Comment by notmyjob

Comment by notmyjob 8 hours ago

4 replies

Math achievement correlates strongly with visuospatial reasoning. Programmers may not be as proficient in math as economists, but they are better at it than biologists or lawyers.

1980phipsi 6 hours ago

I would distinguish between visual imagination and visuospatial reasoning.

For people like myself with aphantasia, there are often problems solving strategies that can help you when you can’t visualize. Like draw a picture.

And lots of problems don’t really require as much visual imagination as you would think. I’m pretty good at math, programming, and economics. Not top tier, but pretty good.

If there are problems out there that you struggle with compared to others, then that’s the universe telling you that you don’t have a comparative advantage in it. Do something else and hire the people who can more easily solve them if you need it.

  • notmyjob 2 hours ago

    It sounds like you have routed around your spatial visualization deficit, but that just proves the importance of alternate cognitive strategies rather than indicate that such an aptitude or deficit doesn’t ceteris paribus impact mathematical achievement.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_visualization_ability

    You probably are high g (iq), which has, historically at least, dominated other factors in determining overall outcomes.

neffy 7 hours ago

And since the economist's main skill at math is fitting a very short ruler to a very large curve... i wouldn't put them ahead of lawyers...

  • notmyjob an hour ago

    There are economists and there are economists. I doubt Pam Bondi was top in real analysis or other college level maths. Maybe, but I doubt it.