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1971genocide | 10 years ago

Richard Hamming ( the person who came up with hamming distance ) has an interesting insight - based on the rate of sub-fields being created in mathematics - he concluded that by the year 2000 there would be 1000 different sub-fields for every mathematical subfield !

Do the people in power expect everyone to know everything ?

Knowledge is important - but society will stop working if everyone spends their lifetimes studying.

I read it in hacker news a while ago - the amount of new information we are introduced daily in 2015 was equivalent to what humans received in their lifetimes - for most of human history.

We need better methods to organize information - ( this is why google has its insane valuation - and no its not a bubble )

It should not take me 20 years to understand mathematics at the level of newton - how am I supposed to understand another 400 years of maths before I am homeless ?

Its a difficult question to answer but I think its a question my generation has to find an answer - and fast.

discuss

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japaw|10 years ago

However the tools are getting better also. You now "stand on the shoulders of giants". With modern computer based math tools you can, for some problems, be lot more productive then working out everything on paper.

You can also just search the internet many types of information and methods instead of having parallel invent it. Making you more effective.