The math caught up to you. When you were in school you took a variety of subjects in rotating classes, covering 7 or 8 subjects in a day. You took math, and it was hard. It didn’t make you feel free like art did; it didn’t thrill you like history did; it didn’t feel important like economics did; it didn’t empower you to express yourself, like writing did.
Math was hard, and you probably didn’t like it. Maybe, if you were like me, you tolerated math so that you could understand some principles in the natural sciences that you thought were cool. But this is rare, I’ve found, and actually liking math is rarer still.
You didn’t like math, so you suffered through the bare minimum required for graduation and then peaced out. You focused your studies on psychology / communications / business / the arts / philosophy, anything but math. Please god no more math.
And now the math is coming for you. The math can think better than you. The math can write a symphony, turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece. The math can administer psychotherapy. The math can diagnose illnesses. The math can write emails, run marketing campaigns, make business decisions.
The math grew up and mastered everything else. Are you surprised? It’s not a coincidence. The reason you hated math is the same reason it’s taking over the world: it is annoyingly preoccupied with Being Correct. Remember Being Correct? You tried your hand at it for a few years, but it eroded your self-confidence so you “discovered” that your “calling” was something “more creative” i.e. easier.
It turns out if you just Be Correct at matrix multiplication enough, you can also Be Correct at abstract questions like, “What’s the next word that an intelligent and empathetic therapist would say in this sentence?” The math caught up to you because it started from a place of Being Correct.
When you were incorrect in art they said “It’s not very coherent, but you should explore that and develop it more”; when you were incorrect in history they said “Well that’s not what the sources say, but of course the sources are biased”; when you were incorrect in economics they said “Well you used the model correctly, it’s just that that model was too simplistic to apply here”; when you were incorrect in writing they said “Well these are the style rules, but there are some great works that flagrantly broke the rules”; when you were incorrect in philosophy they said “Thank you for this interesting dialogue”; when you were incorrect in literary analysis – lol, there’s no such thing.
When you were incorrect in math they said “Incorrect, try again.”
And at some point you stopped trying again. Instead you went into a field with more colors: lots of Terms to memorize and lots of Great Thinkers to read and lots of opportunities to Express your unique values—a field that the math can now master in a few minutes. The math caught up to you because it maintained Correctness; it held fast to the unforgiving fabric of the universe.
That which is repressed always returns. You repressed the truth of what math actually is: the sole uncompromising pursuit of Being Correct. You said it just wasn’t your thing, as if Being Correct were an arbitrary personal preference like vanilla ice cream. And now the math is back and is effortlessly Being Correct about your job, your passions, and a million things you can’t imagine. The repressed has returned; the math caught up to you.
