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What Stuff Is About
www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/science/quadratic-equations-algebra.html
Dr. Loh’s statement teases me, a non-adept at mathematics, in imprecise ways.
The saucy segments are: “formulas without meaning”; “reason logically”; and “through.”
There are no formulas “without meaning”; a formula “means” what it formulates. It abstracts and generalizes in a repeatable way, and it’s useful only to those who have it beyond memory. It’s the act of lazy head-stuffing that’s meant to be belittled.
To reason “logically” is the same as to drink “liquidly.” How else to do either?
“Through” is tricky. At first I read it as prepositioning the notion of advancement by means of penetrative navigation. Picture, if you will, a thicket of precise statements; then picture yourself reasoning your way “through” them. On second reading, however, I estimate Dr. Loh to imply instrumentality — “by means of.” Picture yourself engaged in a reasoning process, and doing so by making a series of precise statements — reasoning “through” them.
Much stuff is about the likes of “through,” which is why computers are better at arithmetic than at translating.
(c) 2020 JMN
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About JMN
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.