whyyyyy

Someone recently asked me the age-old question of why the hell i do maths. Why should someone care about all of the useless crap I care about?

Do I care about it simply because it's for my qualifications? I don't think so, or I'd be doing something else. Mathematics is not something you choose to do for the glamour, power, or money.

Is it because all the people around me care about it, and I'm just mimicking them, like the new kid at school who pretends to like the same music as the cool kids and ends up loving it? Like the showbiz kid who's pushed into singing by his crazy parents and ends up needing the spotlight as much as his mum needed him to have it?

I hope not. But I can't truthfully answer this. Maybe I'm just part of a big club that happens to (barely) fund itself and make careers for its members. If it's the case, I'm not all that bothered: it's a freaking fun ass club to be in.

Is it because I was the smartest kid in the room all through primary school, and I need to hold onto that feeling? I *seriously* hope it's not that.

I hope, though, I'm in it for the fun of it. For the so-called `quest for knowledge', even if we make up the questions. The feeling you get when you beat Rubik's Cube for the first time, or solve a riddle and see how everything fits. That's mathematics. See the pattern, prove it's there. Find out why, if you can. Prove it.

If someone figures out a way to make it useful....good for them.