canarysweari work as a math tutor and i think often about how everything came together for me in math when i got the hang of this book and how to show people the stuff that this book said. people are under the impression that math is about doing calculations for some reason. and while it's not wrong that math has calculations, the stuff that nearly everyone likes about math is not the repetitive task of crunching numbers (though i like that stuff. it's like those enormous coloring books for adults. hypnotizing) but the process of abstract reasoning that gets you from point a to point b in a problem. so i think often--should i work with my students outside my working hours and teach them euclid's elements? i can't just keep giving them the steps to their problems, and they can't come up with the steps on their own. they think it's the teacher's job to show them how to solve every case of every problem, and that math is about their ability to avoid mistakes in calculating sums (but also that the calculator is used to avoid the trivial work of arithmetic. there's no winning! goomba fallacy). so what else is the solution? you just have to learn to do 'proofs'. kids are deathly scared of proofs. i don't fully understand why, except that the subject is overly formalized because of some geeks in the first half of the 20th century. every 'solve for x' problem is a proof already, although often of a very simple kind. i dunno. this book has its flaws but its fun. it's also a good look into the weird mind of the ancient greek geometer. 2 is the first number? ok buddy
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