The Importance of Mathematics to Blogging
I’d like to share with you, dear readers, one of the articles I have stumbled upon while surfing the net this morning. This article is going to be one of the bases of my speech about “The Importance of Mathematics in Growing Industries” in front of a live audience 3 days from now. Luckily, I also have this profound desire to deal with the mathematics of blogging since it has become a part of my life now (although I can’t classify myself as a hardcore blogger due to time constraints). I find blogging fun but with very little commercial value for now and I think it’s going to be that way for quite a while.
The article is in .pdf form and was downloaded by my wife. I don’t mean to plagiarize since she has forgotten the website address of the source. Call it poor memory and Firefox’s settings. This has something to do with Plato’s contributions to mathematics. Plato is better known as a philosopher but he also focused on the foundations of mathematics. He discussed the importance of examining the hypotheses of mathematics. He also drew attention toward the importance of making mathematical definitions clear and precise as these definitions are fundamental entities in mathematics. Another indirect contribution of Plato was the important role he played in encouraging and inspiring people to study mathematics. In the Academy, he proposed many mathematical problems and encouraged the students of the Academy to investigate. This led to the appearance of many mathematicians, like Eudoxus, who contributed in the progress of mathematics.
But why did Plato stress on the study of mathematics. One can find the answer in the seventh book of his masterpiece, The Republic, where he stated some of his views on the importance of mathematics. To Plato, the idea of good is the ultimate objective of philosophy. He thinks that “in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right.”
To help in understanding and attaining the idea of good, one has to study arithmetic and geometry. These two subjects have two important characteristics that make them valuable in comprehending the idea of good. The first characteristic that arithmetic and geometry have is that they invite thought and lead the mind to reflect and hence enabling the mind to reach truth. The second characteristic is that the advanced parts of arithmetic and geometry have the power to draw the soul from becoming to beings. To Plato, this is “the true use of arithmetic.” And the easiest way for the soul to go from becoming to being is to pursue the study of arithmetic until one is able to see “the natures of numbers with the mind only.” Also, “arithmetic has a very great and elevating effect, compelling the soul to reason about abstract number and repelling against the introduction of visible or tangible objects into the argument.” He also thinks that studying arithmetic as an amateur or like a merchant with a view to buying or selling will not help the soul to make this transition from becoming to being.
In addition to these two criteria, Plato thinks that people who are good in mathematics will do well in any other field of knowledge: “those who have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick at every other kind of knowledge; and even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would otherwise have been” and “anyone who has studied geometry is infinitely quicker of apprehension than one who has not.”
One of the topics of mathematics that Plato drew much attention to was that of irrationals. Plato strongly encouraged the students of the Academy to pursue the study of irrationals. His opinion was that science is incomplete without them and that a comprehensive study of irrationals is necessary to build “a coherent and universal philosophy free of the difficulties that wrecked the Phythagorean system.”
One, thus, observes that, in Plato’s view, mathematics has a philosophical importance. Mathematics is a tool that helps and trains the mind to think. This process of thinking will then help the mind to understand and acquire the idea of good, which is the ultimate aim of philosophy. Plato did not deny the important applications of mathematics in people’s daily life. But, to Plato, the philosophical importance of mathematics is more important and more rewarding as it may affect one’s understanding of his being.
In blogging, nobody can deny that this is mostly a numbers’ game. A little education in this area will not hurt any blogger. Hence, I will discuss more in detail things that affect blogging life in terms most bloggers will understand like Alexa Ranking, Technorati Ranking, Google Page Rank, Link Popularity, etc.
Right now, I have inadequate data to draw conclusions about these things, which at present are still being studied.
Why is there a need to study these? Well, there is no need actually. It’s optional. However, if you want to be good at something, especially if you want your blog to grow, then you might as well study these. Many people on the internet talk so much about how to make your blog grow, how to earn money from blogging, how to increase traffic and many other stuff about online marketing. When I read most of those stories, I even doubt if they really know what they are saying. Do they have factual bases? Do they have data to show the public to back their claims? You see, these things are missing in most of these blogs. I have only come across a few write-ups whose approaches are practical, flexible and believable because data are shown to prove that their “experiments” or “trials” on how to increase or decrease a particular number really works. Has anyone explained what a trend really means and how to interpret a trend line in an insightful way?
This is the significance/importance of mathematics to blogging. To reiterate, it’s NOT a requirement or a need to study some mathematics of blogging. It’s your own choice. It’s just that, after all the analyses I have made after more than two months blogging this, blogging that, I have finally recognized the need to write something about mathematics (which I have started in my previous posts, but just scratching the surface to prevent readers from being “scared”). I know many readers are either scared or bored when math is already in the picture. Lol!
I have prepared a list of topics for future write-ups which includes:
- Traffic analysis;
- Networking (linking) analysis;
- Alexa ranking analysis;
- Technorati ranking analysis;
- Link popularity analysis; and
- Trend analyses of the above-mentioned topics
My objectives as a writer will involve informing and/or educating readers about the relationship between blogging and mathematics (specifically, Statistics). The approach will be simplified for better understanding and appreciation (of my efforts perhaps). I might be wrong with some of the things that I will publish but I will try to be as accurate as possible to bring justice to conclusions and possible recommendations.
I know many of you may not like the idea but reading those articles may actually help you with your blog life. If you can’t wait to read those articles, I suggest you start a simple research using search engines. The articles, though, may be too technical and hard to understand.
To wrap it up, if you want to be (or you already are) a serious blogger, I suggest you study your statistics. Let your numbers guide you. If you want to set a direction for your blog in terms of traffic, page hits, PR, etc., then be patient and try to analyze your stats. If not, then, just have fun writing and connecting with friends. And that’s still very good I think. 
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Tags: importance of mathematics, mathematics, Statistics
Idol boba ako sa figures pero naiintindihan ko ung English mo, hehehe….
Galing galing naman! Explain mo nalang sakin pag nasa YM ka….
Scotty’s Princess’s last blog post..Love and Hate Tag
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