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Everyone is capable of, and can benefit from, mathematical thinking

(www.quantamagazine.org)
669 points sonabinu | 1 comments | 21 Nov 24 01:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.214s | source
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gsabo ◴[21 Nov 24 05:19 UTC] No.42201370[source]▶
I agree with the sentiment of this. I think our obsession with innate mathematical skill and genius is so detrimental to the growth mindset that you need to have in order to learn things.

I've been working a lot on my math skills lately (as an adult). A mindset I've had in the past is that "if it's hard, then that means you've hit your ceiling and you're wasting your time." But really, the opposite is true. If it's easy, then it means you already know this material, and you're wasting your time.

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1. bdjsiqoocwk ◴[21 Nov 24 10:17 UTC] No.42202780[source]▶
It's funny because I've had the opposite heuristic most of my line: the things I want to do most are whatever is hardest. This worked great for building my maths and physics skills and knowledge.

But when I started focusing on making money I've come to believe it's a bad heuristic for that purpose.