people who "suck at math" are really just dumb, right?

You have confused intelligence with education.

If he could do all those things, he was intelligent, he just didn't have formal schooling due to finances.

shuffle shuffle wrote:First, most people who consider themselves "good at math" just memorized some mental tricks and shortcuts--they don't actually understand advanced theory and would get totally wrecked by anything above Calculus I.

The people I've known who were legitimately "good at math" didn't get there by memorizing mental tricks or shortcuts. For some people, math is intuitive and requires much less mental energy than it does for the average person.

You can't be demonstrably "good at math" without having some decent smarts. That said, you can be really smart without being particularly good at math, and, you can be really good at math and deficient in a whole lot of other ways large and small.

I'm sure there's a strong correlation between basic mathematical ability and measured intelligence, but with considerable scatter explained by a whole range of factors.

hombre3000 wrote:

math is a litmus test for actual intelligence (not made-up intelligence). I've never met someone who's "bad at math" and was not a moran.

I think not starting a subject line or a sentence with a capital letter is a litmus test for actual intelligence.

Define bad at math?

When one reaches the limits of what they’ve been taught that doesn’t mean that they are a moran.

If you’ve never been taught linear algebra that doesn’t mean you’re bad at math.

AI wrote:

hombre3000 wrote:

math is a litmus test for actual intelligence (not made-up intelligence). I've never met someone who's "bad at math" and was not a moran.

I think not starting a subject line or a sentence with a capital letter is a litmus test for actual intelligence.

why? that's purely social convention. there is no logic or reasoning or value to it.

on the other hand, spending time pressing 1 key could add up over the long run.

thinking that following social conventions is an indicator of intelligence must surely be a sign of low intelligence.

I just think that someone starting a thread with grammatical errors while calling other people dumb is kind of ironic (or is it moronic?).

Especially when said person displayed no math skills.

The logical thinking part of math is in preparing a proof and a proof is much the same as a verbal argument. The rest is comprehension.

The importance of being good is math is mostly because of how useful it is. Otherwise it's a stunt mental capability among others. Like a musican who can analyze a song with music theory, or a poet or writer who reduces reality to mental objects that are manipulated to achieve various effects, or a leader who has a calculus of the motivations of individuals and groups.

My point was you can be intelligent without math.

Usually people are good in things that interest them, math sucked!

Here I sit a history buff on numerous topics, totally $$$$ set for life and never needed math,

I am not prolific at math. I would say that not being good at math doesn't mean you are stupid, but it is a limitation.

I know a lot of people that are good writers, that have artistic ability, and all sorts of other skills, however I don't know anyone that is a math wiz that cannot do well in other areas.

I was a poor math student. It never clicked with me. I hated every math class I have ever taken. I wish it interested me and that I had math abilities. It really affected my life because it limited the classes I could take, which limited the jobs opportunities later in life.

I've been saying this for months re the folks who don't understand nonlinear growth and risk on this board.

I would disagree, I know people who struggled with basic calculus but have went on to be very successful in other fields (literature, teaching, etc.). I don’t believe that being bad at math is much of a handicap to being successful in life, although I am grateful it comes naturally to me.

I'd say I'm bad at math but was in gifted programs all my youth, got poor grades in HS math and quit after pre-calc, but got into a great college with a massively lopsided SAT score in favor of verbal, majored in the humanities, got into a decent grad school for an MBA - full scholarshipo - despite, again, a massively lopsided GMAT in favor verbal, and have done well in my career.

It's all a spectrum....Some people can't multiply 120 x 678 or whatever, but I can. But ask me to understand any kind of sophisticated math or music theory and I have absolutely no way to process it. It makes no sense to me and just gets me angry/frustrated.

I would never say 'people who aren't good at understanding sophisticated fiction are just stupid' even if they are math whizzes...but that's pretty much what the OP is saying. It's wrong.

My brother, a math major and Phd in economics, is fairly proficient. His statistics acumen far outweighs his skill in core math subjects like calculus. He would freely admit his skills in calculus and the like are shaky, but when it comes to stats, he can do all sorts of distributions in his head and use that to sustain his record as a well known investment manager (a former 3:40 1500 guy back in the day as well. Skills can be very spiky, the generalization made by the original poster doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Incorrect. Following social conventions is a sign of intelligence. That’s why antisocial people don’t tend to do as well as socially adjusted people, and even further down the spectrum are so antisocial that they become lawbreakers or criminals. Just look at Richard Ramirez or John Wayne Gacy for extreme examples. We live in a society, not a free for all.

Math has its positives and negatives.

Whatever makes you feel good about yourself, OP

Mathdoofus wrote:

I am not prolific at math. I would say that not being good at math doesn't mean you are stupid, but it is a limitation.

I know a lot of people that are good writers, that have artistic ability, and all sorts of other skills, however I don't know anyone that is a math wiz that cannot do well in other areas.

It could be that by math you mean generally excellent intellience and then the issue is why particularly latch onto math. There was a whole lot of culture and knowledge before there was math and math as we know it now is relatively new.

It depends on the level you're looking at and the rationality that is most valuable. Debate is the epitome of argumentation, calculation, and other cognitive capabilities but I don't see how being especially good at math is an advantage unless the topic is math or science. The best lawyers are as smart and as rational, probably more so since they deal directly with reality, as the best mathematicians. The math whiz will be able to do better than the average person at movie directing because of the tehcnical aspects and the ability to reduce his experience to principles. But that can only go so far as good creation isn't formulaic (yet).