Question
What are the best ways to "evangelize" about math to people who don't like the subject?
Answer
Make 'em jealous. Surreptitiously engineer a contest with some serious prizes that look like they could be won by anybody, but contain serious hidden advantages for people with math training. Then make sure some likable math types are in the field.
Make sure the game is such that "winning with math" doesn't just look like a textbook advantage. It should look somewhat scarily magical and make the losers feel just a little scared of the math types who win.
As a bonus, non-math solutions should be visibly embarrassing. If possible, the contest should be set up in a domain where the non-math types have inflated self-perceptions that can be punctured, based on belief in their own "intuitive" skills (think Moneyball for instance).
Many TV shows try and fail to set up such plots (gut-cop vs. math-cop in NUMB3RS, computer-geek spy vs. jock-spy in Chuck, geek vs. All American guy in Vegas) even when they try to make the math/geek guy win. Pity. Maybe our resident screenwriting experts like Mark Hughes or Sean Hood can do better.
Make sure the game is such that "winning with math" doesn't just look like a textbook advantage. It should look somewhat scarily magical and make the losers feel just a little scared of the math types who win.
As a bonus, non-math solutions should be visibly embarrassing. If possible, the contest should be set up in a domain where the non-math types have inflated self-perceptions that can be punctured, based on belief in their own "intuitive" skills (think Moneyball for instance).
Many TV shows try and fail to set up such plots (gut-cop vs. math-cop in NUMB3RS, computer-geek spy vs. jock-spy in Chuck, geek vs. All American guy in Vegas) even when they try to make the math/geek guy win. Pity. Maybe our resident screenwriting experts like Mark Hughes or Sean Hood can do better.