Reddit Wisdom
I was scrolling through a fitness page on reddit the other day (because I was bored) when I came across a post titled,
“How I lost 42 pounds.”
Naturally I was interested and clicked on the post. The author wrote about the mindset that allowed him to maintain a high level of “stick-to-it-ivness” while he went through a very lengthy fat loss phase. The post went on to explain that anytime he felt the urge to splurge or breakdown on his diet he simply said one phrase to himself over and over…
The math doesn’t care
– Reddit User
This resonated with me, not just because I’m a nerd who enjoys mathematics, but because of the profound truth behind this statement. Having gone through all but a few undergraduate math courses, I’ve come to appreciate math on a fundamental level.
Universal Laws
Every interaction occurring in the universe can be modeled and the results can be calculated mathematically. No amount of wishful thinking bears any impact on the outcomes of these interactions. You can try, but unless your goals are aligned with the laws of physics, “it ain’t gon’ work.”
Math is the language of the Universe
Neil deGrasse Tyson
For any of us who’ve tried to count calories to lose weight, train for a run, save money, or perform anything number related in an attempt to ascertain a goal, there is a common theme: “the math doesn’t care.” You are either on target according to math, or you aren’t.
You are either on target according to math, or you aren’t.
– TCO
Examples of Math’s indifference
Think about this: you set a goal to save money or get out of debt. You decide to budget your income so you save 25% and live below your means. The next month comes and you spent more than you earned, or you didn’t save as much as you wanted. Try as you might to manifest that number in the bank account, “the math doesn’t care.”
Here’s another example. You’ve set a goal to eat a certain amount of calories per day to lose weight. The end of the day comes around and you’re right where you need to be for your calories. You decide that the ice cream in the fridge is too good to pass up. This puts you over your calories.
You do this over and over for a couple weeks, letting things slide here and there, not counting the mayo on the sandwich, ignoring that you stole your boyfriend’s fries off his plate at the restaurant, etc. One day, you step on the scale and, lo and behold, you haven’t lost as much weight… or any. HOW COULD THIS BE?
The Math doesn’t care
The Ultimate Example
The average human in the United States lives for 77 years. That’s equivalent to 41,000,000 minutes. This varies person to person, and of course some people live far beyond this while other lives are cut short. The point is that time is limited. As Anita Pallenberg so aptly puts it,
Before you know it it’s 3 am and you’re 80 years old and you can’t remember what it was like to have 20 year old thoughts or a 10 year old heart.
– Anita Pallenberg
In a world governed by mathematical laws, it is almost poetic that at the end of things, the math doesn’t care. Even the Universe is expected to one day come to an end, be it on the day of Judgement or from the heat death due to entropic forces.
If you’ve read any of my other articles, I think you know where I’m going with this.
Closing
Live now. It isn’t easier said than done. It is easier done than said. You are living now!
Remembering that the math doesn’t care is not meant to be a bleak statement. This phrase is just another saying to remind you that if you want something, don’t excuse yourself from it and hope that wishful thinking will get the job done.
When there is a goal you have, or some thing you wish to “get,” make sure it’s something you really want. If it is, crunch the numbers, make a plan, and go for it.
The math doesn’t care but if you care, use the math to get the thing you care about!
crunch the numbers, make a plan, and go for it.
– TCO