Math vs English

[Azeroffs]

I've found that most people enjoy or thrive in one subject but not the other. Type related?

Also, I've found that among math people, there are geometry people and algebra people. People usually like one and dislike the other.

I myself am a math/algebra/calc person. Geometry was far less interesting for me, as well as trigonometry.

My dad(ISTp) has always been good with math/geometry/trig, but he mentioned having problems with calculus.

[Gilly]

I am a writer so my position is pretty simple on this one.

Math is just boring, so obvious, so tautological. I could just never get myself in the mindset to see the "beauty" of math; I could tell it was there, but I didn't want to feel like a fucking robot, so I never went down that road. Calculus was gross.

[olduser]

I'm fine with both. I love to read, short stories especially, but I am extremely capable w/ math(i find statistics, integrals, to be very satisfying). I really like so much in the world, why can't i love to read and do science stuff as a career? I understand they are seperate, but i'm not going to attach my identity to either. Really, you'd be hard pressed to find something that i am not fascinated by, although i will say that now that i've developed in physical science, it is much easier for me to grasp and understand physical concepts. I have this class this semester on 'sensation and perception,' and a lot of it is psychology models, but what stood out more to me were their experimental methods, and the physics of physiology(electric signals through a ionized medium, ftr, it makes sense, and i feel like they left a little out, i mean, let's be serious here and talk electrons, you know?).

[Lotus]

overall i would say english > math, because i've pretty much failed math classes my entire life, with the exception of geometry in 9th grade. algebraic math just pisses me off. statistics was tolerable. but yeah i actually really liked geometry, found myself naturally good at it. probably because i'm a visual/spatial kind of person, and i've always picked apart proportions and angles visually when i look at things. probably from drawing so much as a kid? lol i can seriously analyze a face to death, unconsciously weighing features against their other proportions, etc. while i'm looking at someone.

so besides geometry, i hate math, but love english.

[olduser]

I am a writer so my position is pretty simple on this one.

Math is just boring, so obvious, so tautological. I could just never get myself in the mindset to see the "beauty" of math; I could tell it was there, but I didn't want to feel like a fucking robot, so I never went down that road. Calculus was gross.

math can describe processes. Take for instance, the relationship between pressure and volume of a system and it's energy, defined as temperature. Suppose you were to take a sample of ideal gas(a gas that has no interaction with other gas molecules within its system), and put in a system, holding volume constant, and you were to apply increasing pressure on the system. What would happen? Let's look at PV=nRT again. We see that as pressure increases, and volume is held constant, there is a proportional relationship. Now let's close the system to changes in number of molecules, n. We see that P in this instance, is simple proportion to T*R. As pressure increases we will see an increase in the system energy, defined as temperature. How is that not totally rad? Let's think of the opposite, suppose we were to apply an increasing temperature to a system where volume and molecules were held constant, we would observe increased pressure. See, all this is equations, but you can begin to understand what temperature REALLY means. It's the average velocity of each individual molecule. As they collide more frequently, which happens when temperature is increased, they generate more pressure on their container(which is of fixed volume), as the collisions expand exponentially. One fast molecule hits another, and momentum is transferred, and then that molecule behaves in the same way. and it all really becomes exponential, mathematically and in terms of fascination.

BUT
Same goes for books!!!
who can better describe our world of human relationships and the people we meet than authors? I've gotten so much from reading and understand humans beings so much better and have insight into their lives from novels, while also understanding the descrepancy between works of fiction and real life.

[Creepy-bg]

u r too

26 x 26 = 676

20 x 20 + 6 x 6 = 436

pwnt

[xyz]

I agree with Aixslhifriyf guy, it's not type related.

It's funny, because even though I'm big on programming, engineering, and all that jazz, math doesn't really do it for me. Sure, it's INTERESTING to a point, but i'm not going to go out of my way for it. I've always been more of a natural regarding Linguistic crap.

Philosophy is nice too.

[xyz]

If you mean me, you can call me dyslexia. Maybe this username wasn't a great idea.

Wow, now I get it. Good name. I should change mine to "Husky Johnson" or something.

