[michaell2]

there is math, and then there is math. In Russia they have a saying "beat a rabbit long enough and it will eventually learn to take derivatives, but integrals are another matter". For many people areas involving spatial reasoning like college physics for engineers is that "another matter", while (simple) integrals are still no biggie.

As for the original article, the implication that somebody having trouble with basic algebra can be "great scientist" sounds dubious to say the least. Like I said, there is math, and then there is math... there is stuff that anybody claiming any meaningful level of intelligence should be able to handle.

[gruseom]

In Russia they have a saying "beat a rabbit long enough and it will eventually learn to take derivatives, but integrals are another matter".

Something about that is quintessentially Russian.

[kiba]

there is math, and then there is math. In Russia they have a saying "beat a rabbit long enough and it will eventually learn to take derivatives, but integrals are another matter".

A rabbit will be woefully unprepared to learn integrals if it forgot derivatives before it starts learning integral.

[jleader]

One moderately popular college calculus textbook (by Prof. Apostol of Caltech) introduces integrals before derivatives.

[nknighthb]

> there is stuff that anybody claiming any meaningful level of intelligence should be able to handle

Well, you've just called many dyslexics stupid. Does your assertion extend to basic arithmetic? Because if so, you've just called everyone with dyscalculia and/or acalculia stupid, and that group includes a lot of autism-spectrum engineers.

[thaumasiotes]

I find that saying bizarre. In high school, I found derivatives significantly more difficult to learn than I did integrals. Then, in multivariable calc, I found derivatives significantly more difficult, again. Integrals follow your intuition in a way that derivatives just don't.

[dsrguru]

Derivatives are formulaic. Integrals, like proofs, require thinking backwards, i.e. creativity and/or luck. For the vast majority of people, cultivating that intuition is a lot harder than plugging numbers into formulas...

[zerr]

Formally speaking, solving integrals requires brute force. It is only after many such brute force samples your starting to get an intuition. But I won't call this creativity.

[shrughes]

What. Derivatives are a very straightforward algorithm. Integrals aren't.

[claudius]

I would guess that this depends on the things you usually integrate and those one differentiates – as the former only has (simple) algorithms for very simple cases, whereas the latter has very general algorithms, differentiation exercises in school tend to use more complex examples than integration exercises.

However, given a ‘random’ expression, integration will be much more difficult than differentiation.

[Q6T46nT668w6i3m]

Do you have this backward (computing a derivative is algorithmic, computing an integral is analytic)?

[semaphorism]

Tell that to a rabbit.