’d presented them differently. This feels, to me, like a huge finding, and a very puzzling one. Why do similar problems hit people’s brains so differently based on context? To the point where accomplished arithmeticians can lose all of their skill if the problem is stated in a different context? It’s really weird, actually, in my mind.
I’ll be honest, it’s surprising to me. I recently finished my doctorate in math and taught undergrads for much of that time, and I’m wondering how many of my “bad” students would have been great at the same fucking things if I’d presented them differently. This feels, to me, like a huge finding, and a very puzzling one. Why do similar problems hit people’s brains so differently based on context? To the point where accomplished arithmeticians can lose all of their skill if the problem is stated in a different context? It’s really weird, actually, in my mind.