The first four or five paragraphs were just bloviation, and I stopped there.
I know you think you can get away with it in “popular education”, but if you want to be taken seriously in technical discourse, then you need to rein in the pontification.
if you want to be taken seriously in technical discourse, then you need to rein in the pontification.
I don’t disagree, but I also don’t think this is correct. There are plenty of verbose mathematicians out there who spend too much time expounding on the philosophical merits of their approach, and they’re taken seriously.
The first three paragraphs. I think the fourth and fifth paragraphs (contra grandparent) are reasonable, but the biography of I. J. Good doesn’t add much support to the thesis.
TL;DR.
The first four or five paragraphs were just bloviation, and I stopped there.
I know you think you can get away with it in “popular education”, but if you want to be taken seriously in technical discourse, then you need to rein in the pontification.
I don’t disagree, but I also don’t think this is correct. There are plenty of verbose mathematicians out there who spend too much time expounding on the philosophical merits of their approach, and they’re taken seriously.
You’ll excuse me if I don’t name names, though.
Most of those are people who have already earned it a bit by having major results to their credit.
Can you provide a few examples of sentences that you consider to be particularly empty of meaning?
The first three paragraphs. I think the fourth and fifth paragraphs (contra grandparent) are reasonable, but the biography of I. J. Good doesn’t add much support to the thesis.