People who *don't* like math, why?

Someone who used to dislike it in school and university here.

Having to cram a lot of information and formulas, and then reproduce it without error for an exam. None of it made sense, and I wasn’t even aware it was possible for it to make sense.

Only after many years did I understand it’s all connected, there’s a logic to it. It’s possible to understand rather than just blindly learn.

Btw the notation really doesn’t help.

I’ll offer a different perspective. I’m actually really good at math, and I hated it in school because I didn’t want to do dozens of homework problems because I already knew how to do it and it was pointless work.

And I didn’t, which led to me having to take my tests sitting next to the teacher because she wouldn’t believe I could make > 90% on the tests without doing any practice problems.

It’s hard for me to remember all of the different formulas and remembering when to use what.

I enjoy the concepts and structures of mathematics. Fractal geometry, holomorphic dynamics, computational theory, uncertainty principles and all that are fascinating as hell. Discrete systems dancing with continuous integrals at process limits.

I DO NOT ENJOY working with math. Specifically I cant read complex equations. I don’t have an attention disorder but I swear the moment I try reading anything that looks like this I get overloaded and nope out. If it aint highschool algebra with PEMDAS I cant do it. If you put a bullet to my head and pinned my survival on properly solving a quadratic equation I’d just tell you to shoot me.

The concepts are cool once you can get past the notation to understand the ontology of whats trying to be conveyed. The actual expanded out notations and trying to do work with them is a fuckin nightmare.

Also since im ranting can I just say, across STEM the biggest problem is the naming convention. Math and science would be at least 60% more accessable if we went back and renamed all theorems, hypothesis, proofs, to be what they are about instead of just shouting out the guy who discovered it. “eulers identity” doesnt mean a fucking thing. Neither does scrodingers equations or the riemann hypothesis or turing machines. THESE ARE NOT ACCESSABLE NAMES THEY CONVEY NOTHING INTRINSICALLY BESIDES SOME DEAD GUYS LAST NAME. GET SOME PROGRAMMERS WHO KNOW HOW TO ACTUALLY DECLARE HUMAN READABLE STRINGS FOR YOUR FUCKING ABSTRACTION OBJECTS.

I have a learning disability which affects my ability to understand math (discalculia). Its really hard to explain how it feels, but any time I do simple math in my head I can’t keep track of the numbers and they are start to blink in and out. Its like having short term memory loss for the duration of the equation? Not sure if that makes sense. I can absolutely do the math, but its an uphill battle and I end up having a lot of anxiety because I think people will judge me for how long it takes. I have a lot of trouble with addition, subtraction and multiplication so, really, the very basics.

I think if I didn’t have this condition I would probably really enjoy math. I didn’t know about this when I was in high school so I don’t know if they could have even helped me. I also had a math teacher for a couple of years who would literally throw a chair at the wall if you did something wrong or he thought you were playing stupid. So that certainly did not help the situation.

I really enjoy what math does. When it applies to what I’m doing, I don’t mind even learning a new method. What killed me in school was math for math’s sake. They never explained where one might use the math. Trig was my favorite because almost every problem has a real-world use case that’s immediately apparent.

The question is not aimed at me because I do like math (I have a degree in it), but I did want to comment on a possible reason.

One thing I heard in my math classes (shared with math education students) is that children are introduced to math by primary school teachers who are disproportionately skilled in language and arts rather than math and science. They impart their dislike of mathematics to their students.

Probably all about the teaching. I understood maths up until we hit differential calculus. Then I didn’t understand what we were doing to numbers or why. And my teacher was incapable of explaining it.

I had to take algebra 1 twice in highschool. The fist time I took a college level course, and failed, but passed my second year in the gen course. I then failed algebra 2 miserably, though I will say that year was wild for me, and I didn’t really have fucks for math class. I half assed it and was not surprised I failed. You can’t half ass math class.

For me, was that if I missed one lesson, it began this giant snowball effect where I couldn’t catch up, so in case of my first year algebra, I gave up and failed. It’s the only class I ever failed.

