Hi. Unfortunately, many people feel certain that
they are not good at math. But this week, we
have been challenging certainty. So, if that
thought, I'm just not a math person, is in your
head, let's question it. Where does that belief
come from? Maybe it comes from remembering all
the times you did not get the right answer. And
over time, those moments begin to tell a story.
A story that math is frustrating. A story that
math is a struggle. A story that maybe you're
just not good at it. I clearly understand because,
of course, I struggle with math. As I reflect
on my past, some of the most meaningful moments
in math happen in the struggle. I can vividly
remember my college days over 40 years ago, learning
how to calculate the volume of an object, by
rotating it around the y -axis. Crazy difficult,
but wonderfully delicious. Math is not just about
repeating what someone else has done. It's about
exploring, trying, revising. In the end, it's
about having the courage to think for yourself.
Paul Lockhart once observed, that a good mathematician
has many bad ideas every day, not one or two,
many. The difference is not that they avoid mistakes,
it's that they are not discouraged by them. Like
a Major League Baseball hitter who strikes out
often, it comes from trying to do difficult things.
If you're having bad ideas while working on a
problem, you're not failing. You are participating.
That is how discovery works. Think Thomas Edison.
But when we forget that, we begin to interpret
struggle as a verdict. Perhaps we tell ourselves
we do not belong. We decide that confusion means
incapacity. And over time, that story becomes
heavier than the problem itself. Maybe math is
not the barrier. Maybe... The barrier is the
story we're telling ourselves. And sometimes
those stories do not just stay in math. They
begin to shape how we see ourselves more broadly
in life. What we think we're capable of. How
we respond to difficulty. How we show up in the
world. And when I slow down and pay attention,
I begin to notice those stories. do not just
appear out of nowhere. They repeat. They show
up again and again, almost like a pattern. And
once I begin to notice that pattern of self -doubt,
it is time to be kind to myself and ask, what
story am I telling myself? And how might that
story be shaping the way I see myself?