1

Why Learn Mathematical

Thinking?

T
o say that equations are the heart and soul of math is like saying
that a baker is someone with a lot of recipes. But a library full of
cookbooks does not make a good chef. It’s only once someone has
proven they can implement such recipes they are viewed as successful.
From there, the more recipes they learn, the more of an authority they will
be seen to be. Yet, no matter how many basic foods they make, they will
only be considered a real expert once they’ve mastered the hardest dishes.
Accomplishing these top-tier challenges shows they not only know how to
repeat and memorize but that they understand the elements in a way that
can be applied to other recipes and contexts.

Once you’ve mastered a baked Alaska, you can make almost any dessert.
Because you haven’t just learned how to make a frivolous, over-the-top
creation of cake and ice cream. In the process, you’ve learned the
foundations of meringue making, cake baking, the finesse of frosting, and
the precision of a blowtorch. Maybe, if you went all out, you’ve even
learned how to churn a mean Neapolitan ice cream from scratch.

The recipe is just a formula, which can be written down, looked up, and
followed when the rare occasion strikes that one needs a fanciful sweet. It’s
a resource. Whereas the real value comes from the lessons learned by
getting your hands dirty, cracking the eggs, and beating the batter. That
hands-on practice is what makes you a better and more intuitive baker.
After all, a recipe is only good for knowing how to make baked Alaska one
particular way. If you wanted to spice it up or make something else, this
step-by-step method won’t be very helpful. It’s the techniques you pick up
along the way that will be transferable to other projects.

What is Mathematical Thinking?

Mathematical equations are like recipes. They’re tools for solving a

problem, not solutions in and of themselves. To wield them effectively
outside of the explicit context they were learned, we must also understand
the skills and reasoning behind them. Mathematical thinking is where these
‘recipes’ find real-world context and usefulness, transferring those
procedural elements into practical ways of doing and thinking. While the
complicated calculus equations from high school can stay buried in a
drawer for most of life with our baked Alaska recipe, the ability to think
mathematically is something that can be used nearly daily to help solve a
variety of issues.

Remember how you would spend lesson after lesson on equations in

different contexts? And spend hours and hours on showing your work?
How you would puzzle through tests where you had to figure out which
equation was suitable where? And how you’d always wonder why they
threw such curveball questions in that you never seemed to have practiced
before? These problems weren’t there just to make things more difficult;
they aimed to flex your mathematical thinking muscle.

While we were too busy moaning about the difficulty of math in high
school, we didn’t realize that, beneath the numerals and symbols, these tests
and tasks were teaching us how to interpret situations to apply the correct
procedures and strategies, even if the issue was new to us. We were learning
how to prove our answers and verify our accuracy. And we were learning
how to be more analytical and methodical. In other words, we were learning
how to problem-solve.

Despite what students may think, math was not created as a form of torture.
People simply came up with equations to figure out real-world issues. It
was about knowing how to get from point A to point B on a map and
understanding how far apart the two were, about counting the coins in your
pocket and knowing whether you had enough for the loaf of bread you were
eyeing, and about noting how many hours had passed since you woke up
that morning.

It wasn’t until around 500 BCE that math became the new thing. 1 Rather
than creating rules based on the routines and needs of life as the
Babylonians and Egyptians had, the Greeks used math to prove things they
couldn’t otherwise conceptualize, such as the powers of gravity. Suddenly,
people were using concepts, previously employed for trade and taxation, to
solve complex issues, like figuring out the height of pyramids, deciphering
the area of circles, and even making sense of the stars. Equations became a
way for great thinkers to explore ideas and theories they had about the
world and test whether they were true. And that’s what math continues to be
today.

Many may assume that we have the Greeks, and their schools of
mathematics, to blame for making a big fuss out of math. But the truth is
that it never went out of style. It has become even more popular.

