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I can guarantee you that Lockhart drilled in the basic arithmetic problems until he knew his times tables and such by heart. He couldn't do things like algebra

I can guarantee you that Lockhart drilled in the basic arithmetic problems until he knew his times tables and such by heart. He couldn't do things like algebra without this fundamental knowledge ingrained into the fiber of his being. You can't play a Chopin sonata, at least not smoothly and beautifully, without having played lots of boring scales and finger exercises. And you can't get to the fun, creative, beautiful bits of mathematics without having drilled in the fundamentals. Not unless you're Gauss or somebody.

andrepd 2y ago
You can't do abstract algebra without doing 847848161×6413045539 in pen and paper hundreds of times before? That's a new one! > fundamental knowledge ingrained into the fiber of his being I agree! That knowledge being: mathematical reasoning, logic, capacity for abstraction, rigour... and NOT doing stupid mindless work over and over again until you can recite multiplication tables by heart. Sorry, that's accounting, not mathematics.