Top all-time · #10965
The Accidental Mathematician
Personal blog · ilaba.wordpress.commathcareer
The Accidental Mathematician is a personal blog at ilaba.wordpress.com about math and career. Since 2010, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 7 times, most often “Gifted while female”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link this blog, written by a mathematics professor, for posts on gender bias in mathematics, including a Gender Bias 101 post and a follow-up on MathOverflow participation.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Because "exact science is not always exact science."
Most-linked posts?
- Gifted while female2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-06-25
What Hacker News says?
I used to think this, but I don't any more. One argument that swayed me came from Izabella Laba [1], a math professor at UBC and former IMO competitor. The point that stood out to me is that women tend to be socialized away from extremes, for example it is generally more acceptable (to parents, guardians, and affiliated people choosing for children) for gifted boys to skip many grades than for gifted girls to do the…
Comment linking /2017/06/24/gifted-while-female/
on “Academic Activists Send a Published Paper Down the Memory Hole”Submitted Gender Bias 101 For Mathematicians as a story · 49 points
HN discussionNo one says it, but our implicit biases do - https://ilaba.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/gender-bias-101-for-m...
Comment linking /2013/02/09/gender-bias-101-for-mathematicians/
on “Apollo 11 vs. USB-C Chargers (2020)”Submitted The mathematics of wheel reinvention as a story · 4 points
HN discussionA couple of background points I had to poke around the site for: * The author is a professor of mathematics * The thing about Math Overflow (which as a non-regular reader seemed to kinda come out of nowhere) is referencing another recent blog post: http://ilaba.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/still-not-on-mathoverf...
Comment linking /2012/12/16/still-not-on-mathoverflow/
on “Gender Bias 101 For Mathematicians”Submitted Gifted while female as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Accidental Mathematician: An entirely positive approach. Or something. as a story · 3 points
HN discussion