The class moved really fast, and I have adhd (unknown to me then). I could thrive in English, History ect because the lessons are structured differently. Math, you dont viciously pay attention, or need more time, I couldn’t keep up with its pacing in highschool. Once imaginary numbers were introduced, I just, yeah.

I find it hard to keep numbers in mind, and memorizing huge lists of numbers doesn’t work well for me. I need a purpose, a story, a reason behind the numbers. I’m the weirdo who loves story problems.

I don’t like busywork, running meaningless numbers for the sake of doing it is dull to me.

I’m good at math, but I dislike it for the same reason I dislike cutting the grass: it’s work and my ADHD brain doesn’t get reward dopamine for accomplishing work.

Most people don’t just like to sit there and solve puzzles. Math is systems of interleaved puzzles that grow in complexity.

If you enjoy that, you like (pure) math. Most people don’t - I don’t think “most” would if the education system didn’t fail them, the same way that most people don’t like sudoku puzzles.

Personally I don’t like pure math, I like applied math. Physics. I like seeing the numbers that represent the forces I can see in the real world. I sort of enjoy geometry for the same reason, but less so. I enjoy stats and probability theory to a degree.

But yeah, most people don’t enjoy just sitting there and doing puzzles. There’s probably a good number of people who would enjoy math if they had a different educational experience, but a ton of people just don’t like doing math.

I dont have issues with math, its helpful for [gestures broadly to everything].

You are right, how it was taught in schools (US) is a miserable failure. A focus on practical applications so the people can do their taxes and budgeting, understand probability and how statistics are used in reporting (and how they are misused), and spending more time on the metric system would go a long way.

Because the mathematics literature fucking sucks.

It is written by math nerds for math nerds. Show me all the fucking proof, you just spent 10 pages talking about anything and everything but you can’t expand on how your formula has been transformed because of whatever theorem.

How many god damn time have I read something akin to “the proof is left to the reader. The resulting formula is [something entirely new].”

Like fuck you, show me how it’s done.

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Some people don’t jibe with certain ways of thinking. End of.

Shit teacher. I had a good teacher one year and it turned out I wasn’t actually bad at maths.

Generally I like to ask a lot of questions in order to fully understand concepts. Additionaly maths are unintuitive to me. So, for me class moved to fast, I didn’t dare to ask questions, because my classmates would assume you were dumb if you did, and my parent insulting me for my lack of understanding built resentment and the believe that maths simply aren’t for me.

I read an article recently that explains that this believe further perpetuates the lack of understanding and that it’s basically a downwards spiral.
And it made sense to me. Not just in respect to maths, but school overall. I always assumed I was an idiot because my grades, my classmates, teachers, friends and parents suggested or deepened that believe.
Now I am studying a field I am interested in and thrive, to the point that one teacher actually complimented my intelligence. and then everyone got up and applauded

So yeah, I agree. Given a relaxed environment to learn maths, I can absolutely see myself enjoying it. Even if it’s just the teachers fascination rubbing off on me.

I like math just fine up until trigonometry and at that point my brain just can’t hold onto it. Failed college calculus three times. There’s something about the formulas and rules and applications that isn’t intuitive for me at that level. I’m much better at the Earth Sciences and had no problems with chemistry.

“Liking” math isn’t really accurate either. I don’t care about math, I care about things that require math. Geometry and algebra are useful in a ton of other disciplines and activities. Playing with numbers doesn’t make me feel smart or accomplished the way a puzzle does.

I’m good at math but I’m slow at it. I would need my own time to solve a problem. But school always needed it done in a very short amount of time.

I like algebra, it’s logical and understandable for me. But calculus just falls out of my head the minute I take my eyes off of it.

I am an accountant, I love numbers and number trivia, little puzzles.

But math math, like beyond algebra? Not as much.

And early math, like arithmetic, was poisoned by bad teachers and bad teaching methods. I didn’t like it before algebra, it was boring.

I think a lot of it comes down to how people were taught math.

