Something About Mathematics

As I’m studying mathematics, I guess I should finally tell you something about mathematics.

The truth is that you probably don’t know mathematics. Math is not what you learned at school. Math is not calculating or applying formulas to get results you don’t even understand. Even studying mathematics involves some things which I wouldn’t label as real math.

Real math is like playing around in the imaginary realms of logic. Mathematical proving is like painting. Just that you’re not dependent on painting equipment. Math is an act of creativity. And that’s one reason why I like it so much.

I know this gotta be kinda hard to believe if you only know school math and never engaged in the real thing. Because obviously, school math doesn’t really improve your creativity. It rather destroys the beauty of the insights gained over the last thousands of years by presenting them as numb formulas that you have to apply in a very specific manner. In a very stupid manner. School math at most trains you to follow fixed schemes. But that’s school math.

Despite those facts, I also liked school math to some extent. I’m not 100% why I did so but I guess it was simply because I was good at it. It was probably also because I like working out my brain. And even that school stuff is activating some few brain cells.

I say few because mathematical proving activates a lot more.

That’s the other point why mathematics is one of my favorite subjects.

Perfectionism and Math

I as a perfectionist also like math because it’s so exact. But at the same time, it’s creative and somehow subjective. This might seem contradictory. And maybe it is.

So math could also be a part of my way out of ‘false’ perfectionism. The logical way out of it. (I’ll still have to think about that one here, let’s see where it will lead me…)

Other Resources

Hopefully you got a vague idea about what real mathematics actually is. If you want to know more about it, I highly recommend you to read Lockhart’s Lament.

I read it some time ago and it really opened my eyes. Not only does it explain in detail why people don’t like school math, it also shows how beautiful math can be. Plus it contains some very nice analogies. It’s really worth reading.