<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">This was the title of a 5-minute 'lightening talk' by Allen Downey, author of <a href="http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/html/index.html">Think Python</a>, during the educational summit here at PyCon. <span style="font-size:13px">Main points:</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-weight:normal"><ul style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">
<li style="margin-left:15px;list-style-type:disc;background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#000000"><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Nat<div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">
ural L</div>ang<div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">uage</div>: </span><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">expressive and readable</span><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">, but verbose and imprecise.</span></font></li>
<li style="margin-left:15px;list-style-type:disc;background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#000000"><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Math<div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">
ematical notation</div>: </span><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">concise and precise</span><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">, but not readable or executable.</span></font></li>
<li style="margin-left:15px;list-style-type:disc;background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#000000"><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">M<div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">
ost</div> programming languages: </span><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">precise and executable</span><span style="background-color:transparent;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">, but verbose and not readable.</span></font></li>
</ul><div><br></div><div><font color="#000000" face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Hmmm ... can anyone think of an expressive, readable, concise, precise, and executable symbolic language? : )</span></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000" face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"><div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">
He went on to show a traditional mathematical formula representing Bayesian inference and compared it to the corresponding Python code. The Python code was similar to natural language and represented a flow of ideas. It was comprehensible. His point was that we often think we need to first express our ideas in traditional mathematical notation and then translate the math into executable code. But his point was no, we can code our ideas directly. It is a new kind of mathematical expression.</div>
</span></font></div><div><br></div><div><b style="font-weight:normal"><b style="font-weight:normal"><font color="#000000" face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">I was so delighted to hear this, as these are the conclusions I have come to as well. It's absolutely true that coding reflectively </span></font></b></b><font color="#000000" face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">helps clarify one's ideas, and this is why it belongs in education. I've repeatedly had the experience that coding something I had long taken for granted in math got me to see it in a new light. I've come to view traditional math syntax as a kind of clever shorthand we developed before we had computers. I think the traditional syntax creates a kind of cognitive illusion in students and teachers that that's 'really' the math. </span></font><b style="font-weight:normal"><div style="display:inline!important">
<span style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">And then throwing calculators into the mix just solidifies the illusion. Everyone in K-12, students and teachers, thinks that the math is 'really' on a piece of paper, in traditional notation, and that the technology is something on the side we turn to in order to help us get the math onto the paper when the calculations get too tough. I think that picture is flawed and antiquated. The technology itself is the new paper. Computational languages are the new algebra.</span></div>
</b></div></b></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif" class="gmail_default">PyCon was amazing. It was my first one. Very inspiring. Time definitely well spent.</div></div><div>
<br></div>-- <div style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif;display:inline" class="gmail_default">Michel</div><div><div style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif;display:inline" class="gmail_default">
</div><br><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif">===================================<br>"What I cannot create, I do not understand."</font></div><div><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif"><br>
</font></div><div><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif">- Richard Feynman</font></div><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif">===================================<br>"Computer science is the new mathematics."</font><div>
<font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif">- Dr. Christos Papadimitriou<br>===================================</font><br></div></div>
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