learning to think algorithmically and learning to do and read proofs is much more important than learning python and linear algebra
I agree in principle, but am not sure of how to focus on the metaskills in practice. In my experience, I mostly learned these kinds of metaskills by trying to get better at concrete object-level skills such as “python and linear algebra”, and wouldn’t even know how to practice just the metaskill.
(Legend is that the University of Helsinki’s Computer Science department decided that the one mathy thing that CS majors really needed to learn was understanding proofs. So they asked if the Math department might possibly provide a course custom-tailored for just this purpose. The Math department replied that this already existed, and it was called “doing a minor in Math”.)
I agree. Mathematicians haven’t learned how to teach proofs abstractly, they teach by subject. My point was, the subject isn’t super relevant. Although if you have specific aims you might want to tailor the subject to that. For example if you want to deal with data, linear algebra and probability theory are probably useful to know.
I agree in principle, but am not sure of how to focus on the metaskills in practice. In my experience, I mostly learned these kinds of metaskills by trying to get better at concrete object-level skills such as “python and linear algebra”, and wouldn’t even know how to practice just the metaskill.
(Legend is that the University of Helsinki’s Computer Science department decided that the one mathy thing that CS majors really needed to learn was understanding proofs. So they asked if the Math department might possibly provide a course custom-tailored for just this purpose. The Math department replied that this already existed, and it was called “doing a minor in Math”.)
I agree. Mathematicians haven’t learned how to teach proofs abstractly, they teach by subject. My point was, the subject isn’t super relevant. Although if you have specific aims you might want to tailor the subject to that. For example if you want to deal with data, linear algebra and probability theory are probably useful to know.