Comments on: C|net: Just how random is random? http://www.elharo.com/blog/math/2007/03/09/cnet-just-how-random-is-random/ Ranting and Raving Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:14:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: John Spitzer http://www.elharo.com/blog/math/2007/03/09/cnet-just-how-random-is-random/#comment-54472 John Spitzer Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:16:18 +0000 http://www.elharo.com/blog/math/2007/03/09/cnet-just-how-random-is-random/#comment-54472 Computer Science people don't have an excuse either as there is a magisterial discussion of Randomness in Donald Knuth's "Art of Computer Programming" - volume 2 - I believe if my memory serves me right. Computer Science people don’t have an excuse either as there is a magisterial discussion of Randomness in Donald Knuth’s “Art of Computer Programming” - volume 2 - I believe if my memory serves me right.

]]> By: Elliotte Rusty Harold http://www.elharo.com/blog/math/2007/03/09/cnet-just-how-random-is-random/#comment-53411 Elliotte Rusty Harold Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:31:48 +0000 http://www.elharo.com/blog/math/2007/03/09/cnet-just-how-random-is-random/#comment-53411 It's not my imagination. Apparently a lot of journalists really are afraid of math. According to <a href="http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/03/digging_deeperthe_geek_in_the_1.html" rel="nofollow">Mark Glaser at PBS</a>: <blockquote source="http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/03/digging_deeperthe_geek_in_the_1.html"> Clyde Bentley, associate professor at Missouri School of Journalism, told me via email that there’s a disconnect between journalism skills and math skills. “A huge number of journalism students select that major because they are math-phobic and they think they will get away from numbers,” Bentley said. “You don’t have to be a mathematician to program, but you can’t be afraid of math.” Holovaty, who attended the Missouri School of Journalism, ran into that attitude when he was at school there in the ’90s. “When I was in J-school I remember several times, the professor would say something like, ‘Well that would involve math, and that’s why we all went to journalism school — so we wouldn’t have to learn math. Ha, ha, ha.’ And everyone would laugh,” he told me. “C’mon, this is just blatant anti-intellectualism. It’s deeply ingrained in the culture, which is ludicrous.” </blockquote> That's just shocking. I don't know that every journalist needs to be a math whiz, but most of them do. There are few subjects you can write about sensibly without a solid grasp of statistics and probability. It’s not my imagination. Apparently a lot of journalists really are afraid of math. According to Mark Glaser at PBS:

Clyde Bentley, associate professor at Missouri School of Journalism, told me via email that there’s a disconnect between journalism skills and math skills.

“A huge number of journalism students select that major because they are math-phobic and they think they will get away from numbers,” Bentley said. “You don’t have to be a mathematician to program, but you can’t be afraid of math.”

Holovaty, who attended the Missouri School of Journalism, ran into that attitude when he was at school there in the ’90s.

“When I was in J-school I remember several times, the professor would say something like, ‘Well that would involve math, and that’s why we all went to journalism school — so we wouldn’t have to learn math. Ha, ha, ha.’ And everyone would laugh,” he told me. “C’mon, this is just blatant anti-intellectualism. It’s deeply ingrained in the culture, which is ludicrous.”

That’s just shocking. I don’t know that every journalist needs to be a math whiz, but most of them do. There are few subjects you can write about sensibly without a solid grasp of statistics and probability.

]]> By: Pseudorandom http://www.elharo.com/blog/math/2007/03/09/cnet-just-how-random-is-random/#comment-52839 Pseudorandom Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:14:47 +0000 http://www.elharo.com/blog/math/2007/03/09/cnet-just-how-random-is-random/#comment-52839 I can think of an excuse other than ignorance: they don't really want to know, because it might deflate a favored theory that generates lots of chatter, er, I mean web-traffic and page-hits, i.e. revenue. Or maybe I'm just being cynical. I can think of an excuse other than ignorance: they don’t really want to know, because it might deflate a favored theory that generates lots of chatter, er, I mean web-traffic and page-hits, i.e. revenue.

Or maybe I’m just being cynical.

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