kattfisk comments on I'm right, ain't I?

[–] kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I strongly disagree that memorization is important or foundational to advanced math. It definitely is useful, but you don't need it. And the more advanced your math gets, the less valuable it becomes.

My experience is that university-level math explicitly tells you to not memorize values and formulas, but to get comfortable finding solutions directly, because then you actually learn what is going on and have methods that are universally useful.

In the real world memorization is even less useful. You will never be as fast and accurate as a calculator, or remember as many values as a precomputed table has. So why bother?

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[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I meant basic memorization, not any advanced stuff. If you have to re-derive everything basic from scratch again and again, you will be less effective at advanced stuff.

This is not to say the basic stuff should just be memorized. Rather, it should first be understood and only then be memorized.

And definitions must be memorized, otherwise you're screwed. For instance, try proving something is a group if you forgot the definition of a group. Yes, the definitions have reason for being the way they are (which you will likely learn) but definitions just cannot be derived from your mind during an exam.

In OP's example with memorizing multiplication tables instead of doing them on-the-fly: This is a core skill required for so much later on. You don't want to waste time and energy thinking about how e.g. 7•8 = 7•2•4 = 14•4 = 14•2•2 = 28•2 = 56 because that's a quick way to lose focus. Especially if you – like me btw – have to invert a 7x7 matrix with two variables x,y put in a bunch of positions (and linear combinations of them) in an exam.

Edit: substitute unescaped *s with •

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