WEBVTT 00:00:00.170 --> 00:00:04.129 Hi. Unfortunately, many people feel certain that 00:00:04.129 --> 00:00:07.410 they are not good at math. But this week, we 00:00:07.410 --> 00:00:10.630 have been challenging certainty. So, if that 00:00:10.630 --> 00:00:14.150 thought, I'm just not a math person, is in your 00:00:14.150 --> 00:00:17.969 head, let's question it. Where does that belief 00:00:17.969 --> 00:00:21.050 come from? Maybe it comes from remembering all 00:00:21.050 --> 00:00:24.410 the times you did not get the right answer. And 00:00:24.410 --> 00:00:27.410 over time, those moments begin to tell a story. 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:31.500 A story that math is frustrating. A story that 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:35.060 math is a struggle. A story that maybe you're 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:39.179 just not good at it. I clearly understand because, 00:00:39.259 --> 00:00:43.140 of course, I struggle with math. As I reflect 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:46.039 on my past, some of the most meaningful moments 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:50.320 in math happen in the struggle. I can vividly 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:54.359 remember my college days over 40 years ago, learning 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:57.460 how to calculate the volume of an object, by 00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:01.539 rotating it around the y -axis. Crazy difficult, 00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:07.519 but wonderfully delicious. Math is not just about 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:10.700 repeating what someone else has done. It's about 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:16.920 exploring, trying, revising. In the end, it's 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:20.060 about having the courage to think for yourself. 00:01:21.019 --> 00:01:24.329 Paul Lockhart once observed, that a good mathematician 00:01:24.329 --> 00:01:28.709 has many bad ideas every day, not one or two, 00:01:28.909 --> 00:01:33.430 many. The difference is not that they avoid mistakes, 00:01:33.790 --> 00:01:38.310 it's that they are not discouraged by them. Like 00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:40.829 a Major League Baseball hitter who strikes out 00:01:40.829 --> 00:01:44.930 often, it comes from trying to do difficult things. 00:01:45.909 --> 00:01:48.950 If you're having bad ideas while working on a 00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:52.469 problem, you're not failing. You are participating. 00:01:53.290 --> 00:01:57.549 That is how discovery works. Think Thomas Edison. 00:01:58.269 --> 00:02:01.629 But when we forget that, we begin to interpret 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:05.269 struggle as a verdict. Perhaps we tell ourselves 00:02:05.269 --> 00:02:09.750 we do not belong. We decide that confusion means 00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:13.550 incapacity. And over time, that story becomes 00:02:13.550 --> 00:02:18.569 heavier than the problem itself. Maybe math is 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:22.360 not the barrier. Maybe... The barrier is the 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:25.900 story we're telling ourselves. And sometimes 00:02:25.900 --> 00:02:29.419 those stories do not just stay in math. They 00:02:29.419 --> 00:02:33.500 begin to shape how we see ourselves more broadly 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:38.500 in life. What we think we're capable of. How 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:43.180 we respond to difficulty. How we show up in the 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:46.879 world. And when I slow down and pay attention, 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:50.560 I begin to notice those stories. do not just 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:55.219 appear out of nowhere. They repeat. They show 00:02:55.219 --> 00:03:02.560 up again and again, almost like a pattern. And 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:05.900 once I begin to notice that pattern of self -doubt, 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:11.840 it is time to be kind to myself and ask, what 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.280 story am I telling myself? And how might that 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:18.659 story be shaping the way I see myself?