Anyway, yeah, I don't think the skills are mutually exclusive. I'm pretty good at both, but i'm more of a "natural" at English I suppose.

[Please stay away grammar Nazi's ]

[strrrng]

I would say english, but even that got boring after a while. Rote linguistic analysis, banal questions of "inference," etc. always drained classes of real creative and "educational" value for me. I always did fine in math, but never took strongly to any realm, despite finding calculus to be an intriguingly useful model for real events.


I doubt it's type-related.

[Azeroffs]

Anyway, yeah, I don't think the skills are mutually exclusive. I'm pretty good at both, but i'm more of a "natural" at English I suppose.

Not mutually exclusive, just a dichotomous preference. If there is a correlation, then I'm sure it's not a 1-to-1. Nothing is in this shitty system.

I really hated English though. I hated reading stories, and I hated being forced to write on certain subjects, and when we were aloud to write on whatever subject we wanted, I could never come up with something good. It was just all really pointless. I didn't have a problem with grammar, and I'm a pretty good speller, but the nuts and bolts of English wasn't really what I was referring to anyway.

[xyz]

Oh i see. It could also be the fact that most of us here were filtered through the US educational system, which is garbage (esp LAUSD)

I mean, fucking Mark Twain himself would be bored to death if he had to find out the symbolism behind Huck Finn. He'd probably wanna write about baseball.

[Bardia]

I'm fairly good at both. Math was really easy for me until I got to physics which I found to be a little bit more of a challenge and Calculus was awful (in part due to an awful teacher and in part I think to it being difficult to me). I'm pretty decent at the researching/analyzing aspects of English but I suck at some of the creative aspects like writing poetry.

[silverchris9]

English over math, because I'm going to spend my life reading books. And the academic study of english does enhance that experience, especially close reading, although close reading divorced from interpreting meaning is entirely useless (the letter kills; but the spirit gives life says Augustine, contra Eliot).

However, I did enjoy calculus. I love it because it's hard enough to be brain exercise, because it provides metaphors for poetry, because since I was pretty good at it, I got to be in the "elite" class, and my aristocratic nature + 3wing ate that up; and because it's very discrete and pretty and nicely shaped.

I think that math operates (in my opinion) on a more limited scope but can produce more definite answers, more certain more reliable, more easily communicable. I think that english potentially operates on a far broader scope, but cannot produce definite answers, and those that are produced are notoriously, epically, ridiculously impossible to transmit from person to person. In fact, the transfer of the lessons of poetry from person to person pretty much IS the history of poetry, at least in the West.

[olduser]

English over math, because I'm going to spend my life reading books. And the academic study of english does enhance that experience, especially close reading, although close reading divorced from interpreting meaning is entirely useless (the letter kills; but the spirit gives life says Augustine, contra Eliot).

However, I did enjoy calculus. I love it because it's hard enough to be brain exercise, because it provides metaphors for poetry, because since I was pretty good at it, I got to be in the "elite" class, and my aristocratic nature + 3wing ate that up; and because it's very discrete and pretty and nicely shaped.

I think that math operates (in my opinion) on a more limited scope but can produce more definite answers, more certain more reliable, more easily communicable. I think that english potentially operates on a far broader scope, but cannot produce definite answers, and those that are produced are notoriously, epically, ridiculously impossible to transmit from person to person. In fact, the transfer of the lessons of poetry from person to person pretty much IS the history of poetry, at least in the West.

you're a cool dude, you know that?

also i aced my calc 3 exam today- suck on that, elite class.

[xyz]

I don't know how you get through it heath. It's so fucking useless I'd rather get a root canal (seriously!)

[FDG]

I'm equally bad (or good) at both. Many people are equally bad (or good) at both. Nikola Tesla was able to speak 7 languages (just off the top of my head). Anyway, focussing on a single language is boring. Pure mathematics is equally boring, imho, I am more interested in its applied version. Oh yeah, calculus is much better than algebra, ability in the latter mostly seem to be a matter of sheer practice.

