JTrader
Guest
- Messages
- 5,741
- Likes
- 507
hi lurkerlurker,
your question about maths is interesting, in that a variant is whether we are attracted to games-playing or puzzle-solving.
I wonder how many of us treat the markets as a puzzle to solve.
Regarding the maths question. As an 8-9 year old i rmember scoring 66/66 on a times table test at school. Top of the class! Strangely, all the other kids rejected me for the next few days because they thought i was gonna be a smart ass!
From 8-10 i became fascinated with numbers. I would do tremendous multiplication sums, and square roots in my head.
eg. 9*9=81
81*81 - 6561
6561*6561 = 43046721
etc. etc.
On occassions friends used to test me with a calculator, and get their parents to do the same!
On long car journeys I'd be sat in the back seat, quietly doing these sums in my head. I don't know if it could be called an obsession or compulsion .
This ability has never left me, i still have very strong mental arithmatic skills. But it is something i grew out of after a couple of years.
This in my case in also linked to memory, as I've always had a very good one, being able to recall converstations, emails from friends, mental pictures, etc. years later. And my photographic memory skills have always seemed quite good to me.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying I was or am a genius. I underachieved in maths at school, and was slow to understand & grasp other areas of maths. I was a lazy high school pupil in many subjects. But then a lot of under-achievement at school is linked to the condusiveness of the learning environment in the classroom.....Just look at David Platt on Coronation Street - that kids a genius .