this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
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Useless to you. I extremely need to know the Pythagorean Theorem for my work. Actually, absolutely everything I have ever been taught in math class ever, literally all of it and so much more, I have used. But I'm starting a PhD in electrical engineering in the fall, so I'm a bit biased ๐.
For me personally, dissecting frogs (well actually I dissected a clam) was probably a waste of time, but for at least some of my classmates it was probably helpful. Long division is important because it stimulates algorithmic thinking, which is important for living in a computerized world. Area of a trapezoid is important because... sometimes trapezoids show up, or you can approximate a more complicated shape with a trapezoid whose properties are well understood.
It's also important for people who will never use it again. Learning algebra and geometry teaches you how to think critically and logically. So yeah, the gas station attendant over here may never use the cone area formula ever again, but at least it's not magic to them.
Another important thing is that there's no such thing as knowledge that you won't need or won't use.
Everything is like.. connected, man.
I am telling you the importance of learning and you call me a pothead.
No, I'm actually agreeing with you completely. I can see why you took it that way though. My fault.
i know several things that are actively detrimental to my own wellbeing
Honestly I think engineers of all kinds can benefit from more study of biological systems. As an engineer myself, I find there's a lot of inspiration to be gained by looking at life and understanding how it works. My primary work is controls and learning that biological muscle operates as bang bang control was mindblowing. Like look at the agility and complexity achieved by essentially a fuck load of on off actuators. It shows how far you can go with extremely simple methods and honestly helped me chill the fuck out about making everything perfect.
Agreed. My point was more that I didn't really learn much from actually dissecting a real animal. Like I probably would have learned more from reading a book or watching someone else do the dissection.