Mathematics Skills More in Demand Than Ever

knownsense writes "Business week has a nice article (feel good, low on detail, vague numbers) on the rise of maths and mathematicians in a world that is increasingly obsessed with statistics, advertising, search engines, and algorithms. The article also deals with issues of privacy. How has mathematics, statistics and other number driven aspects of life impacted you in the last decade?"

Comments

Hmmmm

[antifoidulus]

I wonder if this Neal Goldman was in the AV club during high school and had a crush on a girl named Meg.

English skills?

[tehshen]

"We'll have systems that tap our knowledge by the minute," [Pierre Haren] says. "Productivity could rise by a factor of 10."

That's nice, but which factor? 1 is a factor of 10 :)

Calculator

[genbitter]

I guess I better replace the batteries in my calculator.

Re:Math vs Maths?

[smittyoneeach]

Mathematics - ematic = Maths

well lets just say

[scenestar]

How has mathematics, statistics and other number driven aspects of life impacted you in the last decade?

It hasn't gotten me laid yet.

Re:well lets just say

[massivefoot]

Perhaps you should integrate more.

Re:well lets just say

[ezpei]

There are at least two ways math can get you laid.

1) If you're an applied math guy, you can use it to make enough money to attract the kind of women who like money
2) If you're a theoretical math guy, you can use it to make interesting small talk involving some loose homomorphism between something you know a lot about and one of the woman's interests, assuming she's smart enough to follow what you're saying

Option (2) works particularly well with hippie chicks, artists, and architects. Fortunately, my wife is and/or was all three of those things ;)

Re:well lets just say

[pjy]

The staff at /\/\cDonalds get confused when I ask for a dozen chicken nuggets. They only sell them in lots of 3,6 or 9.

The main impact on me

[Snamh Da Ean]

How has mathematics, statistics and other number driven aspects of life impacted you in the last decade?

It made me go made hairline recede like crazy as I studied calculus in school and at college.

How much more?

[republican gourd]

Article is missing the most important part....

is it 2x more? 3x more? Maybe 5(log n)x^2 more? sin(cos(log (pi) * -1/2)) + e? More importantly, how much has the standard deviation moved from previous years to this one?

Re:Ancient Greek Technology Costs Jobs.

[Wholeflaffer]

That makes one less migrant tech worker visa that's needed.

Another application for math

[jimand]

statistics, advertising, search engines, and algorithms.

and Texas Hold'em.

That's EASY..

[Young Master Ploppy]

"How has mathematics, statistics and other number driven aspects of life impacted you in the last decade?"

Stopped me getting laid for most of it.

Next question...?

Re:Ancient Greek Technology Costs Jobs.

[stunt_penguin]

If Pythagoras can get one guy fired, imagine what Goldman's Polytope is going to do!

/changes professions

how numbers have helped me...!

[ladyKae]

How has mathematics, statistics and other number driven aspects of life impacted you in the last decade?

Oooo well lets see, they've helped me;

• tell the time
• pay for stuff
• catch a train
• count calories
• age
• give the alcohol I've consumed a value

I could *erm* go on & on....

Paycheck

[Bad D.N.A.]

The mechanism through which I get paid

Re:Ancient Greek Technology Costs Jobs.

[Anonymous Coward]

This requires a lot of shouting, cursing and everyone telling everyone else which way to move

Sounds like I'm getting useful training from my Statistics class

Re:Ancient Greek Technology Costs Jobs.

[sammy baby]

Did I just read correctly that one of your options for people who can't find unskilled labor work is prison?

Re:The Pure Profession

[tjhayes]

He wanted to build a base for a grain silo and needed to know how many cubic yards of cement was needed. So he was having a hard time computing this. I told him it was (as we all know) pi*radius^2

Your dad needed a VOLUME measurement, and you calculated it with an AREA measurement. Maybe you are not as good as math as you think you are!

Re:Ancient Greek Technology Costs Jobs.

[saforrest]

There's actually a framing calculator that has a much more useful square root function on it. It will return values that aren't decimal so it's easier to to use with a tape measure.

I was completely mystified about what this could possibly have meant, until I remembered that you guys don't use the metric system. :)

I guess converting from 11.764 feet to 11 feet and the appropriate number of inches would be a bitch. I'm just surprised they put the conversion into a special "square root" button and don't just have a general feet/inches decimal conversion tool.

Re:Ancient Greek Technology Costs Jobs.

[OldManAndTheC]

let's make you King with absolute authority. What would you do to change things?

Oh boy! Let's see:

• Raise the alcohol content of beer.
• Reinstate the practice of dwarf-tossing
• Get rid of the IRS. Replace it with knights in armor who go door to door and take all your stuff, and give it the King (me).
• Bring back droit du seigneur

It's good to be the King!

Very Good!

[Tibor the Hun]

Now if only you can learn to coach baseball you'd have all the makings of a great Highschool math and typing teacher!

Re:Ancient Greek Technology Costs Jobs.

[msouth]

How about blacksmiths that were replaced by the automobiles?

It wasn't really fair to require the poor blacksmiths to carry around the family and a trunkload of groceries anyway. I bet the blacksmiths were glad.

Re:Too late

[try_anything]

Wow, I never thought of using my math skills as a social chastity belt. I find that waving my arms and yelling "booga booga!" works pretty well, but it sometimes attracts unwanted attention. Next time I'll try functional analysis instead. Thanks for the idea!