Math Is Hard - But Then Again So Is Life

When I contemplate the title of this article, I enter a reverie which catapults me back twenty-five years to my college days. Back then, I learned how hard mathematics was. Often I felt inferior to tackle such a difficult subject with my limited brain capacity. Little did I know then that in retrospect I would come to understand that indeed math is hard, but that life too is just as challenging.

Life in many respects can be compared to a series of mathematical problems. Each day we must face challenges and problems—some of which are solvable and some which are not currently within our realm of solvability. Just as the mathematician who struggles with the unsolved mathematical problem, we too struggle with our unsolved personal problems. We look hard for solutions and get frustrated when we find none. If we are persistent, we try other approaches. Sometimes we attack a problem doggedly, looking to knock it off our list of woes. Sometimes a stroke of good fortune, or a sudden burst of intuition lead to the solution of one of our vexing problems. Many times, however, certain problems—like Ferrmat’s Last Theorem and the Poincare Conjecture, in mathematics—remain unsolved for a long time or are still pending a solution. How frustrating!

One of the beauties of mathematics is that it teaches us how to be good problem solvers. Unfortunately, many of us never get to peak into the strange and exotic—yet frustrating—world of higher mathematics. To experience the enervating, exasperating and humbling feeling that comes from trying to plumb the depths of this most amazing subject we call mathematics, is to transcend the limits of human capability and fortify oneself against the buffets of life.

Yes math is hard, but the benefits of studying it are well worth it.

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