Рота о математиках и инженерах
Oct. 27th, 2010 01:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
posic7. Do not show your questioners the door
When an engineer knocks at your door with a mathematical question, you should not try to get rid of him or her as soon as possible. You are likely to make a mistake I myself made for many years: to believe that the engineer wants you to solve his or her problem. This is the kind of oversimplification for which we mathematicians are notorious. Believe me, the engineer does not want you to solve his or her problem. Once, I did so by mistake (actually, I had read the solution in the library two hours previously, quite by accident) and he got quite furious, as if I were taking away his livelihood. What the engineer wants is to be treated with respect and consideration, like the human being he is, and most of all to be listened to with rapt attention. If you do this, he will be likely to hit upon a clever new idea as he explains the problem to you, and you will get some of the credit.
Listening to engineers and other scientists is our duty. You may even learn some interesting new mathematics while doing so. (G.-C. Rota, "Ten rules for the survival of a mathematics department.")
***
В мою (метафорическую -- у меня нет оффиса) дверь не стучатся инженеры с математическими (слово, которое я бы, вопреки советам Рота, взял в кавычки в данном случае) вопросами. В нее стучатся математики, почти всегда с вопросами "про кошулеву двойственность" (название моей узкой специальности -- вот здесь я поставлю эти кавычки). Я, конечно, стараюсь не указывать им на дверь... но уж не знаю, насколько хорошо у меня это получается. Случаев, чтобы я решил их задачу, я, правда, не припомню, а если бы это случилось, вряд ли бы они стали на меня сердиться (между математиком и инженером все же есть разница). В остальном все примерно то же самое.
When an engineer knocks at your door with a mathematical question, you should not try to get rid of him or her as soon as possible. You are likely to make a mistake I myself made for many years: to believe that the engineer wants you to solve his or her problem. This is the kind of oversimplification for which we mathematicians are notorious. Believe me, the engineer does not want you to solve his or her problem. Once, I did so by mistake (actually, I had read the solution in the library two hours previously, quite by accident) and he got quite furious, as if I were taking away his livelihood. What the engineer wants is to be treated with respect and consideration, like the human being he is, and most of all to be listened to with rapt attention. If you do this, he will be likely to hit upon a clever new idea as he explains the problem to you, and you will get some of the credit.
Listening to engineers and other scientists is our duty. You may even learn some interesting new mathematics while doing so. (G.-C. Rota, "Ten rules for the survival of a mathematics department.")
***
В мою (метафорическую -- у меня нет оффиса) дверь не стучатся инженеры с математическими (слово, которое я бы, вопреки советам Рота, взял в кавычки в данном случае) вопросами. В нее стучатся математики, почти всегда с вопросами "про кошулеву двойственность" (название моей узкой специальности -- вот здесь я поставлю эти кавычки). Я, конечно, стараюсь не указывать им на дверь... но уж не знаю, насколько хорошо у меня это получается. Случаев, чтобы я решил их задачу, я, правда, не припомню, а если бы это случилось, вряд ли бы они стали на меня сердиться (между математиком и инженером все же есть разница). В остальном все примерно то же самое.
