@JonEricson Now that we're out of private beta, I'm interested in knowing; what did you guys expect coming in? Did it seem like this might be a problem site? If you can't say, that's okay.

Congrats @quid for becoming a moderator :-)

@BrianRushton That's a great question. The truth is we were taken by surprise with how quickly the proposal got through Area 51. I, for one, was confused by the scope and purpose initially. But the actual topic was far more viable on the surface than some of the recent failed-in-private-beta sites.

It reminded me of English Language Learners, which isn't a bad thing. That's a fine little site as it turns out.

My mom is a math, physics, and astronomy teacher. She explored one of those sites before I was hired and didn't think much of it. I wonder now how she'll see this site. I'll have to point her this way.

I think this question is what started the site proposal: meta.math.stackexchange.com/q/12470/51970

A lot of people wanted to ask questions about how to teach math and about education in general (tests, chalkboard use, etc.) and wanted a place for it.

I wonder what your mom would think of it… if she says something like "I wish they had questions about _______" you should pass it on! lol

@BrianRushton One interesting thing about that meta-discussion is that "chatty" is ambiguous. To me, "chatty" means things like "How's your semester going?" or prefacing questions with a long story that might not be terribly relevant. (I.e., content that works well in forums or, well, chat.) But I think chatty in that meta-question means "low math content".

Yes, that's exactly what I think it meant. It's so interesting that mathematicians split their time between mathematical research (which is so exact and precise) and teaching (which is so ambiguous). I think you mentioned something like that in one of your posts.

Because the research is so precise, even really focused questions on teaching feel 'chatty'

The funny thing is, though, that 'teaching' mathematicians outnumber 'research' mathematicians at least 10 to 1, and maybe 100 or more to 1

What the difference between a research mathematician and a large pizza?

A large pizza can feed a family of four :-)

lol

I was pretty shocked at the difference between a job at a PhD institution vs. a Bachelor's institution

No offense meant to research mathematicians, but doing something has to pay the bills, right?

Honestly, research mathematicians get paid a lot

orly?

it's the ones that just do teaching that don't get paid much

Yeah; a full professor can make over $200,000

A new hire at a research institution makes around $80,000

It's not huge, but you get summers off and have very flexible schedules

:-O

Those numbers are for the bigger universities, though'

In industry, the average salary for a research mathematician is $100,000

bls.gov/ooh/math/mathematicians.htm

like the ivy league?

The numbers they gave are for large public universities, so probably more like the california schools or UT Austin

icic

Ya got me

:D

The point is, there are like 100 Math PhD's for every research position

so the jobs may be great

but noone's getting them

@skullpatrol Thanks! Though maybe some might say condolences are more appropriate. ;-) But, no, actually it is interesting and fun so far (hope it lasts)

@quid :D

this video destroys most of high school math education :(

imo