Theory, Practice and Application

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.”

~ Kahlil Gibran

I love calculus (yeah, I’m one of those). I fondly remember learning formulas to calculate limits in the first month of 11th grade. This was my favorite part of the class: plugging in numbers to calculate the derivative as “x” approached 1. Then plotting the points on a graph with my mechanical, Transformers pencil and finally connecting the dots to draw a curve. I would zen-ly repeat this process over and over again while watching videos on MTV (in the days when they actually played videos), gleefully not learning anything besides how to use the formula. I was excellent at this. However, when it came time to solving word problems involving these nifty formulas I had perfected graphing, I was horrible. I didn’t wanna think. It was too hard and much less zen (according to my 11th grade understanding). although I finished the class with a B average, I still find myself repeating the same patterns today, when I’m not paying attention. How often do we function on autopilot when confronted with a problem versus being “therefore mindful.” Because it’s seductive. Because it’s requires less effort. Because it’s easy. Probably too often.

Namasté