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PHD-DESIGN  December 2017

PHD-DESIGN December 2017

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Subject:

Re: Using mathematics in design activities

From:

Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Fri, 1 Dec 2017 19:30:28 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

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Dear David and Gunnar,

The two videos were posted by Terry Love with the comment, “Some time ago I suggested there were benefits for increased levels of mathematics education  for designers,” adding “Several people asked for resources.” These two videos are supposed to be resources.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2vN2QXZGnc

http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/

It’s hard to see how these videos explain the benefit of increased mathematics education for designers. The videos are irrelevant to the claim that designers will benefit from increasing their level of mathematics. 

The first video is a conversation between Daniel Kahneman and Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Kahneman is a Nobel Laureate in economics who works in psychology. Taleb was a successful derivatives trader who left finance to work on mathematical, philosophical, and practical problems associated with risk and probability. Taleb has an excellent web site. Nothing on Taleb's site is relevant to the claim that designers should learn mathematics.

The second video is even less relevant. Clio Cresswell works in applied mathematics at the University of Sydney. While she is a serious researcher in applied mathematics, she also does popular talks about mathematics for a public audience. This TED talk is the kind of thing that you’d present to a class of smart 14-year-olds in the hope of convincing some of them to go into mathematics. It is irrelevant to the whether we should increase the level of mathematics education for designers.

Cresswell was not making an argument for precise thinking. This was a presentation of the fact that some mathematicians now use advanced mathematical models to explore such topics as sex, love, or — well, whatever. The mathematicians who do that work must use rigorous thinking and careful modeling, but Cresswell wasn’t making an argument for rigorous thinking. She was simply saying that some people use mathematical models to explore topics in new ways. For that matter, she did not discuss any papers or explain how the models work — she showed pictures of some equations and some published papers, and she told us what the papers were about.

That’s like say that it takes a great sense of smell to be a master winemaker. It's an abstract and partial description of winemaking. It’s not an argument for the sense of smell.

While I find Taleb more interesting, nothing in either of these presentations supports the claim that designers will benefit from increasing their level of mathematics. 

Yours,

Ken  

Ken Friedman | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/

Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn 

--


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