Off My Chest

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Learning scientific nomenclature must be what it's like to process a foreign language into your native language... (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/goodoffmychest

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Language of any kind has always been hard for me, as most languages aren't intuitive and require your brain to be forced into learning often odd and unnecessary rules. My brain hates math, the only language I actually respect and a lot of science is built on complex math and non-intuitive nomenclature. I've been increasingly frustrated by it lately and just need to get this off my chest.

I'm a non-professional and have been studying physics for a long time - Quantum Color Dynamics of late - and almost everything I read and listen to requires my brain to constantly process almost every bit of information from non-intuitive nomenclature to personal made ones. It's frustrating that the most challenging aspect of science (besides the complex math) isn't the concepts (I honestly don't find quantum mechanics to be weird) but rather the scientific community's self-imposed nomenclature made of scientist names or hodgepodge of words.

Worst of all, I've only been able to process science like this as an adult because as a younger student, the subject matter seemed too hard because it was weighed down by both non-intuitive nomenclature and often teachers who barely understood the concepts they were teaching to the extent that they could translate that nomenclature beyond a book's presentation (obviously my own learning experience).

Since I could remember I've loved science and wonder if I might have sought a career in physics, if not for frustrating hurdles like nomenclature, thrown on top of truly beautiful but complex subjects. At least I can enjoy it non-professionally - if only slowly, as I have to process its nomenclature.

Thank you. And with that, back to my particle zoo...

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[–] mrbaby 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm a programmer (backend web dev, so 99% moving data around) that basically dropped out of school in 9th grade - parents decided to homeschool me because i was becoming a punk ass emo fuck and then never actually did anything to educate me. Thankfully i was curious as hell and passed the GED with flying colors, but i never learned the goddamn weird ass shapes and figures used in mathematics.

It's hard as hell to google "what's the thingy in math that looks like an E?" Oh, it's just a loop..

Finding an algorithm to do what i need but only getting the mathematical notation sucks. Once I've deciphered it and turn it into code, it's always really simple and makes intuitive sense, i just have trouble reading it in that format. Every so often wikipedia will show it in pseudocode, and i love the people that add that section so much.

A "how to read math for programmers" book would be amazing.