One of my favorite Djikstra programming quotes is about thinking via “lines of code spent” rather than “lines of code produced”. I started using this as a philosophy in my writing too: words spent. Background One of the things that’s surprised me about student writing is how poorly words are spent. You’ll have a solution… Continue reading Words Spent
Category: Essays
The story of the AutoCarrot
1. Glazed carrots Okay. Imagine you’re, like, trying to make glazed carrots or something. Maybe a really simplified recipe looks something like: Cut your carrots into suitably sized pieces with a knife. Use a measuring spoon to get the right amount of oil, sugar, salt, etc. Throw the carrots and other ingredients into a frying… Continue reading The story of the AutoCarrot
Infinitely many stages of grief
Where do all the smart, curious, earnest kids go these days? One of my friends asked me this recently, and I wasn’t sure what to say. In the last ten years, something has changed. If I had to summarize my concerns in one sentence, I would say this: kids these days no longer feel they’re… Continue reading Infinitely many stages of grief
MOHS was a mistake
I remember reading a Paul Graham essay about how people can’t think clearly about parts of their identity. In my students, I have never seen this more clearly than when people argue about the difficulty of problems. Some years ago I published a chart of my ratings of problem difficulty, using a scale called MOHS.… Continue reading MOHS was a mistake
A short dissent on USA eligibility
Sometime this week the American Math Competitions released the following new policy: For the IMO, EGMO, RMM, TSTSTs, and TSTs, and MOP, students must be US citizens or US permanent residents. Visas are not a valid substitute. (AMC Policies) I want to make a rather brief statement on why I was opposed to this change. To… Continue reading A short dissent on USA eligibility
Meritocracy is the worst form of admissions except for all the other ones
I'm now going to say something explicitly that I hinted at in June: I don't think a student deserves to make MOP more because they had a higher score than another student. I think it's easy to get this impression because the selection for MOP is done by score cutoffs. So it sure looks that… Continue reading Meritocracy is the worst form of admissions except for all the other ones
An opening speech for MOP
While making preparations for this year's MOP, I imagined to myself what I would say on orientation night if I was director of the camp, and came up with the following speech. I thought it might be nice to share on this blog. Of course, it represents my own views, not the actual views of… Continue reading An opening speech for MOP
I switched to point-based problem sets
It's not uncommon for technical books to include an admonition from the author that readers must do the exercises and problems. I always feel a little peculiar when I read such warnings. Will something bad happen to me if I don't do the exercises and problems? Of course not. I'll gain some time, but at… Continue reading I switched to point-based problem sets
Against the “Research vs. Olympiads” Mantra
There's a Mantra that you often hear in math contest discussions: "math olympiads are very different from math research". (For known instances, see O'Neil, Tao, and more. More neutral stances: Monks, Xu.) It's true. And I wish people would stop saying it. Every time I've heard the Mantra, it set off a little red siren… Continue reading Against the “Research vs. Olympiads” Mantra
___ Students Have to Suffer
This will be old news to most of the readership of this blog, but I realize I've never written it down, so time to fix that. Fill in the blank Let's begin by playing a game of "fill in the blank". Suppose that today, the director of secondary education at your high school says: "___… Continue reading ___ Students Have to Suffer
Power Overwhelming 