A Mind For Numbers

A Mind For Numbers will teach you how to learn math and science more efficiently and get good at them by understanding how your brain absorbs and processes information, even if these subjects don’t come naturally to you.

Would you consider yourself a big picture person or are you more detail-oriented? My wife and I have this conversation all the time. She’s better at seeing the forest through the trees, while I usually am too concerned about the details to notice much else.

What we’ve both discovered is a lesson that’s important to learning complex subjects. You need to use both big-picture, or focused mode and detail-oriented, or diffuse thinking to get good at math and science.

Using our focused mode happens when we recall information that’s tightly woven into our minds already. To multiply, for example, you need to use and combine information you already have about numbers.

Diffuse mode, in contrast, is better for trying to understand a new concept. You don’t have anything in your brain to recall yet, so you need to see the big picture to gain new insights.

All this talk of thinking might be making you tired, and that’s a good thing! Sleep is the next important step after learning to practice these two ways of looking at problems. Toxins naturally build up in our brains the longer we are awake. Sleep clears these harmful substances out and is thus a crucial component to memory and learning.

A couple of years ago I ran my first marathon. I began training for it months before race day and it was still excruciating. Can you imagine how difficult and painful it would be if I hadn’t prepared well in advance? Math and science are the same way. You can’t become an expert in astrophysics in one night. It’s better to think of the process like laying bricks of information. After setting the bricks you need to take time away to let them dry. Unfortunately, many of us find it too easy to procrastinate even starting our math homework because we see it as boring and difficult. This thinking comes from focusing on the idea that we only want to finish our work. If we instead look at our goal as “For the next 15 minutes I’ll work on this math assignment,” it becomes a lot easier to just begin. When we center our mind on only the process of learning, it’s easier to just go with the flow and relax. When having a hard time studying I’ve told myself the reasons I like doing so just for the sake of it. That helped me get my work done much faster, and I had more fun…