The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.Aristotle
Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater.
Albert Einstein
I make video games. I started out as a programmer, but now I have other people to do most of the programming and I spend most of my time between designing, managing and research and development. In other words, I paid my dues and now I get to do all the fun stuff.
Well, it's not always fun. It's actually quite hard work. Not just challenging, but hard. Not that I am complaining. It's certainly better than jobs I have had before. Like making accounting software or flipping burgers.
Although, I do have fond memories of delivering pizza. I liked driving around and handing people food, which they were always excited about, and getting tips for it. Ahhh, the days when gas was less than a dollar per gallon and I could show up to work with an almost empty tank and after the first delivery have enough in tips for an 8th of a tank.
Anyway, back to my topic. Part of my job is research and development. A couple years ago I thought that a jet ski racing game would be fun to make. I decided that it would take place in the tropics, cause the tropics are awesome. So, I had to figure out how to make a cool looking ocean simulation. Two years later the game is just about finished and ready to sell and I now know more math than I ever intended to know in my lifetime.
I never got past beginning Algebra in school. But, I did alright in it, so, when I found out that I was going to have to learn something called Linear Algebra to simulate water in 3d I didn't think it would be hard to learn. I didn't realize that between Algebra and Linear Algebra was Trigonometry and Calculus. So, it turned out to be a little bit harder to learn on my own then I anticipated. Especially since I was trying to learn it to use it within a matter of a week. Oh, that was a fun week. Gulp.
But I learned the math, enough to use it for what I needed it for, and I realized that I actually like math a lot. In fact, I kind of loved it. So, I decided to go back to school and go through all the math classes up to Linear Algebra and maybe even farther if I kept enjoying it.
So, here the thing. You know how when you were in high school Algebra and people complained that they shouldn't have to take boring Algebra because they will never use it anyway. I finished Algebra and I am on to Trigonometry and I have kind of the opposite complaint. I use this math for my job, but oh my god it is so boring to do it for school.
I mean, I kind of enjoy the lectures. They are actually fun. Sometimes I am looking at my clock on my iphone because it's about something I know really well and nothing new or interesting is being said about it. But I can handle the lectures. What I hate is the homework.
I don't know if you had to do this in school, but when I was a kid, if you got detention, for pretty much any reason, you had to spend it 'writing lines', which was writing sentences on the chalk(or dry eraser) board about how you won't do what you did again. I swear to god, that's what doing math homework is like for me. It's punishment.
The problems are never hard, they are just so boring. Especially graphing. Ugh. I hate drawing graphs. What a pain in the ass. And I say this as a kid who spent half my childhood in school drawing instead of paying attention in class. I loved drawing. But not graphs. I am not OCD.
The absolute worst part of the homework, is that I have a stupid memory. I forget obvious things like names and instructions. As a kid my mom would send me down stairs to get something out of the freezer and by the time I opened the freezer I couldn't remember what I was supposed to get. So, while I am an A student, especially in math, I have been known to bomb a math test because I forget what I am supposed to do. So, the awful thing about the homework is that it actually helps me remember! God damn it!
Last quarter, I had a math teacher who let you skip the final if you had an A in the class. How awesome is that, right? I was 1 point from an A because of not turning in half of the homework. 1 point. I studied for 20 minutes for the final and got a 98%. Do you know how hard it is to tell myself that I should do the homework, because it helps me remember what I am supposed to do for the tests when I study for 20 minutes and ace a final. It's really hard.
Well, if you haven't guessed by now, I am rambling and whining about math homework, because I am procrastinating doing it today. But it's MLK day and I shouldn't have to do math homework, right? I should be celebrating freedom... not doing homework... cause, you know... that's what MLK day is all about... equal opportunity and... and fairness... and god damn it!! I better stop messing around and go do my math homework. But I tell ya, the math classes after Linear Algebra better be more fun than this!!