i think folks have lost the habit of using the standard library, sometimes.

and standard libraries should be extended. ruby is actually moving in the opposite direction; removing parts of stdlib and making them external 🤬

Computing-wise, I settled for an Amiga 500 with a TerribleFire '030 accelerator and JForth, a pre-SecureBoot x86-64 box running OpenBSD with Gambit for the occasional compulsion to write code, and an old Thinkpad running 9Front with S9fES.

I'm mid at best. But I can pull harmonics with a bow. Which apparently makes me good.

@r @MaddieM4 @mcc @decay @amarioguy

Get an upright bass. It's a PITA to move, but you'll always have a place in a session

this stackexchange user claims that the US *used to* actually have this: https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/28454

but apparently got rid of it in the usual "oh shit we need to Do Something" way the US tends to

i'm not sure why trigonometry gets _such_ a strong emphasis in the US either? or why it's done in such a toil-filled way (protip, instead of doing so many exercises with totally *useless* identities, just do them all in euler complex-exponential form?)

https://mastodon.social/@jdm_/117339892528946914

* push basic single-variable equations throughout the integrated pre-middle-school curriculum. use empty boxes or something if "x" looks too scary (e.g. the UK does this)

* put all of elementary algebra involving polynomials, up to the fundamental theorem of algebra into just a single "algebra"

* make sure "euclidean geometry" is *actually* doing proofs and formalisms and the "real math" way of thinking. maybe throw some more discrete math ideas into here too, and spend less time on specific well-known euclidean geometry theorems (i certainly don't remember many of them)

* make trigonometry and all the haphazardly scattered bits of analytic geometry be its own actual thing. maybe even combine it with drafting (very oldschool), CAD, and/or gamedev

* "just" shove pre-calculus into either algebra or calculus

* do Something️ more coherent with statistics (i'm not very experienced here, "probability and random processes" is somehow totally-different-yet-the-same in a way that doesn't actually transfer over)

* maybe offer linear algebra for the tryhards

* Somehow️ fit in a "how to _actually_ use computers (mostly for math)" thing? (spreadsheets, computer algebra systems, UI automation?, the rest of the "the difference in gen Z computer literacy is whether they had to install minecraft mods before the modern launchers" computer skills)