[07490]

But I can't recall any LII and SLI whose naturally bad at Math. Other than that, I have seen other types to fluctuate between being better in one subject than another. So based that I would said it's not type related over being type related. maybe stereotype EXFp (Ti polr), would be the worse in math but I also have seen a few ESFp got through really high in that area.

[Creepy-sarahdxwrappd]

Unsure if it's type related.
I'm tolerable at math and english; however, I don't like either unless it's for practical purposes (statistics or reading historical biographies or something). I love science and history.

[olduser]

I don't know how you get through it heath. It's so fucking useless I'd rather get a root canal (seriously!)

cause its just math dawg

[silverchris9]

you're a cool dude, you know that?

also i aced my calc 3 exam today- suck on that, elite class.

Thanks! Congrats on your calc. I just took the BC exam in high school. I should take more calc... but I probably won't. Maybe physics.

[Mediator Kam]

As I go to an engineering school, we focus on more math than science. I find calculus to be fun in the sense that I can make jokes about it. It's hard to explain, but I love talking about keeping my calc rigorous and talking about ROLLE'S THEOREM.

I took AP English Lit. Hated it. I read for fun, not for some sort of standardized understanding.

[Eldanen]

I've always been better at English than Math. I'm confident that I could do either, but language flows much more naturally for me.

[jewels]

I despise math. I also wish I'd learned it better and had better teachers, as it does open up certain career fields. I always found English to be really easy. Though I never memorized the grammar rules, I usually always did it right for the most part. Writing was super easy for me because I can read something and then copy the tone. I was always very lazy with proofreading though and hated re-writing. I usually just did the one draft and wanted to leave the typos in there. That's how i prefer it. I also remember writing essays in school where I would re-write the question in various ways and the teacher wouldn't realize I hadn't answered the question, since the structure was right and it sounded interesting.

I also like writing poems, but I don't like grammar. So I just put words on lines and use that as punctuation instead, since it seems more effective that way.

My SLI bf loves math and wants to study it more (like very advanced stuff). He never liked engineering as much, though I think he was probably good at it.

I'm lucky if I can figure out the tip.

[Creepy-Pied Piper]

Removed at User Request

[tiny_dancer]

But I can't recall any LII and SLI whose naturally bad at Math

heh heh I know one. He said he failed algebra twice. I was thinking, "Srsly? All that logic and you're lousy at math.. weird.." but he's also an amazing artist and filmmaker, and I think he's happier doing that than sitting in a windowless cube at an engineering firm.

I'm okay at math, but english and art came more naturally to me. I don't consider myself truly good at it because I can't intuit the logic behind it. Doesn't mean I can't learn it and make good grades, though. My LSE best friend never studied for any math test and would walk in and ace it, even if she hadn't caught up to the homework lessons. I definitely couldn't do that. Geometry was fun. I enjoyed that. I'm not that great at grammar, either.

[07490]

I enjoyed English, particularly composition, as I loved to write, and I've always loved reading. Algebra was fun and easy, and I secretly even liked proofs in Geometry even though everyone complained about them. I enjoyed things like calculating the efficiency of gears and levers and solving vectors. I did not understand Calculus, partly because I'd just moved and I couldn't understand a word the teacher was speaking, regardless of whether or not he was speaking math stuff, and partly because I just didn't grasp the whole idea of it. I squeaked by a pass on the AP test, which I would have been smarter not to take, because it left me taking Calc II in college, which except for an act of God I wouldn't have passed (huge flood closed down the college and saved me from the final) .

I just ran into a ESTp classmate of mine in my biology class who is taking Calculus at the moment. They seem to be very into the discussion. He told me he aced 6 Math classes pior to calc and all with (A, not A-) and now he's taking calculus in Six weeks and he jsut told me he would be happy getting a B, still he's natural in Math but he said it's a tough course.


Most Beta ST seems to really enjoy Math and tole me once they get it, they get it. I wonder if it had anything to do with . In calc, from what I have heard it's the study of things through time. I know when I take it I can't be so hyper focus on every detail and look into the bigger picture, just intuitive grasp the underlying idea.

[implied]

i don't really understand why the two have to be so "divided." seriously, you guys go take a morphology & syntax class. tell me it's not math.

