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lmao

Somewhere in middle school, I had convinced myself that I was bad at math. It was okay: My mom was bad at math too. So were lots of people I looked up to. “Bad at math” was a thing — probably even genetic — and it was okay.

I so thoroughly convinced myself that I was bad at math that I very nearly didn’t graduate from high school. It took tutors and hours a week to squeak through an advanced algebra class my friends had all breezed through on their way to much harder classes.

But it was okay. I was bad at math. They weren’t. Simple as that.
And it was all a lie.

“Bad at math” is a lie you tell yourself to make failure at math hurt less. That’s all it is. Professors Miles Kimball and Noah Smith wrote in The Atlantic that many of us faced a moment in our lives where we entered a math class that some of us were prepared for and some of us weren’t. Those that got it right away were “good at math” and those who didn’t, well, weren’t. Or so we believed. Those who were good kept working to stay good, and those of us who were bad at it believed the lie.

Now, Kimball and Smith write that bad at math is “the most self-destructive idea in America today.”

Well, Professors Kimball and Smith, welcome to journalism, where “bad at math” isn’t just a destructive idea — it’s a badge of honor. It’s your admission to the club. It’s woven into the very fabric of identity as a journalist.

And it’s a destructive lie. One I would say most journalists believe. It’s a lie that may well be a lurking variable in the death of journalism’s institutions.

Name me a hot growth area in journalism and I’ll show you an area in desperate need of people who can do a bit of math. Data. Programming. Visualization. It’s telling that most of the effort now is around recruiting people from outside journalism to do these things.

But it doesn’t end there. Name me a place where journalism needs help, and I’ll show you more places where math is a daily need: analytics, product development, market analysis. All “business side” jobs, right? Not anymore.

Truth is, “bad at math” was never a good thing in journalism, even when things like data and analytics weren’t a part of the job. Covering a city budget? It’s shameful how many newsroom creatures can’t calculate percent change. Covering sports? It’s embarrassing how many sports writers dismiss the gigantic leaps forward in data analysis in all sports as “nerd stuff.”

In short, we’ve created a culture where ignorance of a subject is not only accepted, it’s glorified. Ha ha! Journalists are bad at math! Fire is hot and water is wet too!

I’m not going to tell you how to get good at math by giving you links to online materials or MOOCs or whatever. I’m not. You can Google. You should do that. No, I’m going to tell you a story.

Through grit and luck and a Hail Mary pass of a grade on a final exam, I did graduate from high school. And in 1993 I went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the time said the curricular equivalent of “Math? Why the hell do you need math?” I thought this was great. No math? I must be in heaven.

Twenty years later, I’m now a professor in that same journalism school that let me skip out of math. We don’t do that anymore, but our math requirements are pretty thin and universally reviled by students, most of whom would say they’re bad at math. As a professor, I can take classes for free. And it’s abundantly obvious to me that journalism’s problems aren’t with journalism — they’re about money. Where does one go to learn about money? Business school.

So I thought I would get an MBA to better understand the business side of journalism. I walked over to the business college and told them I wanted to do this. “Have you had calculus as an undergrad?” Oh. Uh, no. “Have to have it. It’s an admission requirement.”

So almost two decades to the day that I set foot on campus, there I was, taking a math placement exam. This exam is given to all incoming freshmen to determine which math class they should start with. I took it and could barely read the questions. If they had given me a grade, I would have bombed it. I tested straight into a remedial math class for students who didn’t get enough in high school. Congrats, Math Department: Your test nailed it.

I probably could have crammed and watched Khan Academy videos for hours, taken it again, and landed in a higher math class. But I would have felt like I cheated my way in. And that would have been terrifying. So, I took the class. Math 100A. Just a 37-year-old professor and 30 or so 18-year-old freshmen. Totally normal; I didn’t stick out at all. The instructor was in first grade when I was last in a math class. She asked me what I was doing there. Told her my story. Her reaction: She was bad at math too, until she got to college. Now, she’s getting a Ph.D. in it.

Given all that, I lived in absolute terror that I wouldn’t do well. I sat in the front row. I asked questions non-stop. I did all the homework. I did extra practice problems. I raised my hand to answer questions so much the instructor asked me to stop. I studied for hours.

And I got an A+. I was shocked. And elated. In spite of the fact that I’m a grownup and should get an A in a remedial course, I was pumped up. I can’t remember my last A in math.

On to the next class. Math 101: College Algebra. Just the name gave me chills. I could barely pass high school algebra; how the hell was I going to handle college algebra? Here I was, a grown man with a family and a house and a job and a resume, sweating bullets and losing sleep about a class freshmen take.
Same plan, same result: Work hard, get A+.

I’m halfway through calculus this semester. I have never in my life worked this hard in a class. I’ve never sat awake at night worrying about a class like I have tossing and turning thinking about how to calculate the derivative of something. I can go speak in front of 1,000 people with less than five minutes of preparation and be downright calm compared to the feeling I have going to take a test.

Right now, I’ve got a B+. And if I walk out of there with it, it’ll easily be the most proud of a grade I’ll ever have been.

Why? Because at this level, I’m seeing the consequences of how a student approaches math. On each test, the median score has been around a high F or a low D. The last test saw more than half the class fail. It’s brutal. Of the 111 students in the class, I’m guessing 70 of them will be taking it again.

