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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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None of that material is remotely difficult to learn and get throught for the first time, if you are a student with no day job or child caring responsibilities that is.

Not that I went to MIT, but the material remains the same even if you study it somewhere else ;-)

I admit trying to learn it between say 2330 and 0000 after being busy all day and having to get up at 6am might be difficult.

Anyone about 100- 115 IQ wise really shouldn't struggle with it if they actually try imho.

Putting SBFs intelligence lower bound as...median..

Anyone about 100- 115 IQ wise really shouldn't struggle with it if they actually try imho.

You severely underestimate how stupid I am šŸ¤£

Not that I went to MIT, but the material remains the same even if you study it somewhere else ;-)

MIT is not a plug and chug school. Their goal is to create engineers and scientists who understand the technology they use/manage on a deep level.

Deep understanding of first year undergraduate material?

Deep understanding, as relevant for scientists or engineers, of the stuff previously listed is still quite superficial.

Edit: For clarity, superficial as in a first year undergraduate course as part of training for scientists or engineers.

I do agree - comparing the deep knowledge in computer science between MIT/CMU/etc grads and even just the next tier of CS universities is night and day - but I was under the impression that much of that happens after freshman year. In which case thisā€¦

None of that material is remotely difficult to learn and get throught for the first time, if you are a student with no day job or child caring responsibilities that is.

ā€¦makes a bit more sense, even if I think @Azth rather underestimates how much difficulty the average 100-IQ person would have with something like calculus or physics. Like, for someone smart, even something like 15-213 in CMU is possibly doable solo, let alone freshman calculus (not even analysis!), physics, chemistry, and biology.

I guess what I mean is that both of you are kind of right but some statements are kind of wrong? @Azth underestimates the intelligence needed to take those classes without trouble, and you overestimate the deep learning required in such entry level courses, but would nevertheless be on point about the degree generally.

Yes, I can accept that.

Maybe I underestimate the intelligence reuqired - like stokes theorem is brought up by another poster and that is, at a deep level, implcitly obvious and formalising it is straightforward, dare I say trivial so perhaps I fell into the typical mind fallacy trap (although I am retarded).

Do you really think if you asked a sample of 100 IQ people to learn Stokes' theorem (perhaps with some monetary incentive) to the extent they could describe it and use it in applications that most would be able to?

Yes, once you filter for those who don't know calculus, other prerequisites, have sufficient time, etc. Pay them to learn the prequesites then stokes theorem. I think the main barrier would not be that people can't understand it but that they simply do not care.