[Khola aka Bee]

Wow, now I get it. Good name. I should change mine to "Husky Johnson" or something.

Anyway, yeah, I don't think the skills are mutually exclusive. I'm pretty good at both, but i'm more of a "natural" at English I suppose.

[Please stay away grammar Nazi's ]

*Nazis

Fixed.

[discojoe]

I'm good at both and I hate both.

[Creepy-male]

I can try my hand at pretty much any intellectual subject but where I excell is mechanical/spatial intuition... I am a math person, a whole lot more geometric, but I learned how to do the other stuff well... I look at equations as machines that produce something instead of instructional commands like what is usually taught. Been good with practical mechanics of things, like figuring out how something works, troubleshooting it etc, and have good physical intuition (thats why I do physics).

Also 26x26 is taking the value of 26 and adding it up 26's times. So if you want to comparmentalize it you'de have to say 26x10 + 26x6... but if you want to get a sense of where the number lies try thinking 26x10 = 260 then 260x2.6 so its a little more than halfway betwen 520 and 780... halfway is like 650, notice 20-80 the midpoint is 50, and its obvious between 500 and 700 its going to lie in the 600's. Then you add 26 unto 650.. to get 676. really you can do anything, its just a matter of writting it in a form that makes sense to you.

You can also say 25x25 is 5x5x25... 5x25 is 125, 5x125 is 500+25x5 = 625
its possible to set up an iterative sum based on this... if you can see the pattern that occurs with 25^x power. These seems like its complicating something simple but if you had only electronic components that could logically add you can essentially use those simpler operations to perform something more complex, it also relates a sum to a exponentiation, two different functions, which is useful if you wanted to put something in a form thats easier to deal with.,

[Marie84]

English, history, art and social studies were always my academic strengths. Basically anything to do with "people", what they do, create, write, think, etc.
I'm awful at math and mediocre in the sciences.

Shop was another class I always had trouble with but that's another discussion about coordination

[Galen]

My strong-points in high school were always math and music. English/literature was always just average for me, I've never been much of a reader :/

[xyz]

I've found many people where math abused as kids.

Here's to mom n dad making math fun!

[Azeroffs]

I've found many people where math abused as kids.

Lol.. it was like the opposite for me. I would actually ask my parents to give me math tests. I loved Math Blaster! I was kind of an odd kid.

[Creepy-male]

I've found many people where math abused as kids.

Here's to mom n dad making math fun!

Lol I used to ask my dad a bunch of questions about math and he would answer them I never got pressured until middle school, which really never resulted me in hating math or any academic subject but rather the school system and grading.

People have been like "You like psychology why don't you take a class on it?" and I say "Because I like psychology"

[Not A Communist Shill]

I've always been better at Maths - it was probably the first subject I found fascinating and limitless. But then later (and now), it became of limited interest.

With English, I was seriously deficient in terms of the words I knew in the earliest years of my life - and I think I was quite irritated by all the words even years later. But as a teenager, I definitely preferred English to Maths. To really enjoy it, I need to be inspired or have some set goal, and ideally have someone to read what I write.

I've never quite got the same satisfaction when someone reads my arithmetic.

[717495]

I'm a music person, which makes me a math person and an english person.

[717495]

lies.

Time never lies. It always lies.

[MatthewZ]

I'm sure I've made a Dialect > Rhetoric speech on this forum at one point or another. Dialect being closer to mathematics and rhetoric closer to English, I prefer the former. If we're going on the math sub-dichotomy, I express a preference for Geometry simply because of my highly visual nature.

Of course, as the old saying goes "Physics is to sex as math is to masturbation." ... as English is to? (reading a romance and/or erotic novel seems to be a fair analogy) You may be able to describe the beauty of a bird in flight, but can you get an even remotely objective and testable explanation of why the bird flies? (forgive the informal and largely rhetorical use of the second person)

[MatthewZ]

Well, English gives the power to brainwash people. In English.

That's why it's useful.

Ph34r mY rh370R1c

Why replace existing data when it's so much easier to corrupt what's already there and pass it on as legitimate?