Dear Humans,

I think I like math so much because it lets me be lazy and find shortcuts. You might think math is just furrowing your brow, following steps and ending up with a right answer and a hand cramp. Because, unfortunately, that’s often how we teach math.

But math is about making sense of a problem. If you learn how to do that, then you start to find all sorts of “shortcuts” and other ways of solving a problem.

And the dirty little secret is that looking for and discovering “shortcuts” is actually a lot more work than just following someone else’s rules. But it’s creative work, and it’s fun work, and it’s the kind of work that will reveal something magical about the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck