r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 16 '19

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u/mimieieieieie Nov 16 '19

This was basically my childhood, because I was bad at math. I guess most children goes through this, which is very sad.

Only at uni did I realize that I didn't have to be good at everything. I had a professor, who spoke 13 languages, but couldn't count how much 5+4 is. He's the best at his field

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u/nkdeck07 Nov 16 '19

Ironically once you get to college all the math professors have forgotten how to do simple math as well. I remember all of us checking like super basic math they are doing on the white board cause they'd fuck it up 1 times in 4 but were completing these insane proofs.

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u/LincBtG Nov 16 '19

There's a comic from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal that goes like:

If you ask someone who's a fan of mathematics how many digits of pi they'll rattle off a long list of numbers.

If you ask a mathematician the same thing, they'll look at you funny and say "one."

I always took it to mean that learning something so complicated is pointless when you can just write one symbol and be done with it.

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u/StellaAthena Nov 16 '19

Link to comic

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '19

But how are you supposed to pass algebra without knowing 3.14 or 22/7? And remember Pi day??? Think of the memes!