In my generation, it was almost all rote memorization. You memorize times tables. You memorize the steps to do long division. You memorize specific formulas. And then you have to draft it all into proofs to explain why things work, but you were never really taught why things work in the first place. The answer was always “It just does.”

Rather than rote memorization, a better use of time for younger students is to focus more on the logic of math, to really get that “why” component before asking them to complete dozens of repetitive problems for homework.

Other parts of it might also just come down to entertainment value, to be honest. Here’s where my perspective veers further into anecdote, but maybe it rings true for others, I don’t know.

Learning about aphantasia was a new one for me. I don’t have it, but I am acquainted with two people who do, and both of those people did well at math in school but hated history and literature. On the other hand, those were my favorite subjects, because being able to immerse myself in a story or put myself in a certain time and place made those subjects more bearable, sometimes fun.

It occurred to me that the way they felt reading books was probably a lot like how I felt doing math: just a lot of reading information on a page and memorizing important details to regurgitate later for some assessment or another. But for them, the logic of math probably made that subject easier to engage with than something as vague as an author’s intent.

I was told that mathematics was a language to describe world, but I was virtually never able to make the connection between what I was taught and real world applications, so it all seemed pointless, and I’m really bad at remembering things I don’t understand and have a use for.

I hated math until about a year after I got into the trucking industry and realized I could use the math I had learned in school to make my job easier. Over time, I stopped needing the math and was able to just eyeball it, but it really helped for the first few years.

I don’t trust math. Something doesn’t add up here.

I think for people like me, it isn’t that we dislike math. It’s that we dislike having to work out the formulas without there being much instruction on what the formula is doing. I want to know the theory behind it. Explain, at least once in a while, what is happening in the formula. Without context of what the calculations and formulas are doing (including refreshers on the basics) it starts to become just a jumble of meaningless numbers.

I find that my understanding of math is much better when I can see each step written out in long form. Once I understand what is happening, using the formulas is much easier.

If the instruction is just a string of memorization exercises, I will pass the test when it is given, but would I fail that same test just a few months later because I will have no context to give it meaning and I will forget most of it.

It’s just extremely difficult for me to hold a value in my head and perform an operation against another. I do understand the operations though, the concept is fine, the problem is that of numerical values. Numbers. I’m horrible with them. Always had problems remembering important historical dates, my own personal numbers (ids, age, etc). Because it’s such a struggle it becomes very tiring very quickly, and frustrating. That’s what’s hard.

Just don’t want to do it

I’m bad at it and I get numbers mixed up pretty easily.

Example: I went to a pro sports game over the weekend. I sat 4 of us in the wrong row because I read the row number wrong. I saw row 12 but read row 15. I tend to mix up numbers like that often and then I get the answers to math problems wrong. This is highly frustrating to me and it makes me not like math very much.

I don’t dislike math but im better at shape oriented ones like geometry and calculus as opposed to algebra and differential equations. as far as basic stuff I like suduko and doing price per unit measurement at the store just to be somewhat practiced in it.

I enjoy solving problems and tinkering, in math class the problem were always way too theoretical. In physics that same math became interesting because it had an application.

I love math. As long as i can look at it on paper and think about it. I absolutely hate math when someone throws numbers at my face and expect an answer.

it’s not that I don’t like it, I just don’t like it as much as I used to.

I wanted to be a math teacher once upon a time. then, one year the teacher I really looked up to held the entire class back for over two months because 3-5 students couldn’t grasp sin cos & tan. it should have taken us three weeks but instead took us almost three times as long.

by the end of it, the students that still didn’t grasp it still didn’t grasp it and the students that did grasp it no longer grasped it.

I was burnt out on it and honestly threw myself into tech just to get the fuck away from math.

worked out in my favor. teachers get paid three to four times less than I do currently, so it was a win.

I still couldn’t give a fuck about sin cos & tan.

I just don’t care for it. I know it matters and makes up all our rules for the physical world and everything but it’s not interesting to me. I’m much more interested in social/psychological studies of life, so math talk just flies over my head most of the time.

