#nobody try to explain the abacus to me

[copperbadge]

number-line anon again: the flip side to that is I can probably solve and probably walk you through a geometric proof or, with some re-learning of the terms, physics-based calculus. to me, that's all *one* calculation. my brain believes an algorithm's single grocery list is actually a whole delivery area, and we can do those one by one. there's so much math to be "bad" at math. an abacus or knot of string is older - if Ea-Nasir swindled you with a lump of clay and a stick, i mean

Man, I keep trying to respond to this ask because I don't want you to think it just vanished into the void, but I'm also trying not to be rude even inadvertently and just...

Anon, I have to be up front with you: I understood roughly 10% of your last ask and I follow even less of this one. With the last one, I got that you were saying "I'm bad at some kinds of math" so that was the part I responded to; I get with this one you're saying you're good at other kinds, and I'm glad you're enjoying those other kinds of math, but I am unfortunately bad at every kind of math, so if you're trying to communicate anything else I'm not going to be able to understand it. No fault of yours, and really no fault of mine; you are just speaking a language I can't learn, let alone understand as-is.

I did have a teacher try to show me how to use an abacus once, I think because he felt I would do better if I had something physical to manipulate. After about an hour he looked at me amusedly, said "We finally found something you're bad at," and let me go back to my book. Wish the rest of the world had his serenity about it.