https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/ recent bookmarks from robertogreco 2025-10-17T05:35:25+00:00 https://playb.it/ robertogreco computers computing programming software hardware os simplicity playbit collaborative approachability play local communal operatingsystems leaning building sharing scale small https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f294d26ae16f/ 2023-12-29T07:09:48+00:00 https://sarahendren.substack.com/p/vocab-lesson robertogreco sarahendren 2023 teaching howweteach language words design fionaraby anthonydunne speculativeeverything speculativefiction speculativedesign art education howwethink eenmaal disabilities disability accessibility verticalharvest hearth conflictkitchen pittsburgh wyoming diy approachability indeterminacy jacksonhole agriculture hydroponics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:da3f64b48daa/ 2015-12-30T20:14:10+00:00 http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/contrasts-in-number-theory/ robertogreco“Even allowing for individual variation, there is still a tendency towards an oppressive atmosphere, which is carefully maintained and even championed by those who find it conducive to success. As any good grad student would do, I tried to fit in, mathematically. I absorbed the atmosphere and took attitudes to heart. I was miserable, and on the verge of failure. The problem was not individuals, but a system of self-preservation that, from the outside, feels like a long string of betrayals, some big, some small, perpetrated by your only support system. When I physically removed myself from the situation, I did not know where I was or what to do. First thought: FREEDOM!!!! Second thought: but what about the others like me, who don’t do math the “right way” but could still greatly contribute to the community? I combined those two thoughts and started from zero on my thesis. People who, for instance, try to read a math paper and think, “Oh my goodness what on earth does any of this mean why can’t they just say what they mean????” rather than, “Ah, what lovely results!” (I can’t even pretend to know how “normal” mathematicians feel when they read math, but I know it’s not how I feel.) My thesis is, in many ways, not very serious, sometimes sarcastic, brutally honest, and very me. It is my art. It is myself. It is also as mathematically complete as I could honestly make it. “I’m unwilling to pretend that all manner of ways of thinking are equally encouraged, or that there aren’t very real issues of lack of diversity. It is not my place to make the system comfortable with itself. This may be challenging for happy mathematicians to read through; my only hope is that the challenge is accepted.” What follows is a math paper, filled with real number theory but written in an informal style, with clearly labeled sections for laypeople, mathematicians who want a general overview of the ideas, and people who want to see some of the gory details. She explains concepts using unicycles and groups of well-behaved children. There are comics about going into labor while writing a thesis. The content of the paper is not easy, but the presentation is entertaining and refreshing. Harron, whose website is called The Liberated Mathematician, writes, “My view of mathematics is that it is an absolute mess which actively pushes out the sort of people who might make it better. I have no patience for genius pretenders. I want to empower the people.” Harron has a reluctant maybe blog on her website and has written a great post on mathbabe.org. In both places, she says things a lot of us are afraid to say about the attitudes we feel like we have to pick up in order to fit into the mathematical community. Based on the way her thesis and blog posts have gone through my Facebook and Twitter, I think I’m not alone in identifying with many of the feelings she describes. I certainly felt the same pressure to conform that she felt as a beginning graduate student. As she puts it: “Please tell me the rules I must abide by in order to make no waves!”" … "This is why Harron’s work is all the more necessary. As she writes in her thesis, she wishes to relay to students that “1) you are not expected to understand every word as you read it, 2) you can successfully use math before you’ve successfully understood it, and 3) it has to be okay to be honest about your understanding.” I wish more young mathematicians learned these lessons and weren't afraid to reveal their ignorance. Another thing I thought was interesting about these two stories is who reported and shared them. My math friends shared the heck out of Harron’s thesis, and I saw more about the abc conjecture from nonmathematicians who follow popular science. This wasn’t a binary thing; mathematicians shared articles about the abc conjecture, and nonmathematicians wrote about Harron's thesis, but for the most part, it was the other way around, at least in what I saw. I’m not quite sure what conclusions to draw from the way the stories were shared, but it feels important. I think it says something about how mathematicians present themselves allow others to present them. On some level, we want others to put us on a pedestal. We don’t really mind it when someone gets the message “oh, it's too complicated—you wouldn’t understand.” On the other hand, the strong positive reaction to Harron’s work within mathematics shows that many in the mathematical community are hungry for something different. Even people for whom the status quo has worked (after all, they’re still there) recognize that mathematics loses when we build barriers for some groups of people or encourage people to adopt the “certain attitude” Harron writes about in her thesis. Does the abc conjecture represent a dying old guard, and does Piper Harron represent the way of the future? I'd guess nothing that dramatic is going on. But mathematicians should think about how they want to explain mathematics and who they are inviting in or leaving out in the process."]]> math mathematics piperharron 2015 thesis accessibility gender approachability https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d5b7856868af/ 2013-07-09T21:42:59+00:00 http://artmuseumteaching.com/2013/06/12/do-museum-educators-still-have-time-to-read-books/ robertogreco bookclubs books toread museums art artmuseums communities community museology education museumeducators mikemurawski 2013 vivgolding waynemodest cocreation engagement participatory participation socialpractice mission teens youth diversity children families accessibility approachability risk risktaking innovation riskaversion experimentation iteration communication audience depth anthropology ethnography storytelling conversation outreach objects ncmideas purpose https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1e46618d9e22/ 2012-02-20T01:21:54+00:00 http://weeklydispatch.tumblr.com/post/17508286191/week-2 robertogreco pristineness usefulness architecture ownership space place museums over-planning planning tagsavage frankchimero wabi-sabi comfort approachability shabbiness 2012 colonization path https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:50390453dbef/ 2011-01-01T23:50:56+00:00 http://www.kampman.nl/quotes/2010/12/it-should-remind-you-of-something-youve-never-seen-before/ robertogrecoinvention familiarity approachability quoates brendandawes design creativity nostalgia glvo making https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:849ae2e8a04e/ 2010-02-20T04:38:10+00:00 http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2010/02/19/matt-jones-on-mujicomp-and-mujicompfrastructures-at-technoark/ robertogreco mattjones nicolasnova mujicomp cities architecture ubicomp design muji janejacobs infrastructure clayshirky data accessibility approachability culture objects simplicity elielsaarinen urban urbanism perma-net nearly-net systems https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:dd2a8736fbb4/