Also would agree with you about the educational system though. Growing up I was always held back and taken aside because I wasn’t doing the math either fast enough or “the right way”. I learned different tricks for multiplication than were taught at my school, but I would get to the correct answer. I was punished for this. It also shouldn’t matter how fast you can do math, as long as you’re getting the right answer. I fucking hated “math minutes” and had a lot of shitty teachers. Had some good ones too though.

I never sucked but I’m bad at abstract thought (if you can call it that), so I never enjoyed math. I’m much more of a visual/ auditory learner. Things like geometry were easy, but once I got to calculus I said “fuck this”.

Abstract thinking, difficulty seeing the point of doing maths when no teacher explains how it’s actually useful. Essentially a teacher failure, as far as I’m concerned. Today I love maths, at least the little I know, but it took a long time getting over the trauma. Fuck you, inept teachers.

I think there’s no way to tell if most people would enjoy math under the right circumstances but in my case you are absolutely right. Back in school I hated it, didn’t wan’t to find out more or even retain what I had to learn for tests.

That changed drastically when I studied philosophy. I learned about scholars there who “practiced” math in an almost spiritual way. Just by engaging with it, exploring this abstract world and uncovering its mysteries. Even if you don’t take it quite this far philosophy and math are very closely related. It’s probably gonna be tough for someone without a rough grasp of essential mathematical concepts to engage with metaphysics or formal logic.

Now that I’m a mechatronics technician I even need math in my day to day life, a lot more than I had ever anticipated. And I like it. I like how no matter how counterintuitive the method, if math says it works then it will. It’s not just an abstract world of it’s own, it’s also woven into our world wherever you look.

Because through my game development career I learned to solve mathematical problems algorithmically, and my brain is just structured that way, I cannot do formulas. Well I can, but it takes active fighting against my brain structure.

I like the concept and learning about the history and all, but putting it in practice is annoying

Making imports and running some code functions to apply math things is a lot less annoying

I had one of those old-school maths teachers who hates maths, teaching, and children.

Had to figure out on my own that maths can be fun and useful.

Although i do like math, it’s very easy for me to understand why someone wouldn’t. Just think about any subject that you dislike, and now you know the approximate feeling of someone not liking math

In school, I liked anything related to geometry where there were shapes and things to look at (note that I liked it, not that I was good at it). Anything more abstract was just juggling numbers to me, it all meant nothing, I never knew why I was doing anything.

I took A Level Maths, and I just find it really tiring mentally far more than any other task I do, so after doing some practise and still having to do more, I found it draining and unpleasant. Some people say they enjoy the process, I just don’t. I don’t know exactly why, I just don’t feel the same surge of pleasure that others do when they solve a problem I guess. I like programming though, which is applying maths, and I like being able to use maths to active my goals. I don’t enjoy doing it for its own sake.

I loved math. In 8th grade I was taking 10th grade math. Going into high school, they didn’t accept the advanced course credit and made me retake 9th and 10th grade math. I slept through the classes, passing all the same. From my perspective the teachers appeared to dislike me, not caring about content I already knew, disrespecting them by sleeping and coasting through their class. By 11th grade when I finally reached new content, I didn’t care anymore; math class remained naptime all the same.

It doesn’t answer any questions I’m interested in.

I do the basics because I have to budget. Interpreting and understanding statistics are helpful at work. Sometimes I build things, and sometimes math helps.

I have excellent long-term memory but have always struggled with keeping strings of numbers in my short-term memory. You can imagine the struggle when trying to solve a function is like trying to make a bed with a slightly too small fitted sheet

It’s really hard to understand some of it. It might’ve been fun if I had good math instructors for every class at every step of the way from algebra to ordinary differentials. Because so much material builds on what was taught before, it gradually got more and more incomprehensible until I gave up trying to understand it halfway through cal 2 and just memorized the important parts enough to pass. Besides that, I rarely see applications in day to day life past basic algebra. It’s not like I’m gonna take careful measurements of how fast my car’s going to derive my exact fuel consumption rate. It’s easier to just go off the odometer and gas pump readings between fills for instance.

