There’s little in the class on “how to do research” and it’s 100% working in SPSS, learning math/statistics terminology, working with correlation and regression , finding p values, multiple regressions…and like, while that may seem easy to some, my mind is not built that way and I struggle with 100% of it.
Humanities are fine, social sciences are fine it's just they present themselves as absolutes like hard sciences and believe in their methodology too much
these two things bring that out
the replication crisis, that over 50% of social science papers cannot be replicated, even by the same scientists conducting the same experiment, should raise an eyebrow vs how they present their findings.
Replication crisis - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Chomsky's description of intellectual teachers talking about prestige and envy.
I’m sure you explained that well but I feel like I just tried to read/understand Latin. My brain just isn’t wired for anything beyond basic math
I mean, to say some people aren’t inclined to certain things is silly. I took 3 years of Spanish and couldn’t grasp that either and I loved it. I just have issues for other languages, which to me, and my brain, math is.
I think this isn't true, though you're right in the way most people use the phrase "math person". For sure, great many people do themselves a huge disservice by making excuses instead of learning themselves over the math entry barriers. But real "math people" are definitely a different breed. I'm quantitatively inclined and do simulation and optimization work for a living. But one of my best friends growing up was a goddamn alien. When we were in high school he literally spent a half an hour flipping through our BC Calc text book, shrugged and said, "Yeah, makes sense," didn't touch it for the rest of the year, and aced EVERYTHING. We had exams once a month, after which all the homework for the previous month was due. He'd walk in, blow through the test in five minutes, and spend the remainder of the hour doing a month's worth of homework, which he'd also ace. He ended up with literally a perfect score for the year without investing a single second outside of the exam periods (lectures were optional and he'd skip those). He ended up on scholarship to MIT for math, unsurprisingly.
I think any person of sufficient raw intellectual power can do what you friend did. I dont think it has anything to do with having a math brain and has everything to do with good working memory and incredible ability for abstraction. But thats what I feel based on my dealing with math and physics people for the last 10-12 years. Your story does remind me of this funny video though:
