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by pm90 1525 days ago
It’s funny; when I was reading the HN comment I was just saying to myself “it would be so nice if the person had used the symbol for phi (φ) rather than spelling it out”. So my reaction was the opposite to yours since my brain comprehends that notation more easily than words.

Using symbols reduces the amount of text your brain has to parse. It makes it much easier to reach consensus on a shared understanding of things. The price to pay is to learn this new notation or language.
2 comments
doliveira 1525 days ago
Yeah, don't we have the mantra "less code is better code" or something like that? Too many verbosity and our brain turns off. I did type it out the Psi because I couldn't be bothered to type it in mobile, but yeah, it's so weird.

Chinese people learn dozens of thousands of ideograms, I am pretty sure the problem with understanding the science has nothing to do with a few Greek symbols.

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Aachen 1525 days ago
We've all already paid that price for English, though. Why make everyone pay extra?
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pm90 1525 days ago
The price that was paid for learning the language of math is something that everyone who needs to work with these things are happy to pay. If the notation doesn’t make sense, it’s discarded for ones that does.

It may not make sense for layperson but that’s not really the audience.

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