4 ms·

I recently worked with a person who had to do her three times table using her hands, starting from 3. She would still struggle at about 6 or 7 times. We worked

I recently worked with a person who had to do her three times table using her hands, starting from 3. She would still struggle at about 6 or 7 times. We worked behind the counter in a builder's merchant. She is no longer working for us.

theworstshill 11y ago
Why not?
- pc86 11y ago
  Presumably the inability to do basic math quickly.
- Symbiote 11y ago
  It's exactly the kind of job where someone will phone and ask "do you have 30 widgets I could pick up in an hour?". They come in packs of 4 widgets, and there are only 7 packs in stock.
- SixSigma 11y ago
  Approx 300mm to the foot. All products in mm, half the customers say "6ft widget". Getting the calculator out to do 6 x 3 is unprofessional.
xlm1717 11y ago
You know, whether or not children should learn up to 12 by the age of nine is debatable, but by the time you're an adult, assuming no learning disabilities you should be able to do mental math proficiently enough that you don't need to memorize any tables, you can just do it. I hope that person you worked with can at least work a calculator.
lordnacho 11y ago
I had a job once where we hired a derivatives trader who couldn't multiply 8 and 4. In the job interview. At my next job we hired another trader who came up to me and said "what does the little 2 in a superscript mean?". As in what does 3^2 mean? Both very friendly people.
- lmm 11y ago
  If you're paying a human trader it's for their friendliness, not their ability to do arithmetic. The computers can do the calculating.
trgn 11y ago
Due to some airline delays, I was trying to schedule a new flight. I ended up showing a boarding pass to an attendant at the booth and asking something along the lines of "I'd like to make this connection". The ticket said departure "22.17". She asked me "What's that in `real` time?". Two more from the garden center: I was looking for a pump for an ornamental pond, and the pumps were advertised by the amount of gallons of water they displaced per hour. I didn't know the conversion between ft3 and gallons and I didn't have my phone so I couldn't look it up. I told one of the attendants my pond was about 60 cube feet, and asked if she could help me look up how much gallons that was. She said; "I don't do numbers like that. The only numbers I know how to count is money wink". Weird. I tried to explain; all I need is the conversion factor. To no avail. I just ended up buying the biggest one. My neighbors complimented me on how soothing that burbling water is when they go to bed. Passive aggressive jerks :) I wanted some dirt delivered for a raised flower bed. I needed about 30 cube feet. The voice on the phone told me they only deliver by the scoop (from that big shovel on their bulldozer). Fair enough, but I asked if he had more or less an idea how large such a scoop was, in some unit I could understand, since I didn't want to end up with too much dirt. He was pretty curt in his response; "We're not going to start do that, all those units and measurements, we only do scoops". Wait what, like, how do landscape architects do this? Are scoops a thing? I asked people if it was unreasonable to expect more in each situation. Most of them were along the lines; "yes, you're being obnoxious, just get the damn scoops".
- mark-r 11y ago
  A long time ago, a coworker bought a surplus water tank and was curious how much it would weigh when filled. I asked him the dimensions, and as he was talking I converted everything to inches, multiplied by 2.5 to get approximate cm, rounded to the nearest power of 2 and added the exponents, and used 3 as the value of pi (it was a cylinder). Using 1 cm³ of water = 1 gram, I divided by 1000 (or was it 1024?) to get the weight in kg, and finally multiplied by 2.2. I was able to give him an answer by the time he was done.
- SixSigma 11y ago
  Even crazier, because no doubt you specify the scoop size when you buy it. Ours are 2 or 3 cubic meters. They also have weight readings in the cab for the very scenario you are describing.

theworstshill 11y ago

Why not?

pc86 11y ago
Presumably the inability to do basic math quickly.
Symbiote 11y ago
It's exactly the kind of job where someone will phone and ask "do you have 30 widgets I could pick up in an hour?". They come in packs of 4 widgets, and there are only 7 packs in stock.
SixSigma 11y ago
Approx 300mm to the foot. All products in mm, half the customers say "6ft widget". Getting the calculator out to do 6 x 3 is unprofessional.

xlm1717 11y ago

You know, whether or not children should learn up to 12 by the age of nine is debatable, but by the time you're an adult, assuming no learning disabilities you should be able to do mental math proficiently enough that you don't need to memorize any tables, you can just do it. I hope that person you worked with can at least work a calculator.

lordnacho 11y ago

I had a job once where we hired a derivatives trader who couldn't multiply 8 and 4. In the job interview. At my next job we hired another trader who came up to me and said "what does the little 2 in a superscript mean?". As in what does 3^2 mean? Both very friendly people.

lmm 11y ago
If you're paying a human trader it's for their friendliness, not their ability to do arithmetic. The computers can do the calculating.

trgn 11y ago

Due to some airline delays, I was trying to schedule a new flight. I ended up showing a boarding pass to an attendant at the booth and asking something along the lines of "I'd like to make this connection". The ticket said departure "22.17". She asked me "What's that in `real` time?". Two more from the garden center: I was looking for a pump for an ornamental pond, and the pumps were advertised by the amount of gallons of water they displaced per hour. I didn't know the conversion between ft3 and gallons and I didn't have my phone so I couldn't look it up. I told one of the attendants my pond was about 60 cube feet, and asked if she could help me look up how much gallons that was. She said; "I don't do numbers like that. The only numbers I know how to count is money wink". Weird. I tried to explain; all I need is the conversion factor. To no avail. I just ended up buying the biggest one. My neighbors complimented me on how soothing that burbling water is when they go to bed. Passive aggressive jerks :) I wanted some dirt delivered for a raised flower bed. I needed about 30 cube feet. The voice on the phone told me they only deliver by the scoop (from that big shovel on their bulldozer). Fair enough, but I asked if he had more or less an idea how large such a scoop was, in some unit I could understand, since I didn't want to end up with too much dirt. He was pretty curt in his response; "We're not going to start do that, all those units and measurements, we only do scoops". Wait what, like, how do landscape architects do this? Are scoops a thing? I asked people if it was unreasonable to expect more in each situation. Most of them were along the lines; "yes, you're being obnoxious, just get the damn scoops".

mark-r 11y ago
A long time ago, a coworker bought a surplus water tank and was curious how much it would weigh when filled. I asked him the dimensions, and as he was talking I converted everything to inches, multiplied by 2.5 to get approximate cm, rounded to the nearest power of 2 and added the exponents, and used 3 as the value of pi (it was a cylinder). Using 1 cm³ of water = 1 gram, I divided by 1000 (or was it 1024?) to get the weight in kg, and finally multiplied by 2.2. I was able to give him an answer by the time he was done.
SixSigma 11y ago
Even crazier, because no doubt you specify the scoop size when you buy it. Ours are 2 or 3 cubic meters. They also have weight readings in the cab for the very scenario you are describing.