Don't Study Shakespeare The Anti-Semite...

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by GePap


The society you live in rewards good actors far more than good mathematicians.

Actually, the society we live in even rewards bad actors far more than good mathematicians.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Zoid


Yes I can. Art supplies the society with it's soul, while the maths are the brain. Without its soul society will be a barren wasteland of logic and mathematical predictability.

It depends. I think several of the posters here who supposedly embody the arts at the highest levels are some of the most soul-sucking voids of dullness that I've ever seen.

I also think you can study literacy and math and still have a soul. Which, if you actually look at what was being discussed, was the original point...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Dauphin


Actually, the society we live in even rewards bad actors far more than good mathematicians.

I think if you look at the richest men in the world, more of them got there due to math than acting...

[Dauphin]

I think they got their billions due to business acumen and entrepreneurial skills (as well as luck).

Not their mathematics.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Dauphin
I think they got their due to business acumen and entrepreneurial skills.

Not their mathematics.

Disagree completely, especially in the case of Google. Google got where they are today as a direct result of the superiority of their search product, which is a direct result of applied mathematics.

Bill Gates got there based on business acumen alone.

But most of the tech people on the list have tech reasons for being there, which all boil down to mathematics. They used this as a competitive business advantage, but the reason boils down to applied mathematics.

[Elok]

Which can't really be taught, I think. At my school, at least, majoring in Business Management seemed to be a prerequisite for joining a fraternity.

Originally posted by Asher
I also think you can study literacy and math and still have a soul. Which, if you actually look at what was being discussed, was the original point...

How does one "study literacy," anyway? :

[Asher]

Originally posted by Elok
How does one "study literacy," anyway? :

English class, typically.

[Dauphin]

Asher, you're welcome to that opinion, but I'd be more inclined to accept that argument if you can demonstrate to me a self-made billionaire who didn't have business acumen or entrepreneurial skills. It's common to all of them. Mathematics isn't.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Asher

Oh?

Tell me, how rich are the Google boys vs, say, Daniel Day-Lewis?

Do you think at all before you post?

The guys who run Google are where they are because they were good businesspeople. If they had been just as good mathematicians, but had your people skills, they would have gotten a good cut, but been replaced a while ago.

Let's play another thinking game. What do you think the sum total is of the income of people with science/math-based educations vs that of art? And don't ***** that this is "unfair", this is the value system you just used to try to make a point disastrously.

Wow, for someone who claims to be so smart, you sure as hell can't put together a thinking experiment worth a damn.

Lets see, first, where did science come in, all of a sudden? You had said nothing about it earlier, now you decide to plop it in? Cute. Then of course, where would you put in business sectors like retail or agriculture? Sure, not art, but math and science? Oh, and arte the add guys for google mathematician, scientists? And are the special effects guys for Dreamworks artists only?

Why not a simpler question, the combined incomes of people who work as mathematicians vs. those that work as actors? That is, after all, the statement you made earlier, no? What, can't stick to your statements?

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by Asher
English class, typically.

What a coincidence, that's where I read Shakespeare.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Dauphin
Asher, you're welcome to that opinion, but I'd be more inclined to accept that argument if you can demonstrate to me a self-made billionaire who didn't have business acumen or entrepreneurial skills. It's common to all of them. Mathematics isn't.

They're not mutually exclusive, mathematics is a means to an end for a lot of them, including the Google boys.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Cyclotron

What a coincidence, that's where I read Shakespeare.

Me too, but you can't always win. Lots of English-types like it, so it gets taught there. But the content doesn't matter, what's key is reading comprehension and writing skills, not the content.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Asher
English class, typically.

...in the U.S., at least, English class contains a heaping helping of humanities from middle school onwards. English 101 is typically composition, true, but that's because it's usually a core requirement and a lot of people get through HS without knowing how to write worth diddly. Once that's out of the way, English class is all literature. One doesn't "study literacy" at an advanced level. So

(note that I'm just picking on your choice of phrases, and don't think you're out to persecute us artsy types or whatever)

EDIT: Damn, Cyclo beat me to it. Alas for my verbosity. In response to Asher's response to Cyclo, Shakespeare is used because he's an example of good writing, and so is hardly irrelevant. For people like me who want to make words dance, he's an excellent model, even leaving out his other artistic merits.

[Dauphin]

Asher, I presume you consider yourself a good mathematician.

Do you think you get paid more than say, the "mighty oak of acting", Ben Affleck?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Asher

They're not mutually exclusive, mathematics is a means to an end for a lot of them, including the Google boys.

No doubt, but they could probably have done pretty well in other disciplines if they had put their mind to it.