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I've been doing a math course and occasionally think of picking up these analogue tools. Someone on Hacker News had me interested in the Soroban, the Japanese a
by Rendello 2y ago
I've been doing a math course and occasionally think of picking up these analogue tools. Someone on Hacker News had me interested in the Soroban, the Japanese abacus [1], which is still used to train insane mental math speeds to this day [2].
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soroban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soroban
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6OmqXCsYt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6OmqXCsYt8
- xelxebar 2y agoWe're definitely on a similar wavelength. I actually own a couple Japanese abaci and know the basics. Top performers feel near magical: double-fisters[0] and blazingly fast mental arithmetic [1]. [0]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK6uIjjkrGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK6uIjjkrGE [1]:https://youtu.be/-kjUCtqSWlw?feature=shared&t=451 https://youtu.be/-kjUCtqSWlw?feature=shared&t=451
- Rendello 2y agoHave you used it much? I'd like one, but I can imagine it sitting on my desk for years unused. I have "Secrets of Mental Math" by Arthur Benjamin and have wanted to practice some of those mental math skills, and I wonder if learning the soroban will interfere with my existing mental calculation framework (which is admittedly weak at the moment).