Why do people think it is perfectly acceptable to say that

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Precisely, people need to accept that there is more to life than what goes on in school.

I mean, in music class at school we played the triangle and had to do hand clapping excercises and the furthest we got musically was to play things like twinkle, twinkle little star on a keyboard ad nauseum...it doens't mean that people go on to say they hate music and find it boring....they just go out there and develop an interest for themselves.

I think the people that say that hate maths or that maths are boring just don't understand it ... they're probably jealous that you're so good at it.

In Australia, we have a radio/television celebrity called Adam Spencer who has a maths degree.

He originally got his job on the radio when the radio station was broadcasting from a university for the day. The randomly picked Adam Spencer from the crowd to read the weather. While reading the weather he made interesting comments about the numbers eg Sydney, fine and 27 or 3 cubed.

He was the morning presenter for a few years on our national youth broadcasting radio station JJJ. He was absolutely hilarous and revelled in being a 'geek'. His favourite thing was to get students to call in with science/maths questions when they were cramming for exams. He would give outrageous answers that sounded reasonable because of all the jargon he'd throw in.

Another personality we have is Dr Karl Kruslenitzky. He is a trained medical doctor but has gone on to do further studies in science. He has regular spots on radio where people call inwith all their science questions that he answers, or researches the answer. Again, he is a self proclaimed geek and people love him!

Dr Karly Kruslenitzky (can't remember how to spell it) and Adam Spencer went on a national tour called 'sleek geek week tour' where they promoted maths and science.

Unfortunately Adam Spencer left radio and the guys that took over and nowhere near as good.

These guys are good things in Australian culture ... but unfortunately there's still a lot of the 'cool to be a fool' mentality.

Here is a theoretical conversation with people who say maths is boring,

"What did you do this weekend?"
"I got so drunk"
"Cool"
"I vomited everywhere"
"Awesome"

"What did you do this weekend?"
"Reviewed my maths lectures from last week"
"How boring!"

So ... who is the boring one?

Smelena

This is another great example.

In school, we go through basic types of equations (mainly linear, quadratic and some simple differential ones) and are taught algorithms to solve them. If you go into it a bit deeper and look at the theory behind it you are soon confronted with very attractive material. Instead of just making calculations you start looking at the conditions for solvability in general of equations and if you do Galois Theory you learn that certain types of equations have very deep symmetries that allow us a method to solve them and you will learn to actually show that certain equations are not solvable in a certain sense but more to the point, why this is. Once you get to this level things become a lot more exciting.

This is why I never know what to say to people at uni whenever they ask what I did at the weekend or over the holidays or something. Everyone else goes to clubs and gets drunk, I stay at home on the computer or go to museums

LOL. That sounds like a typical conversation in my math lectures. I agree with you though. I don't think there are that many things that are inherently boring, I think that it is people who are generally boring and are unable to develop an interest in anything.

Yep, this is what drives me wild...when people make sweeping generalisations based on only superficial understanding of things.



It is to some extent. For example, I am very pro-science and appreciate it as a general philosophy but I have never been able to get into any branch of science to a great extent. I read a lot of popular science and even attend some lecture courses for generalists on various branches (eg. Cosmology, Relativity, Particle Physics etc) and I am interested and enjoy it when I start to get a loose understanding of how things work etc. but I have always prefered to be a spectator of science rather than go out there and actually do any myself. I have a lot of interests like this that I dip into from time to time but never fully submerge myself into. I guess I am just naive in the sense that I feel completely overwhelmed by everything and am constantly interested in finding out more about pretty much everything. When I hear something new I tend to immediately want to find out as much as I can.



Well, I wish I was more erudite as I would then be able to express myself a heck of a lot better than I generally do.

But is Math really the only subject which has the problem of being regarded as boring by many people? I really don't think so.
And it's certainly true that most NTs probably won't be able to understand how one could love to do calculus in ones free time (let alone learn bus plans by heart or so if we are at that), but the other way around, isn't it also that most people with Asperger's will judge typical NT interests (such as sports or celebrity gossip) as boring? Couldn't that be seen as just as "unfair"?

Of course not; that is what I said in my original post, that I was sure it applied to many other things but I was just going off my own personal experience.



I don't even think it is so much an Aspie vs. NT thing and to be honest, I avoid subscribing to that mentality as much as possible; in fact I don't even like the word NT anymore as it seems to be always used in a pejorative context. I can't see why most people with Aspergers would view typical 'NT interests' (if such a thing exists) as boring at all. But I think you are missing my point in that I wasn't neccesarily critiscising people who say they find math boring but rather that I was critiscising anyone (Aspie or NT) who say things are boring when they have no knowledge or experience of them.

You speak very well, a pleasure to read if I may say so.

I think English majors get the same thing. Once, I was told by a fellow student that what I was doing was a waste of time. The sad thing is, with all of the political nonsense attached to it, she wound up being right, although for the wrong reason. Her argument was that studying English itself was a waste of time. That hurt me. I love to read. I feel that my skills in reading, organization and study helped in all subject areas.

I don't even think it is so much an Aspie vs. NT thing and to be honest, I avoid subscribing to that mentality as much as possible; in fact I don't even like the word NT anymore as it seems to be always used in a pejorative context. I can't see why most people with Aspergers would view typical 'NT interests' (if such a thing exists) as boring at all. But I think you are missing my point in that I wasn't neccesarily critiscising people who say they find math boring but rather that I was critiscising anyone (Aspie or NT) who say things are boring when they have no knowledge or experience of them.[/quote]

I was also more referring to the stereotypical cliché-like NT and Aspie (of course not every Aspie is doing calculus all day long and not every NT is as superficial). I'm not too happy with those terms either.
Anyways, I suppose it's hard if not even impossible to get a knowledge of higher math if one isn't even able to master the basics. So I think it's no wonder then that many people find it subjectively boring, if they however say it is boring as if this were an undoubtable general truth, then I find that wrong, too. Although one tends to do that sometimes I suppose, jump to conclusions too hasty about a topic which doesn't appeal to one at first glance. I mean, the thing is, when I'm not interested in a topic in the first place I naturally won't put a lot of effort into learning more about it. And even then I'm sure lots of people would still find it boring, as this is just a matter of taste.

Oh come on, as if everyone who doesn't love math was a stupid, superficial airhead who thinks getting drunk and vomiting into the corner is the highlight of every party. Or as if on the other hand there weren't any people who are gifted with math and still thought that way, too.

getting so drunk is unbelievably fun. its funner than anything u can do sober. some ppl try drinking, get a lil buzzed, and think they are drunk. your not drunk until u cant walk
the vomiting part is where it turns from fun to s**t. the trick is to get as drunk as u can, w/out getting sick. this is a skill
and reviewing math homework is not fun, its just interesting. there is a huuugggeee difference.

I don't think she meant everyone who doesn't love maths is like that

Exactly, sometimes we consider extreme examples to make a point.

That is a matter of opinion. I have the most fun when I am doing something that engages my interest.