The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved And Why Numbers Are Like Gossip cover
The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved And Why Numbers Are Like Gossip
by Keith Devlin
ISBN: 0465016197
Found in 4 comments on Hacker News
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j2kun · 2016-01-26 · Original thread
Barring an extremely small number of cases, this is not true by any means. The cognitive skills required to learn math are the same as the cognitive skills required to learn language. If you're interested in learning more about this, check out Keith Devlin's "The Math Gene" [1]

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Math-Gene-Mathematical-Thinking/dp...

j2kun · 2013-09-09 · Original thread
It doesn't take a grandmaster at chess to play the game. Just as well, there are varying levels of understanding and producing mathematics.

You think of language as a basic skill because you have taken it for granted your whole life, but the same kinds of mental abilities used for language are what is needed for mathematics. There are heaps of scientific evidence supporting this. [1]

Again, you are putting mathematics on a pillar because it's foreign to you, not because of any inherent difficulty in the subject itself. You're "acknowledging" a myth as fact.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Math-Gene-Mathematical-Thinking/dp...