Q: Why don’t math and I get along?

A: You and math are best friends. The problem you have is that your third grade teacher? She didn’t get along with math at all—they were NOT FRIENDS. So you sort of got this slanted picture of ol’ math, and by the time you got to high school you were already all like, “Pfft, that math, what a tool,” and now that you’re all grown up, you’re thinking, “Ooh, who knew math had all those mad skillz? I probably should’ve been nicer to math in school, I’d really love to be friends now.”

And you probably think it’s too late to fix the relationship.

Good news: it’s never too late! Math knows what you went through and wants to help you get over it. Forgiveness is guaranteed.

If you’re feeling a bit awkward about how to approach math, allow me to suggest some “simple” ideas:

• When eating at restaurants, get in the habit of calculating the tip at 10% and 20%, then determining 15% by averaging the two… and then—not done yet—figuring out 17.5% by averaging the 15% and 20% figures. Do this no matter what you pay. Use a napkin if you need to.
• Practice estimating; you can do this anywhere, but I suggest at your desk when you catch yourself refreshing Twitter (again/again/again). What’s 29 * 34? I don’t know, but I bet it’s a little less than 30 * 35, and that’s 900 + 150 = 1050. So my guess is 986. (Real answer: 986. Wow, talk about a time when it’s nice to be right!)
• Bust out your old multiplication tables and run through them every once in awhile.
• Pick a number, like “8”, and work out 1/8ths, 2/8ths, 3/8ths, etc. I don’t want to spoil the fun, but suffice it to say, you’ll start to see patterns, and you’ll get more comfortable going Rain Man on others once you figure them out. (e.g., every 1/8th is another 12.5%… so maybe fractions scare you, but look: 2/8ths is 25%, and 4/8ths is 50%… and those are nice, round, not-so-scary numbers.)
• When reading an article that has stats, play around with them. (NOTE: you will find that few editors are as careful about numbers as about linguistics. Don’t expect them to add up.) Ask a question like, “It says 100 million people are on the internet… what can I compare that to… the population of America is 300M, so that’s 1 in every 3 people.” Simply ask yourself: does this make sense? Simply putting numbers up to a “smell test” will help you learn to stop fearing them.
• Look for hidden math anywhere you find numbers: try to calculate your change before the cashier does, for instance
• Read Freakonomics.
• Practice.

• And finally, have fun. If you can’t work out a problem, who cares? Learning to manipulate numbers is like learning piano: you don’t just sit down and get it all of a sudden. Give yourself some time!

Tagged as: development, math