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[Vector]

Yeah... I have a bad habit of forgetting the real-world sources of our constructions, because when I think about the physical world too much I end up going "But how do I know that 2*3 is 6?  How do I prove this?  What is multiplication, anyway?"

It's so much easier when I just go "Okay, define 6 = (1 + 1)(1 + 1 + 1) and completely forget about physical quantities.  Multiplication is just a binary operation.  Nothing special."

[SolarShado]

Yeah... I have a bad habit of forgetting the real-world sources of our constructions, because when I think about the physical world too much I end up going "But how do I know that 2*3 is 6?  How do I prove this?  What is multiplication, anyway?"

It's so much easier when I just go "Okay, define 6 = (1 + 1)(1 + 1 + 1) and completely forget about physical quantities.  Multiplication is just a binary operation.  Nothing special."

o_0

I have some odd ways of thinking about math, but you've got me beat dude...

However, that second part does sort of make sense...

[Realmfighter]

I often think about how word are defined, so much so that whenever i starting think in the vein i go "Fuck this" and stop thinking.

It is much easier.

[Vector]

Heh, I've been teaching my mind to do arithmetic faster by seeing geometric shapes instead of numbers.  The only problem with this is that I almost see 3 and 6 as the same thing--like if someone says "Get me 6 of those," sometimes I'll get 3.  You know... like

1 is a dot
2 is a line
3 is a triangle
4 is a square, or two parallel lines
5 is a pentagon
6 is two triangles stacked or a large triangle
7 is a heptagon
8 is a cube, or two squares stacked, or a diamond with the vertices removed
9 is three triangles stacked, or 9 dots in a square
10 is either two pentagons stacked or an even bigger triangle

and so on, and so forth.  The scary thing is that I'll often find myself doing computations before I've even noticed I'm doing them; I'll think "I want a rough division like this or that" and before I've had a chance to think about how to do it, the answer has already popped up, process-free.  It's very useful, but occasionally annoying.

[ToonyMan]

Spent all night playing Recettear, now watching new Bleach episode and then tomorrow new VENTURE BRO EPISODES YEAAAHHHH

[Schilcote]

Heh, I've been teaching my mind to do arithmetic faster by seeing geometric shapes instead of numbers.  The only problem with this is that I almost see 3 and 6 as the same thing--like if someone says "Get me 6 of those," sometimes I'll get 3.  You know... like

1 is a dot
2 is a line
3 is a triangle
4 is a square, or two parallel lines
5 is a pentagon
6 is two triangles stacked or a large triangle
7 is a heptagon
8 is a cube, or two squares stacked, or a diamond with the vertices removed
9 is three triangles stacked, or 9 dots in a square
10 is either two pentagons stacked or an even bigger triangle

and so on, and so forth.  The scary thing is that I'll often find myself doing computations before I've even noticed I'm doing them; I'll think "I want a rough division like this or that" and before I've had a chance to think about how to do it, the answer has already popped up, process-free.  It's very useful, but occasionally annoying.

Damn, you're like, some sort of math deity. That seems really, really abstract to me... I just sort of ask the little black boxes in my head what the answers to various math problems are and if they feel like it an answer comes out the other end. That thing with the shapes sounds really really clever though.

[SolarShado]

Heh, I've been teaching my mind to do arithmetic faster by seeing geometric shapes instead of numbers.  The only problem with this is that I almost see 3 and 6 as the same thing--like if someone says "Get me 6 of those," sometimes I'll get 3.  You know... like

1 is a dot
>snip<
10 is either two pentagons stacked or an even bigger triangle

and so on, and so forth.  The scary thing is that I'll often find myself doing computations before I've even noticed I'm doing them; I'll think "I want a rough division like this or that" and before I've had a chance to think about how to do it, the answer has already popped up, process-free.  It's very useful, but occasionally annoying.

how does the shape thing help? it seems like it'd be more confusing...
i do get the "step away from the numbers and conceptualize it as shapes etc.", but i've never really been consciously aware of what sort of shape each number is...

i've been known to do the "automatic math" thing too although i suspect not to the same degree as you

[Vector]

Thanks =)  The truth is, I often spend my time while I'm walking around coming up like little tricks like this--just mental shorthand to make some thought process or another faster.  I also record which images/"gestures"/sounds/tastes/general associations come up over and over again when I'm solving problems, so that I can sort of translate a problem into mental structures, translate the mental abstractions into other mental abstractions, manipulate them as desired, and then pop back out with an answer.

The end result is that I can solve problems and come up with insights that would floor most other people, but I can never explain how I got there in any sort of sensible way.  And, when thinking about how I feel in a given moment, if I'm moving anywhere beyond happy, sad, or angry, I end up with things like "tastes like carrot" or "feels like carrying a pumpkin" or "smells like walking on red cement in the summer at the age of eight past picnic tables."

I don't actually have synesthesia, but I spent about four years or so teaching my brain to pretend it had it, and now I use the resulting networks to my advantage.

how does the shape thing help? it seems like it'd be more confusing...

Because instead of saying:

I know six is two threes

I say

I know two triangles is two triangles.

It moves things from computation to identification.  I also have hand gestures to keep me on track when I'm doing long computations: swipe down for derivatives, pull back for multiplication, two hands together for a dot product, flipping the hand over to take the inverse, squeeze two fingers together when something cancels out, shove sideways when moving a term from one side of an equation to another.  I don't usually perform these hand gestures, but knowing which motion goes with whatever I'm supposed to be doing tends to make it a lot faster--because the motion encodes everything I know about the computation into a single idea, condensed and easily usable.

[Eduren]

Wanna know why I'm happy today?

I just came out of the closet.

Feels good man.

[Josephus]

Hi five, man. It feels damn good.

[SolarShado]

Because instead of saying:

I know six is two threes

I say

I know two triangles is two triangles.

It moves things from computation to identification.  I also have hand gestures to keep me on track when I'm doing long computations: swipe down for derivatives, pull back for multiplication, two hands together for a dot product, flipping the hand over to take the inverse, squeeze two fingers together when something cancels out, shove sideways when moving a term from one side of an equation to another.  I don't usually perform these hand gestures, but knowing which motion goes with whatever I'm supposed to be doing tends to make it a lot faster--because the motion encodes everything I know about the computation into a single idea, condensed and easily usable.

That case makes sense, but most of the others don't (not to me anyway). Personally, when I see a number I tend to start pulling it into chunks (like 121 is 11^2, or 24 is 12 (aka 6*2) * 2 or 37 is 6^2 + 1 (prime i believe?)), then I can re-arrange the chunks in an equation into easily digestible pieces.

Quick example: in statistics class, had to sum {8,8,3,3,3}. i saw (8+8 = 16 = 4^2) + (3+3+3 = 3^2). of course, 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2 (most common example for Pythagorean theorem).

As for hands... the most interesting thing i do is occasional finger binary

[Medicine Man]

Wanna know why I'm happy today?

I just came out of the closet.

Feels good man.

I'm happy for you.

[ToonyMan]

Wanna know why I'm happy today?

I just came out of the closet.

Feels good man.

Which closet?

[Realmfighter]

Wanna know why I'm happy today?

I just came out of the closet.

Feels good man.

Gay people are awesome.

[Eduren]

Wanna know why I'm happy today?

I just came out of the closet.

Feels good man.

Gay people are awesome.

Whats your opinion of bisexuals?