If it keeps these people from breeding, then there’s your silver lining.

Yeah, that’s an advantage for men, for sure.

Now I have to tell my wife I’ve been gay all these years.

It’s not a failure to acknowledge that money is the thing that MOST people are going to use math for MOST of the time, for their entire lives. Making sure they come out of high school with basic financial literacy should be a priority. They usually learn to drive in high school don’t they? Do they? I did, but that was the olden days.

And there’s lots more than money involved with business math. There are lots of calculations that need to be made in a business, although that at some level, everything ultimately serves the bottom line.

Teaching people how to handle money wouldn’t be the worst thing, unless you’re a dishonest politician or businessman who wants to get their hands on everybody’s money.

I think it’s important that when you are considering your career path, the first step should be a basic acknowledgment of the basic type of job you want.

In my long experience, there are really only two types of jobs - Jobs where you solve peoples’ problems, or one where you provide a service that makes people happy.

The first are professional like doctors, lawyers, auto repair, landscaping, finance, etc. People have problems, and you solve them. Those people probably aren’t happy about their problem, or the cost, but they are grudgingly satisfied that their problem is solved. If you can take satisfaction from that, maybe that’s the path for you.

OTOH, some jobs are about providing happiness or satisfaction. Sales, food, retail, travel, music, sports, entertainment, etc. some people thrive better in that environment.

I’ve had both types of jobs, and while I truly care about my fellow humans, I just don’t want to live my whole life listening to other peoples’ problems. I would rather be helping them enhance the joy in their lives. Maybe it’s a little shallow, but somebody has to do these jobs, too, and I’m honest enough with myself to understand that I’m that type. If it’s what I have to devote my life to, then I need it to be fulfilling for ME, first.

And here’s the bigger picture - if you understand which of those basic camps you fit into, it will be easier to find a satisfying job, and even a career, that is far from your dream job. Probably only 10% ever get their dream job, so the rest are going to have to figure out something else when that Philosophy degree doesn’t translate into an income.

Knowing which type you are will keep you from taking a job from the wrong side of the menu, where you will almost certainly hate anything, and stay on your side, where you can probably find something positive about multiple choices. As you travel up your unplanned career path, at least you’ll know you’re on the right highway.

Out of metaphors, gotta go! Have a great life!

Valid. I still use TP, but far, far less. I’ll bet I can make a 6 pack last a whole year.

Critical Thinking Skills should be an entirely separate class, required by every student to graduate.

When I got to college, I had to take two math course, which I dreaded. Because I was a music major, one of the math classes had to be Acoustics. For the other, I was terrible at Algebra, and didn’t want that dragging me down, so I chose Statistics, since I was interested in politics, and would learn about polls.

I actually liked the class a lot, and to this day I track political polls closely. But I’m not a person who just accepts raw numbers. I want to know the sample size, the margin of error, etc. I know when a candidate is cherry picking his data, or leaning on a partisan poll, etc. It’s been very helpful through my life.

BTW, it was standard procedure for every music major to procrastinate on the Acoustics class until their senior year, and we got a cool math professor who was also a pretty decent amateur trumpet player. He didn’t want to be the guy to destroy our graduation prospects in our senior year by flunking us all, so he made the class interesting and challenging but not really difficult.

I learned a LOT in that class, and later I ended up working in sales for an audiophile classical record company, and my knowledge of sound and acoustics from that class allowed me to weasel myself into an additional part-time job helping out at recording sessions, some of which went on to win Grammys.

So Statistics and Acoustics were the math that worked for me, and I posted elsewhere that Business Math is something that I have also used a LOT, but picked it all up mostly on my own. NOT ONCE, have I ever said “I wished I paid more attention in Algebra.” Those two quarters of high school Algebra might have been the two most painful quarters of my educational career.

The emphasis on advanced math at the high school level is detrimental to many people. It instills a sense of failure and stupidity early on, reinforced by parents and teachers, and often develops a sense of hatred toward those who are good at it. People who struggle with advanced math would be far better served by teaching them Business Math. First week lesson: put up a pay stub, and start figuring out all the percentages of all the withholding on that paycheck. Every kid in that class will be riveted on the screen, even the thugs, who will want to know who FICA is, and why is he taking all their money?

I just posted a similar take, but used a lot more words. Yours was much more succinct.

I really struggled hard with Algebra. My Dad was a Math major, and my younger brother inherited his his Math gene, and is a genuine fucking genius, but I was a musician, and had trouble even memorizing the multiplication tables.

I’m old now, and over my entire life, I’ve never said, or even thought, “I wish I’d paid more attention to Algebra.” Perhaps there were times that it might have helped me, but it made so little sense to me, that I wouldn’t even recognize when it would be required. Once, a friend who was good with math asked me “Didn’t anyone ever explain Algebra to you using a circle?” and I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, and I still don’t (I think it was a circle, I don’t know, this stuff is totally alien to me).

OTOH, I ended up being self-employed, and I use BUSINESS MATH every single day. Calculating percentages, profit margins, interest rates, budgets, accounts receivable and collectible, etc. I’m really good at that type of math, and often do the work in my head as I’m driving. If I could have had that type of math in high school, it would have been helpful, and my grades would have been better without being dragged down by D’s from a charitable teacher who must have realized what a hopeless Algebra dunce I am.

High school students need to be given the choice between Algebra/ Calc/ Trig, and Business Math. If a kid is on a Science/ Engineering track, then sure, let them take the Algebra and stuff. But if a kid is going to be doing most regular jobs, Business Math is going to be more useful, and is even useful in tracking your household economy. Algebra is something most people will seldom if ever use, but Business Math is something that EVERYBODY uses, every day.

I had a great aunt that worked for Syracuse China, which during the mid-20th century was one of the largest suppliers of fine China to hotels and restaurants. Whenever someone in the family got married, they got a full set of fine expensive Syracuse China. Most family members also bought a cheaper set for daily use. So I never had Corelle as a kid.

Today, after all these years, the grandkids all have their own set, passed down from older generations, and my mom still has about 4 full sets she’s inherited over the years. Anytime someone visits by car, she tries to convince them to take a set. They are beautiful antique china, but who needs fine China these days?

Before anyone suggests selling it, nobody is buying, and even the china brokers are backing off and buying much much less. The fine china market is glutted, and pretty much dead, even for excellent collections like ours.

I’m a musician, so my skills have always been in demand, although the wages have always been in dispute for as long as there has been music. People love music, they just don’t like to pay for it.

Classic chin split scenario.

The entire problem is that automobiles have become an accepted housing option, and Roombas don’t operate well in a vehicular environment, thus drastically cutting into their sale.

I think they do things like this just for the pure challenge.

Imagine the marketing meeting where they came up with this, and declared it a genius idea! Now a traveler doesn’t have to find a liquor store, or even a bar, he’s always got his fix discreetly stashed in his briefcase for quick and easy application.

Didn’t they already have flasks?

I got a bidet.

The MAGA government will get in on it. Trump will probably make some kind of ridiculous statement to kick off the plunge, so they can all profit on the slide, and rebuy at the bottom, and recycle the bubble.

The next year before the Midterms is going to be a wild circus.

WTF