This comes off like a person who has no empathy, or who assumes everyone else thinks like they do. When I was in college, I tutored math to middle school kids, and I can say with certainty that some people’s brains take to it more naturally than others. You can be very smart and still struggle with math.

And putting that aside, “enjoyment” is inherently subjective. It’s like saying most people would enjoy liver and onions if they had it cooked right. No, some people will and some people won’t. It’s okay - people are a diverse lot and it’s fine if some people don’t like what you like.

because it’s so easy to get it wrong and very hard to get it right. there is NO room for error like there is in languages or social studies. If i make a typo or a grammatical mistake in an essay it’s not the end of the world… in math it completely destroys you.

and it gets worse as it gets more advanced. my calc 3 + 4 bombed because I make a few simple mistakes here and there and it destroyed my entire exam. It sucked balls to work so hard only to end those classes with a C average because no matter how hard i studied i could make a simple error on the exam and derail my entire problem set.

most people do not have the capacity for detail that higher mathematics requires beyond arithmetic and basic algebra… and that’s OK. I am not sure why calculus is required of high school students who aren’t going into sciences either. A lot of people lose math in algebra 2 or pre calc and for good reason and I’m not sure they should be forced to take it.

I think USA in particular has horrible approach to education in general, and sciences and math especially because it forces so many people who dont’ want to learn that stuff and are not good at learning it… to learn it and then it tells them they are stupid for not being good at it. And on the flips side… for people who are good at it it’s seen as some inherent genetic trait, when it isn’t.

programming is similar. i gave up on it after 3 courses when i realized i would waste hours of time only to later realize I had put a : instead of a ; and it had derailed the entire program.

conceptually i never struggled with math or programming. but i also have horrible ‘innate’ grammar/language as well from being born into a poor family. but making grammar errors on my papers never sunk my grades in college the way math errors did.

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I got tired of crying from anxiety from attempting to do math, and the teacher not understanding that I can’t learn by just looking at other problems on the blackboard that I couldn’t understand.

my brain functions different from most with math, and teachers couldn’t adapt to how I needed to learn so I always broke down and was then ignored. never cared for math and just restored to calculators, even to this day. just can’t do it.

fanbase is cringe

I was plenty good at maths up to the point where I couldn’t study more (as in, my other subject choices locked me out of taking the next stage, A-level). However in general I found the more complex stuff abstract and characterless.

For example statistics bored me. We’re working out the upper quartile something something? To what end?

I’ve used maths for accounts, programming, carpentry, and so forth, but that’s always been fairly basic stuff. The more advanced stuff has never been of the slightest value to me (I still don’t know why I, a layman, should give a shit about factorisation, prime numbers, happy numbers, etc..). I am not saying that it has no value - simply that to me personally it might as well be memorising the principles behind a naming scheme for shades of grey paint. I can learn the principles and they make sense, but so what?

I pretty much felt the same way about the higher levels of chemistry. Oh these are ionic bonds? Okay..?

My teachers were excellent and enthusiastic (my entire maths class got the highest grade possible, myself included) but I don’t really see what there is to like. I didn’t dislike it, I was just indifferent. The easier stuff could be like a basic puzzle game, the more complex stuff I could apply the system I learned and provide the correct, if pointless, answer.

It felt like being taught someone else’s complex system for sorting different sizes of white paper, I suppose I could say.

I’ve grown in appreciation for math in the last couple of years, especially when it comes to things that are necessary or practical in my day to day life.

I hated it in school though, mostly because of bad teachers, I think, and because it’s an area of study with cut and dry answers.

I always preferred subjects where there were many possible answers to a question, like philosophy and such.

I feel like most people would like programming but here we are. :)

I dont understand it. Most I can do is multiply. Can’t do long division on paper.

Never got it in school, failed algebra 101 3 times. Only passed by hours of tutoring every day.

