Thursday, August 2, 2012

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human

You know, I really should carve out some time to read some Robert Heinlein. I keep running across quotes from him that ring true but he just was never a part of my library growing up. Some of the things I come across seem militaristic or over-the-top judgmental but they also are sometimes admirably plain-spoken. For example.
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house.
From Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein.

Too strident by far but also scarily true in today's complex global economy. If you don't have a fundamental grasp of mathematics, and particularly statistics, you are almost perforce not part of the conversation.

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