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[Pandarsenic]

Honestly, I understand WHY it's important, but I can't bring myself to do it. I WANT to. I SHOULD. But I can't. It's simply easier to walk through life than it is to run, even if you're given a prize if you make it to the end.

Yes, but if you don't run, you don't have a prayer of flying.  After a certain point, "easy" stops entering into it.

I can empathize with Webadict on this, I think.

I'm smart because a combination of genetics and my parents gave me a love of learning for learning's sake and the ability to learn very, very easily. I've never had to work at something to be good at it and I've never felt a tremendous internal push to go for perfect grades or whatever because I learn for me, not for "them."

[webadict]

Honestly, I understand WHY it's important, but I can't bring myself to do it. I WANT to. I SHOULD. But I can't. It's simply easier to walk through life than it is to run, even if you're given a prize if you make it to the end.

Yes, but if you don't run, you don't have a prayer of flying.  After a certain point, "easy" stops entering into it.

I can empathize with Webadict on this, I think.

I'm smart because a combination of genetics and my parents gave me a love of learning for learning's sake and the ability to learn very, very easily. I've never had to work at something to be good at it and I've never felt a tremendous internal push to go for perfect grades or whatever because I learn for me, not for "them."

Yes. My dad is smart in a way that is astounding. He's not intellectually smart, but he retains knowledge easily and readily. My mom, on the other hand, was artistic, but left little in the way of motivation. I'm sure these two mindsets infused and fought each other to form me.

Not everybody wants to fly. Some people want to fly for fame. Some for fortune. Few fly because they truly want to. Most of them fail.

I like to see how things work, and if I had the resources to tear apart a car and rebuild it, I would. It's why programming comes so easily to me. I like to defragment each piece of data, process it, and restore it into its original design. It works the same for languages, machines, minds. I would do all of these things were I not the poor excuse of a person I am. I don't have resources. I don't care enough to find them. Information, however, is free and easily obtainable, so reading bits and code is easy to do and is why I do that now.

In short, I won't go out of my way to fly because the ground is nice and steady, the flowers are much closer to where I am now, and there's no chance of ever falling. If I end up in the air in the end, then that's what happens. It's not because I made wax wings to fly.

[Leafsnail]

Math is indeed fun. I miss calculus but I don't remember how to derive or integrate, and a 5 on the AP Calculus AB exam means I can't relearn it at the university. ;_;
Yeah, I've gotten a lot of weird looks for telling that to people.

Weirdly, we've only just done integration and derivation.  Obviously only in the most basic forms though...

You're talking to someone who can understand almost any concept intuitively and can memorize almost anything he writes down.

Hmm, I sortof get this too.  Although if I don't understand how something fits into everything else I have a tendancy to struggle (damn electrical circuits...)

Yes. My dad is smart in a way that is astounding. He's not intellectually smart, but he retains knowledge easily and readily. My mom, on the other hand, was artistic, but left little in the way of motivation. I'm sure these two mindsets infused and fought each other to form me.

Yeah... this is kinda scary.  Only I probably would regard my dad as intelligant and my mother's speciality was languages (I seem to be lucky enough to have inherited skills across pretty much the whole range).

[Pandarsenic]

True fact: Physics is one of my favorite subjects. Everything in it seems so natural. I get a formula like G=(m1 * m2)/(r^2) and it's like... that makes perfect sense. It should be that way, so it is.

And yeah, it's funny, I can remember squares of numbers up through 15 on accident (no lie, I memorized 13^2=169 and 14^2=196 without meaning to... ._. I just kind of saw them and they got stuck in my head) but I have trouble remembering IF I've eaten meals a day before (we won't even touch the problem of remembering WHAT I ate).

[webadict]

True fact: Physics is one of my favorite subjects. Everything in it seems so natural. I get a formula like G=(m1 * m2)/(r^2) and it's like... that makes perfect sense. It should be that way, so it is.

And yeah, it's funny, I can remember squares of numbers up through 15 on accident (no lie, I memorized 13^2=169 and 14^2=196 without meaning to... ._. I just kind of saw them and they got stuck in my head) but I have trouble remembering IF I've eaten meals a day before (we won't even touch the problem of remembering WHAT I ate).

I understand (some of) physics, but I really like the math part of it. The whole physics thing gets annoying sometimes.

I like to see patterns in numbers in order to memorize them. Like 11s. There's tons of patterns in 11s. Like the difference between the sum of the odd digits and the sum of the even digits is equivalent to a multiple of eleven. I don't even know how I saw that, but I did. It's probably why I won this stupid Continental Math League thing two years in a row (It would've been three, but that first year I messed up two problems.)

Anyone else ever do that thing?

I'm a pattern freak, I suppose. I like 'em. Who doesn't?