I enjoy applied math if its something like calculating tolerances while building an engine, but I cant figure out an algebra equation or do large multiplication stuff at all.

I dont know what multiplication tables are either. I just know how to count up so if I need 8x3 I count 8,16, ah, 24!

Also diagnosed adhd and likely autism doesn’t help.

I wish I liked math, because I love computers and mechanical engineering etc but its always held me back. Luckily my job now requires applied thinking not really math so I get to mostly do interesting stuff without complex math.

Why would I like math? It’s just numbers and logic. Why do you think that should be fun?

I disliked math because I would always do poorly on timed math problems in grade school. I couldn’t memorize things and still can’t, but I can work through problems and know how to look up theorems. This continued through grade school until college.

after struggling on calculus for my major, then switching majors and oddly having to take algebra, I found math to be easy to the point that my teacher told me I could skip the final and still ace the class.

I still hate math. I liked that Numbers tv show though.

It’s illegal. A tiny amount of it on the head of a pin can kill an elephant.

Because my brain had/has enough room to hold diagraming sentences or higher mathematics. And I chose the one that allows for me to insult people in a way where they know I’m insulting them, but are unable to articulate how I’m insulting them.

Because I only have a limited amount of dopamine to spend each day, and I rather not waste it on something as boring as math. ADHD does not allow me to pursue things that don’t interest me unless I’m forced to.

Neurotypical people with plenty of dopamine to spare may struggle to understand the concept of their brain physically stopping their body from doing anything that doesn’t feel satisfying, nor rewarding to do. But it’s a real thing that happens.

I somehow feel that you’re getting a small sample size here

I just really really don’t care for it. Not the math, not physics. I don’t care if you can calculate the velocity of a car downhill. I don’t care how heavy the tower of our local castle is. I’ve yet to meet a math problem apart from grocery cost that I care to know the answer of.

I was actually always pretty good at math, I had Bs and sometimes As. I can memorize the formulas and fill them in and do the equations. But none of it interested me even in the slightest.

I started actively disliking math when people around me pushed it on me as this be-all-end-all definition of intelligence. Understanding math isn’t enough, you have to actually LOVE calculating advanced math problems in your head, otherwise you’re not smart.

Asking why people don’t like something is probably the wrong way to approach this. Ask why people do like it and then you will say that some people will not appreciate the qualities mentioned.

But maths is hard, objectively. It’s abstract and it’s about logic and the precise application of rules and a lot of people are just not good at those things.

The heart of doing maths is solving puzzles. Not practical puzzles like “how do I build a cool robot” (though maths comes up in engineering of course) but puzzles that are posed without necessarily having any relation to the real world. “Prove that the limit of this sequence is 2” - “what for?” It’s like doing sudoku or crosswords, if that doesn’t tickle your brain, you won’t like it.

Simply put what you find easy somebody else doesn’t and same in the reverse.

What do you enjoy? Somebody else won’t. Everybody’s mind is wired differently. It’s very much the same reason. Why one person will enjoy working on their car. Getting their hands greasy and the next person would never enjoy that.

It doesn’t make logical sense. Why does the 3-4-5 triangle work out cleanly, and yet π and e are irrational? How can 0.999… and 1 be exactly the same number? Who cares about solving lost and unprovable theorems — how do these help anyone?

It was fine until some insane motherfucker decided to get the alphabet involved. Nope, fuck your x to the power of a squared equals unknown, I’ll stay over here where the sane people are.

Geometry is okay I guess. Shapes and shit. Much better than letters.

i used to not like it, because i struggled heavily, arithemetic was more annoying than algebra and higher, and not useful in the longrun. I think people have more problem with writing English papers than math. its a somewhat arbitrary subject, depends on the instructor(some are super-nazis of english writing, and others try to try to understand the gist of your essay, still need proper grammar) i struggled alot in english writing. surprisingly a lot of people arnt well practiced in grammar up to college level. Some instructors will rant on your paper how its inexcusable that its written a certain way.