Math vs. life

[Cybertone]

Around my school there is written a lot of quotes on the wall, which relates to the subject that is taught in that specific part of the building you're in. In the science department there is one saying "Life is hard, but math is harder". When I see it I always think: Dude, it's the other way around! Non of my friends agree with me on this one though.

So my question to you is: Do you agree with the quote or do you agree with me? :lol3:

[Sage]

Depends on your life and depends on the math.

[Aspiringanonymous]

Personally, math will always be easier, no matter how complex it gets. Whenever life starts to get overwhelming, I always turn to my math homework for comfort. A productive method of escape.

Simply because Math is pure logic and reasoning. There is no emotional aspect involved (well, except for frustration over a difficult problem) in mathematical concepts and problem solving.

In life, many ideas and theories can easily be open to dispute. There is a great deal of ambiguity, and numerous different levels of consideration to every idea. It's all very subjective, thus more confusing, for if there is not a more-or-less-indisputable 'right answer' to questions, then there is no real answer. All answers just lead to further questions.

One could say that subjectivity is what makes 'life' easier, for there are endless different approaches to the understanding of a problem, rather than being required to systematically analyze a few numbers and shapes in a logical, objective manner. Certainly it would be so, like how many people claim to find English easier than Science classes, except that in 'life', our emotions greatly influence our perceptions of the world.

We can hold logical understandings of how and why events occur in human life and society, but can we truly analyze our feelings in that same level of detail? In the end, so much of it is quite unexplainable and genuinely senseless. And in life, the irrational often overcomes the rational. And so we have, the highly subjective rational, and the irrational. How is that not difficult.

[ShatteredWings]

If I know what you're talking about, I find math easier.

Math has rules, and always has a solution (even if it's "No Solution"), while life doesn't

[JackOfClubs]

Math is ok, unless its geometry, then it sucks. But its definitely not too hard.
Life isn't too bad either, there are good days and there are bad days.

[Aspiringanonymous]

] Math has rules, and always has a solution (even if it's "No Solution")

I've never explicitly noticed that until now. I like that. :)

No solution is a valid final answer in mathematics. But anywhere else, well, it would either mean that the original concept is flawed in some way, or one is not thinking hard enough to produce a "real solution".

[INFERNO]

I say math is easier because even if you cant understand a single bit of the math presented to you, you know what the boundaries are (i.e. logic) and that it's independent upon everything else in the world. The math question is static, look at it tomorrow or 50 years later, it's still static in a dynamic world. Also, even if you cannot obtain the answer, you know that there is one correct answer whereas in the dynamic world there can be numerous answers that depend on various things. That's absent in math because it's black and white with not much gray even when it gets complex.

On the chance you do get the answer correct, you know that it is correct because you can check your answer. In the dynamic world you cannot do so because once your answer has been reached, before you can check it you need to see if anything has changed, and if so, what and by how much. Math avoids all that.

Life has two advantages over math though and that is that there aren't such strict rules, you can grab stuff from different areas and your answer can be right even if you have 100 answers. So although you may not have the same answer as the next person, the two of you can be right. In math if you don't know the answer, then you can attempt at getting it but unless you have the answer, then your answer is wrong and you're tossed back to the drawing board. The second advantage is that life is continuous and if your answer happens to be more wrong, since life is dynamic, your wrong answer can turn out to be more right than other answers. In math that doesn't happen because no matter how much you try to go around it, 2+2 = 4 but in life, 2+2 doesn't have to equal 4 yet the dynamic aspects can allow it to later on equal 4.

[Death]

I generally wouldn't trust the random sayings and quotes you get stuck up on walls. Maths is definetely easier than life. On thing that supports this is that life has maths in it.

[Giles]

Isn't ever quote in school a load of Bull?

"English is more holey than The Bible"
Um... wtf?

[sweetmisery]

Well, if you put it in that context of course math is easier than life, but it depends on the person and their life. If a person has the easiest life, doesn't have to deal with crap on a daily basis and they have a hard time in math, well then math [i]could[i] be harder than life.

There's two sides to this, not only one. I'm pretty much neutral because math does have it's moments when you're like "Wth is this?" even if you know you'll eventually get a solution to the equation. Life has solutions to...people just make it a lot more complicated to get it. And sometimes there are no solutions, just like in math.

[Cybertone]

Isn't ever quote in school a load of Bull?

"English is more holey than The Bible"
Um... wtf?

well... the one right next to the one I mentioned says "E=m*c2"...

[INFERNO]

Isn't ever quote in school a load of Bull?

"English is more holey than The Bible"
Um... wtf?

If you go around thinking that every quote you see is a pile of bullshit, then you really cant tell when something actually has some meaning to it. Sometimes the quotes aren't a straight-forward one, they require thinking morally and examining your personal beliefs to obtain your answer. If you look at it for a short amount of time and don't get it because you haven't thought much about it, then the answer of why you say it's bullshit isn't one of "I thought it through and I disbelieve in it"; the answer is "it's bullshit because I haven't thought it through".

Take the quote you gave, I'm going to assume you don't understand it or haven't thought it through much. The Bible is a holy book (note, it's not the same as holey, hence, there's a difference of wording which you haven't picked up on). The Bible becomes holey if you take a gun and shoot holes into it. English has more "holes" not in a physical sense but in a metaphorical or philosophical sense partially due to the numerous exceptions in the grammar of the English language, the subjective nature of it in literature, etc... . In a sense, it's comparing the subjective, somewhat contradictory rules (for lack of a better word) in English as being greater than those in the Bible.

See what happens when you take the time, which was less than 5 minutes to think it through? It allows one to broaden their scope or at least just have some mental exercise through reasoning on abstract concepts. You throw this all away if you simply cast it off as being bullshit because you haven't taken the time nor effort to think it through.

So now I'll leave you with a question: which is more filled with bullshit, the reasoning I provided about thinking through the quotes or simply arrogantly and ignorantly casting off such quotes because common-sense thinking failed?