How to change your relationship with math

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How to change your relationship with math





Introduction: 

Having any problem - whether with math, your car, or your personal life -  is really a blessing, not only because of how great it feels to have solved it afterwards but because of the deeper understanding of the world that results from it afterwards.


Math has been an exceptional tool for me to cultivate a growth mindset where we learn from our mistakes and appreciate them rather than fear them. Its also important to know that most people are not born to be exceptional at mathematics but its like any other skill that needs to be refined over time. 


One thing that helped me is to just study math for fun, don’t enroll in a course or anything, just read a math book or try to solve some math puzzles. 


Here is one of my favorites:


    Can you try to count to 16 with just 5 fingers? (hint: think with a different number system. Maybe like a     computer?)



Using math for meditation:
    Any moment in life is a wonderful time for mindfulness. In solving a math problem, we can focus deeply on the process instead of the outcome which may also help to stop errors.


    Aside from solving problems, it can be very meditative to pick up a ruler and a compass and draw sacred geometry or a tessellation of hexagons, triangles, or weirdly fitted polygons, or draw the cycles of the moon. I like to take a moment after I solve a problem I've been toying with to just appreciate it while it is still novel before tucking it away into the library of knowledge where a problem that used to be hard is just simple arithmetic again.



Math and Art 

In the shop I currently work in (digital art in CorelDraw, laser engravings, and vinyl stickers), I use geometry daily to map out dimensions, automate templates, and make precise measurements/placements. So in this case, math is just another tool by which I can express myself creatively. I am currently using math to create art within the polygons on my art car which has Mondrian art which turns out to be a little more complex than it seems because though the squares look to be 2-dimensional, the car is obviously 3 dimensional so what looks like a square or rectangle is actually a pentagon or trapezoid.


Even making chaotic abstract art like just throwing paint or color on a canvas, there lies the math in it, everything is math, everything is a function.




Math, computer science, and the universe

When considering whether or not I want to pursue a path in computer science, I did some research and I found an interesting case in a reddit forum where someone hated math but wanted to study computer science. Any job dealing with computers, the main job is some sort of troubleshooting, that is, solving problems. And if you don’t like math because you get frustrated solving hard problems, then maybe computer science isn't the best field to pursue. 

Math is really just another programming language though, the universe’s programming language. It is the foundational assembly language if we are to relate math to the universe.. It is the language that we figure other intelligent life would also know which is why we sent it on that metal disk floating on Voyager 1 in deep space.


Where even is math? Is there just like a perfect triangular prism sitting somewhere in the world, what about the number 3. What about the sin function, or any mathematical property? Where is math?





My personal experience with math: 

When I was in grade school I really hated math like a lot of other students. 

It felt like it was attacking me, instructors moved too quickly as I began to understand things and it overall made me feel anxious, but why? When we are frustrated with a problem I feel that stress and anxiety is the normal response, and it can feel really embarrassing to feel like you are isolated in a group of students who seem to be understanding the material when you do not. 

I lagged behind in math compared to my other studies in high school and I really feared math. All math really is, is problem solving - and that is why it is so important to approach math with a feeling of curiosity. 


My geometry teacher really helped me appreciate the beauty of what can be done with a little bit of algebra, a ruler, and a compass, I took algebra 2 and really began to enjoy math so i took precalculus over the summer so that I could take calculus my senior year. I passed the AP exam (calc 1) but I feel like I never really understood core aspects of the material which is why I am currently restudying calculus through Khan Academy.


I still have problems I don’t quite understand, but through meditation, I think I can better realize when I am frustrated or don’t understand a certain core property or problem fully, then I can hone in on that weakness until I understand it better. 


 

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