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When I read the first meaty chapter about graphs and commutativity I initially thought he just spends too long explaining simple concepts. But then ai realized
by theZilber 1y ago
When I read the first meaty chapter about graphs and commutativity I initially thought he just spends too long explaining simple concepts.
But then ai realized I would always forget the names for all the mathy c' words - commutativity commutativity, qssociativity... and for the first time I could actually remember commutativity and what it means, just because he tied it into a graphical representation (which actually made me laugh out loud because, initially, I thought it was a joke). So the concept of "x + y = y + x" always made sense to me but never really stuck like the graphical representation, which also made me remember its name for the first time.
I am sold.
- gowld 1y agoWhich chapter is that? It's not in the ToC
- memoryfault 1y ago3!
- HappMacDonald 1y agoChapter 6, got it
- vanderZwan 1y agoIt's because the graphs are visual metaphors that encode privileged information[0]. Which is an often overlooked aspect of teaching imo. Your own initial dismissive reaction kind of shows why: people don't really get the point until they realize it works, and even then they're not sure why. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20140402025221/http://m.nautil.us/issue/6/secret-codes/teaching-me-softly https://web.archive.org/web/20140402025221/http://m.nautil.u...