Explaining complex things simply: Salient words from Silvanus P Thompson
‘Calculus Made Easy’ by Silvanus P Thompson, first published in 1910. Here’s the front cover…
“CONSIDERING how many fools can calculate, it is surprising that it should be thought either a difficult or a tedious task for any other fool to learn how to master the same tricks. Some calculus-tricks are quite easy. Some are enormously difficult. The fools who write the text-books of advanced mathematics—and they are mostly clever fools—seldom take the trouble to show you how easy the easy calculations are. On the contrary, they seem to desire to impress you with their tremendous cleverness by going about it in the most difficult way. Being myself a remarkably stupid fellow, I have had to unteach myself the difficulties, and now beg to present to my fellow fools the parts that are not hard, Master these thoroughly, and the rest will follow. What one fool can do, another can.”
These ‘clever fools’ still exist today.
Educators of the world, remove the filter.
Remember “What one fool can do, another can.”
