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Maybe people good at math are actually great at people skills and you're just repeating a bias spread by a banality driven media.

ianai 10y ago
In my experience, people are all equally bad at math. There are just people who have spent longer with the problem(s)/domain(s) and have developed a skill set around it. They start from the same beginnings, though. If you take them out of their usual 'watering hole' they go straight back to beginner status (and of course the degree of it varies by how far it is from their usual routine).
- sametmax 10y ago
  Yes, but some personality traits will make you more apt and willing to keep working on it. There is a limit in the skills you can acquire. If you spend time and energy on flirting, learning to dress up, building social network, you will have less time to learn maths. Because of course you'll have sport, music, games, books, movies, family and other study topics taking time as well. Now maths incline kids, given the choice, will usually choose working on math than going to 10 groups of people to chit chat about superficial topics just to stay in the network. Nothing wrong about it, just an observation.
gowld 10y ago
Or maybe sametmax has met dozens of mathematicians and made an informed summary.
- sametmax 10y ago
  To be fair, I had a strange life. I changed school 11 times, and rebuilt my social circle every time. My father also worked for an airline company, so I traveled the world most of my life. Because I was a geek, I was mostly surrounded by geeks. It gave me a huge and diverse sample to observe. Granted, it's not something you can consider scientific, since I'm the common ground and so the bias in all those observations.
sametmax 10y ago
See my other comment where I explain in details what I mean. I met some people that are both good at maths and with people skills. They are, however, adults. They started as nerds, and worked their people skills on the way up. But starting with both, I never met one.

ianai 10y ago

In my experience, people are all equally bad at math. There are just people who have spent longer with the problem(s)/domain(s) and have developed a skill set around it. They start from the same beginnings, though. If you take them out of their usual 'watering hole' they go straight back to beginner status (and of course the degree of it varies by how far it is from their usual routine).

sametmax 10y ago
Yes, but some personality traits will make you more apt and willing to keep working on it. There is a limit in the skills you can acquire. If you spend time and energy on flirting, learning to dress up, building social network, you will have less time to learn maths. Because of course you'll have sport, music, games, books, movies, family and other study topics taking time as well. Now maths incline kids, given the choice, will usually choose working on math than going to 10 groups of people to chit chat about superficial topics just to stay in the network. Nothing wrong about it, just an observation.

gowld 10y ago

Or maybe sametmax has met dozens of mathematicians and made an informed summary.

sametmax 10y ago
To be fair, I had a strange life. I changed school 11 times, and rebuilt my social circle every time. My father also worked for an airline company, so I traveled the world most of my life. Because I was a geek, I was mostly surrounded by geeks. It gave me a huge and diverse sample to observe. Granted, it's not something you can consider scientific, since I'm the common ground and so the bias in all those observations.

sametmax 10y ago

See my other comment where I explain in details what I mean. I met some people that are both good at maths and with people skills. They are, however, adults. They started as nerds, and worked their people skills on the way up. But starting with both, I never met one.