The math we learn and teach today is largely based on concepts from only
the last few hundred years. The subject has evolved from the measly
concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to what is
now estimated to be between 60-70 categories, 50-60 of which have only
emerged within the last 100 years. 2

People across the globe continue to get excited and devote their lives to
researching the subject. More people today are interested in math than in its
historical heyday. Some study concepts we’re familiar with, such as algebra
and geometry, but many work with ideas beyond the everyday
mathematician’s wildest dreams (or nightmares).

From studying and analyzing populations to planning cities, writing code,

developing vaccines, deciphering weather patterns, keeping planes in the
air, deciding whether you’ll win or lose at the slot machine, and so much
more, math is all around us. As we’ve grown and evolved as a society,
becoming more innovative and technological, math has grown and evolved
too. Today, math is a ripe and limitless resource we can use as a tool to
better explore and understand our world.

Math and the Abstract

In the 1980s, this sudden and large-scale change in how mathematics was
viewed inspired the creation of a new definition. The subject became
known as the “science of patterns” to better encapsulate its more abstract
uses. 3 No longer was math utilitarian and functional, it was also interpretive
and ideological. It wasn’t just about plugging in values to get an answer, it
was about deeper understanding. It could be used to study the real or the
unreal, the world as it was or as we imagined and perceived it.

Unfortunately, this new-age way of math was not communicated into the
classroom. Or, more accurately, the ways for transforming the old
methodologies and changing our perspective about what math could be
were not clarified. Which is a shame. Because the wonderment and magic
of math are in its ability to turn abstract and even intangible ideas into
something that can be nailed down, calculated, analyzed, and studied.

Of course, math hasn’t changed. We merely changed how we see it and

have gotten more creative with how we use it, but it has always been
abstract. Even the basis of math is abstract, from numbers representing real-
world objects and values to broader subjects like imaginary numbers that
make no sense in a practical, real-world context.

As music becomes notes on paper and delicious food becomes recipes,

practical real-world applications become abstract numerals and formulas.
Perhaps, to the average Jill or Joe, math does not feel as delectable as these
examples. But to many, math sings. They understand, more intuitively than
most, that numbers and symbols are not what make math. They merely
represent the action and thinking taking place. It’s the understanding that
makes the magic. And when you know how to speak it, math can become a
universal language for putting just about anything into a tangible form.

You may be thinking: “Isn’t knowing how to calculate fractions and add
numbers together more useful for my life?”

The educational system would agree with you. With so much emphasis on
practicality in school, there is no opportunity for abstract thinking. This has
led to the idea that this way of perceiving math is more difficult. It can be,
in the same way that painting a picture is harder than adding together
denominations. The rules for how to do it aren’t as clearly defined, which is
frightening. But it is also invigorating. The ability to quantify abstracts is
what makes math so amazing...and useful in everyday life.

The Call for Abstract Thinking

In our modern world, the need for practical skills is waning. With powerful
computers in our pockets and a world of technology at our fingertips, the
average person rarely needs the functional aspects of math. Mostly, there
are dedicated people and tools to help us with those tasks. We don’t need to
understand how the airplane stays up to ride it from one place to another (or
even to fly it ). And we don’t need to know how code functions on our
favorite social media app to post selfies.

Meanwhile, the call for abstract thinkers, problem-solvers, and analyzers is

growing. While you’ll be hard-pressed to find a job description that
mentions trigonometry or algebra, most will have at least one of the words
mentioned above. You’ll rarely need to have memorized an equation to
solve a real-world issue but thinking outside the box and knowing how to
strategize will be skills you use daily.

Ironically, as we see the need for math as we know it dwindle, we have

unknowingly witnessed this rise in interest in mathematical thinking skills.
Luckily, these facets of mathematics are much easier to call forth from
memory than formulas from high school calculus. And I promise that, as we
rework and strengthen this muscle in the coming chapters, there will be
barely any calculations involved. Instead, we’ll look at the bigger picture of
math and decipher all those life lessons we didn’t quite pick up on back in
math class. And by doing so, we’ll make our thinking and approach to life a
little bit better.