Mathematics

My love for mathematics developed rather late in life. I had always been good at math, and my grades in this subject were excellent. But it was never more than something I couldn’t see a use for in everyday life. I did the homework, which was easy for me, and that was it.

After finishing compulsory school, I was supposed to start an apprenticeship. But I didn’t find a position right away, so Plan B was to attend a specialized IT high school. I had to take an entrance exam, and math was one of the main subjects. The math exam was divided into two parts – one with a calculator and one without. I thought the part with the calculator would be super easy. I mean, you’re allowed to use a calculator – hello? So I focused on the non-calculator section. But when I got to the calculator part, I quickly realized why it allowed one: it was only there to crunch the numbers. I was shocked to find that I suddenly had to recall formulas I had rarely used before. You can probably imagine that this didn’t go very well. In short, I got full marks on the non-calculator section, and I barely passed the calculator section.

After I failed the entrance exam overall, things started to improve significantly in mathematics. From that point on, I consistently received top marks and scored the maximum points on every subsequent exam in school, during my apprenticeship, and in my final exams. However, during the apprenticeship itself, I didn’t have much time to focus on mathematics. I had explored it a bit in my free time before the apprenticeship. This eventually led me to meet a math teacher who recognized my intellectual potential in the subject. He gave us challenging problems, and I was able to solve them in my head faster than others could type them into a calculator. After a while, the teacher asked me how it was possible that I always had the answers so much earlier than everyone else. I told him I did everything in my head and didn’t need to waste time punching numbers into a calculator. In front of the whole class, he responded that you have to be highly intelligent to do what I was doing.

Looking back, this experience led me to engage more deeply with mathematics. I also found myself in conflict with other math teachers who insisted on doing things their way. I strongly disagreed, as I had discovered simpler and more effective methods for solving the problems. This pattern continued for quite some time—even into my university studies. But there, I noticed that lecturers were far more tolerant than the teachers I had encountered in school, during my apprenticeship, or in my final exams.

In the end, though, my true love for mathematics was sparked during my final school exams. I finished the math assignments so quickly that I used the extra time to explore topics further on my own or conduct thought experiments involving math. That’s when I realized that mathematics is everywhere. It could be found in nearly every aspect of life—and from that point on, I began approaching many things mathematically and discovered how much it simplifies everyday life.

What’s unfortunate is that very few people experience the kind of insights and bursts of motivation that I had. I constantly notice how people use a great deal of mathematics without even realizing it. As I said, mathematics is everywhere. But our school system teaches math in the wrong way, and often students see no purpose in it—which is understandable. To survive, all you really need is addition and subtraction, maybe some multiplication and division. But to make everyday life easier, to solve problems, or to optimize processes, you have to engage more deeply with mathematics—though only as far as necessary. Mathematics covers a wide range of topics, but you don’t need to master all of them to live a good life.

But I wouldn’t call myself a math genius or anything like that. What actually happens is that mathematics gives me the best way to use my analytical abilities—for example, to solve a problem effectively.