Football players don't lift weights on the field - yet they lift weights to gain strength and conditioning to prepare for what occurs on the field. I was a mat

Football players don't lift weights on the field - yet they lift weights to gain strength and conditioning to prepare for what occurs on the field. I was a math major in college. I don't use the actual math I learned, but 4 years of solving really hard math problems at Cal honed my problem solving skills and helped me develop a type of stamina to try my hand at them for long periods of time. My grades weren't the best, and having math Olympiads in your classes sometimes makes things harder than they should be. That said, I treasure the experience. I learned to push myself in a way I hadn't before. I learned the value of being rigorous, and even the value of getting creative to solve problems. I learned that even after 4 hours of staring at a problem, I should keep at it because I may get that ah-ha moment at the fifth or sixth hour. So do I use math everyday? Not really. Do I use the ability to solve problems, to abstract my knowledge in one area and apply it another, to carry through long logical thoughts everyday? You bet your ass I do.