@johnrobb We have abandoned competence,
in the futile search for universal expertise.
"What?" I hear you say.
Clearly definitions and explanations are in order.
1/
@johnrobb Expertise, certainly as regards this discussion,
but perhaps also universally, should be regarded
as the knowledge of a very great deal - about very
very little.
2/
@johnrobb To become an expert in a field requires
years - nay, decades - of diligent study of that
solitary field. In diving deeper, the pool in turn
becomes ever smaller: a diving pool rather than a
swimming pool. Nothing is free.
3/
@GWOMaths One might say that physicists study the symmetry of nature, while mathematicians study the nature of symmetry.
1/
@GWOMaths Observing symmetry in nature, such as noting the similarity between the symmetries of a snowflake and a hexagon, is readily comprehensible. What does it mean then to study "the nature of symmetry"?
2/
@GWOMaths Mathematicians define a "group", G, as a set of elements {a,b,c, ...} with a binary operation ⊡ and a distinguished element e (the identity of G) satisfying these specific properties:
3/
@pnjaban None of the above:
Field-trained former military paramedic.
I don't want anyone not trained specifically in emergency medicine anywhere near; and none of those civilian trained E.R. either, cause they're trained in CYA first, and I want someone who's serious about saving my life
@pnjaban When my Dad suffered acute hemechromatosis at ~34,
for which the ONLY treatment is *bleeding*,
and the only options "a whole lot" and "a whole lot more",
the attending physician was too embarrassed to prescribe the correct treatment.
@pnjaban The nurse (Irish of course, because they understand hemechromatosis) told me Mom:
Mrs. Geerkens:
Your husband will die tonight
unless we remove him from this hospital immediately.
I'll help.
The nurse lost her job;
but my Dad lived another 45 years.