[ToonyMan]

I'm on Vector's side.
Do your best in everything dude.  That way you can snark at people and live a depressing life.
Except I try not too.

That was mostly a joke, if you take offense I am sorry.

EDIT:

Wait wait, alright after reading through the posts before me (I never do).  I don't study before tests, I just do well in them because of what I learn over time.  Most tests we get we SHOULD be able to do if you actually pay attention in class.  I actually use Bay12 as an outlet for my stress, which is a nice thing.  Hehehe.  I just got a 100 in my shop 2nd trimester.  That thing was easy, well, I can't really talk about my personal life because people usually don't care on the internet but whatever I'm done.

[Vector]

Not everybody wants to fly. Some people want to fly for fame. Some for fortune. Few fly because they truly want to. Most of them fail.

[...]

In short, I won't go out of my way to fly because the ground is nice and steady, the flowers are much closer to where I am now, and there's no chance of ever falling. If I end up in the air in the end, then that's what happens. It's not because I made wax wings to fly.

I try because I pathologically have to.  I'm almost incapable of giving up, and I refuse to relegate myself to a normal life--because I know I can do so much better.  You see, I've fallen and been disappointed in myself over and over again.  I've flunked tests because I waded in over my head, or because I didn't really know how to study.  I've been so stressed that I wanted to die, just to get away from the academic pressure.  I've nearly lost everything I ever loved.

But, at the same time, every time I pick myself up after crashing I spend a little bit of time walking and then get an itching to try just one more time.  It's not that the ground isn't nice.  It's not that I go "let's be famous!"  I'm definitely not going "let's be rich," because seriously... math major, and it's already been proven that I'm quite good at programming.  It's that, whenever I'm walking along the ground, I say "I could be trying to fly"--and when I don't have something difficult to sink my teeth into, I get antsy and depressed.  I'm like a hamster, you see.

It's probably why I won this stupid Continental Math League thing two years in a row (It would've been three, but that first year I messed up two problems.)

Anyone else ever do that thing?

I'm a pattern freak, I suppose. I like 'em. Who doesn't?

Oh, the Camel.  There's a handful of math-related things at which I am extremely poor: word-problems, physics, and statistics.  They've never made any sense--I have a finely-honed instinct when it comes to pure mathematics and proof, but that general area drives me mad.

In other words, my school district did the Camel but never sent a team's scores--and even so, I kind of sucked at it.

I see some number patterns (used to have squares up to 17 memorized by accident; reasonably good at figuring out sequences and so on), but mostly I'm good at breaking proofs and writing them.  It's a different sort of pattern than you get with numbers--sort of like the difference between literary analysis and linguistics.


... As far as my parents go, my father can remember almost anything, and my mother is another art person (with dyslexia).  I mostly see my abilities as a throwback to my grandfather, who was a math teacher and, had he had the opportunities, could have probably become a mathematician.

[Pandarsenic]

Really? How funny, word problems, physics, and stats are some of the EASIEST things for me naturally.

I went in blind to a stats midterm a couple weeks back and came out with an A, despite having no calculator...

And having skipped the review sessions...

And not having attended a couple days of class prior....

So yeah. X3

Speaking of Linguistics, Ling is another funtastic field.

[Leafsnail]

Hmm, I've always wanted to have a go at linguistics.  It's almost always the thing I find most interesting about a language.

[Org]

Really? How funny, word problems, physics, and stats are some of the EASIEST things for me naturally.

I went in blind to a stats midterm a couple weeks back and came out with an A, despite having no calculator...

And having skipped the review sessions...

And not having attended a couple days of class prior....

So yeah. X3

Speaking of Linguistics, Ling is another funtastic field.

Stats is pretty easy even without a calc.
Most of the time...

[Vector]

Really? How funny, word problems, physics, and stats are some of the EASIEST things for me naturally.

[...]

Speaking of Linguistics, Ling is another funtastic field.

Huh, interesting.  In my experience, compsci/game theory are the closest I can get to applied math without my brain breaking.

Also dislike linguistics.  I was an honorable mention in NAMCLO with no linguistics experience whatsoever, but my ability lies more in literary analysis and language-learning than in linguistics itself.

[webadict]

Really? How funny, word problems, physics, and stats are some of the EASIEST things for me naturally.

[...]

Speaking of Linguistics, Ling is another funtastic field.

Huh, interesting.  In my experience, compsci/game theory are the closest I can get to applied math without my brain breaking.

Also dislike linguistics.  I was an honorable mention in NAMCLO with no linguistics experience whatsoever, but my ability lies more in literary analysis and language-learning than in linguistics itself.

L.

[Vector]

... Uh.  Well, damn.

[webadict]

... Uh.  Well, damn.

Need some ice?

[Vector]

... Uh.  Well, damn.

Need some ice?

No.  I need an anti-confusion grenade.