The only advantage I have over my classmates? I know exactly how to fail at math: Don’t put any effort in. Blow it off. Do something else. A glass of wine and a rerun of Big Bang Theory kicks the crap out of applications of extrema using derivatives, even if you hate wine and loathe Big Bang Theory.

But that’s the lesson I’ve learned: The difference between good at math and bad at math is hard work. It’s trying. It’s trying hard. It’s trying harder than you’ve ever tried before. That’s it.

So do me a favor: Try. Stop with the jokes. Stop telling me, “Oh, I could never do that” when you ask me about math. Because it’s not true. You can. If you try.

You can be good at math.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/matt-waite-how-i-faced-my-fears-and-learned-to-be-good-at-math/

She is pretty. Nice face, behind and chest, skinny.

Doesn't get much better than that. How tall is she?

disguuuusting

Bill Gates has spent hundreds of millions of dollars fighting disease in Africa.

How many individuals in history can say they've done the same..?

I agree that we do need to invest in education, healthcare, etc.

But I'm not sure that fear-mongering and making up bogeymen is going to help things.

Btw there is this guy Jahlil Okafor who is also in the pipeline (incidentally, how does an Igbo dude end up with a Muslim-sounding first name?) I've heard that he is supposed to be a top prospect, but don't know much else about him.

Okafor had like as 12/10 rookie year right? And was like 15-16/10 in his 3rd year?

That is damn good for a young big.

He was just overshadowed by Dwight, and of course his injuries really prevented him from maintaining that high level of play.

Okafor was a beast in college and pretty good in his first few NBA years. Just suffered a lot of injuries that robbed him of his athleticism.

zopaks: I know for sure that wale the American rapper can speak Yoruba language better THAN A LOT OF BORN AND BRED NIGERIAN RESIDENTS!

I really doubt that, the way he pronounces Yoruba words is really bad

kojeiwa: Dad from Sierra Leone and Mom from Nigeria. Would you call him a Nigerian?

Who told you his dad is from Sierra Leone? His dad may have lived in Sierra Leone, but given his last name imo is unlikely to be some pure indigene.

[quote author=Wana_G]Jeff Green is not Nigerian.[/quote]Jeff Green's mom is Nigeria, or so I've heard.

Victor Oladipo has a good chance of being an all-star caliber player.

But Giannis Adetokunbo imo has a better chance of being a superstar. He is a freak of nature.

Anyway, I'm rooting for both of them to succeed.

I love Christianity

She is cute

It is too late.

As others have stated, your husband is on point but he will lose the battle.

Look, your son is half-Yoruba living in Yorubaland, so naturally will be inclined to gravitate more towards that culture/people than that of his father.

And if your son "chooses" Yoruba over Esan, then essentially your husband's heritage has died with him.

Heck, I'm in the same exact position as your husband...almost all of the women I date are non-Yoruba, so it is pretty likely when I eventually get married and have kids that they'll view themselves as African American first before Yoruba.

I am happy to massage any suitably attractive women with my snake.

Katsumoto: If we use that yardstick, then all dictators are more powerful than Obama. The Saudi king would also be ahead of Obama. Power goes beyond political power, you have to include economic and military.

Not true. Having 10% influence in a country as powerful as the US is better than being the god of Moldova.

However, Russia is a reasonably big/country and Putin has an outsized shared of power there. So him being ranked above Obama seems legit.

All American Presidents have been the most powerful men in the world until the black man becomes president.

I don't see the racial angle you see, but perhaps it is there, I dunno.

I agree that USA >>> Russia.

Say USA = 1000, Russia = 100.

However, Obama's "power" within the US is say 1%.

While Putin is basically 20%+.

Putin can rule Russia for the rest of his life if he likes, that is how much he completely dominates the country.

Obama on the other hand shares his power with his Democratic party, the Republicans, the House, the Senate, the 50 states, the massive US private sector, etc.

If Obama slaps me one time or rapes some woman, he is a goner...he will be impeached (well OK, if he slaps a small pikin like me nothing will happen ).

However, if Putin decides to wipe out some Chechen village within his country, nobody will say a word.

musiwa112: tinubu is not liked by most yoruba people.

Is there a map to support this claim?

Katsumoto: National

On what basis is Putin more powerful than Obama? Within Russia, Putin relies on crackdowns to suppress the voice of the people.

Obama on the other, despite opposition to his office by racists, is ploughing ahead.

The US is a far more powerful nation than Russia. However, Obama has a much smaller fraction of his nation's power than Putin does (in part due to the constitutional limits on the power of the presidency, a somewhat strong opposition party).

So I think it is fair to say that Putin is more powerful than Obama.

We thanks God for your life Eziachi. I am glad to hear you are recovering.

Mods, please move this to the Politics section.

[quote author=H-Star89]lol alright... Yep, everything is cool around here... How are you?[/quote]Good, just working like a slave these days. So little free time

[quote author=H-Star89][/quote]Some boring nerd ish, my dear H-Star

Hope all is well, been a while.

what does "oduah" mean in igbo?

Maven, Ant, etc?

I use SBT and kinda find it annoying (though some parts are nice).

Nairaland has helped me understand Nigeria and Nigerians better w/o having to physically be there.

It has done me a great deal of good.