I have gained so much buttressing context from reading dedicated history about science and math that I have come around to a much blunter position than Snow’s. I claim that an ahistorical technical education is technically deficient. If a person reads no history of math, science, or engineering than they will be a worse mathematician, scientist, or engineer, full stop.
Specialist histories can show how the big problems were really solved over time.[1] They can show how promising paths still wind up being wrong, and the important differences between the successful method and the failed one. They can show how partial solutions relate to the whole problem. They can show how legendary genius once struggled with the same concepts that you now struggle with.
Regarding The Two Cultures essay:
I have gained so much buttressing context from reading dedicated history about science and math that I have come around to a much blunter position than Snow’s. I claim that an ahistorical technical education is technically deficient. If a person reads no history of math, science, or engineering than they will be a worse mathematician, scientist, or engineer, full stop.
Specialist histories can show how the big problems were really solved over time.[1] They can show how promising paths still wind up being wrong, and the important differences between the successful method and the failed one. They can show how partial solutions relate to the whole problem. They can show how legendary genius once struggled with the same concepts that you now struggle with.
Usually—usually! As in a majority of the time! - this does not agree with the popular narrative about the problem.