How and how quickly do you think in the mind at an elementary level?
Friends, good afternoon. I decided to get a technical education in order to try myself in development. I don’t know how much I will succeed and whether it will succeed at all, but if I don’t try, I will never know, but this is not about that.
Recently, one of my friends was interviewed in some “large international company” and spoke about one such feature of the interview. He was asked a question, he began to answer him, and during the answer he was interrupted and asked to quickly carry out a calculation, for example, “12% of 84”, he gives an answer, continues to answer the question, it takes half a minute, he is again in the middle of the sentence “72 m / s - how many km / h? ”, etc., and at the same time he shouldn’t have strayed from the main idea to which he gave an answer. As a result, my friend answered something there, but to myself I thought that it would be a serious problem for me, because I slowly think in my mind and the reserve of my “RAM” is also very small, so I’m in any proportion I’m not going to decide the mind and I need to write it down so that I can see it clearly, then without problems.
But that is not all I wanted to tell. During the conversation, it turned out that my friend and I at a very basic level consider differently. At the level of simple arithmetic. I don’t remember exactly how he counted, so I’ll explain by my own example so that you can understand what I’m talking about.
For example, I think, starting from the closest convenient number (I will conditionally call their reference numbers). What I mean? For me personally, some numbers are considered easier than others. For example, 7 + 3 is considered easier for me than 7 + 5, so when I consider the value of the expression 7 + 5, I conditionally divide the five into 3 and 2, add to seven three, get 10 (reference number) and add ten to ten 2, getting 12.
Another example: imagine that I need to add 96 to 74. The closest convenient number in this operation is 100 for me. Knowing that 96 = 100-4, it is more convenient for me to add 100 to 74 and get 174 and subtract 4 from 174 and get 170.
Expressions in which there is no such closest number, for example, 77 + 66, I count by digits. That is, to 77 I first add 6 dozen and get 137, and then to 137 add 6 units and get 143. (by the way, by six I will add seven, as in the first example, representing the operation 7 + 6 through the nearest reference number, namely , the number is 14, and it’s easier for me to calculate 7 + 6 as 7 + 7 (knowing that 6 = 7-1) and then subtract 1)
In the course of this “study” I came to the conclusion that my system of counting in my mind seems to me, to some extent, irrational, because It requires additional auxiliary calculations that load my “RAM”, which leads to the fact that if the expression is a little more complicated, I already need to write it down, because I can’t keep the intermediate calculations in my head. For example, I will look for 12% of 84 by multiplying 84 by 12, and then moving the comma two characters to the left. For this, in my mind I will imagine a column in which, counting the second line, I will forget the first one and I will most likely solve these 12% right away with an error.
And now friends, my question is for you. What do you think at an elementary level? How fast do you think? How are you doing with the verbal account? And who they are doing well, please share the algorithm, how do you carry out these calculations in your mind?
Well, there are already philosophical questions: Do you think it is possible to significantly develop the skill of quick oral counting or is it such a mindset that it either exists or is not there, and if training will give a result, is it insignificant? And in principle: how do you think, in general, how critical is it for a programmer to be able / not to be able to quickly count in his mind?
Share, friends, in the comments your thoughts on this subject.
Recently, one of my friends was interviewed in some “large international company” and spoke about one such feature of the interview. He was asked a question, he began to answer him, and during the answer he was interrupted and asked to quickly carry out a calculation, for example, “12% of 84”, he gives an answer, continues to answer the question, it takes half a minute, he is again in the middle of the sentence “72 m / s - how many km / h? ”, etc., and at the same time he shouldn’t have strayed from the main idea to which he gave an answer. As a result, my friend answered something there, but to myself I thought that it would be a serious problem for me, because I slowly think in my mind and the reserve of my “RAM” is also very small, so I’m in any proportion I’m not going to decide the mind and I need to write it down so that I can see it clearly, then without problems.
But that is not all I wanted to tell. During the conversation, it turned out that my friend and I at a very basic level consider differently. At the level of simple arithmetic. I don’t remember exactly how he counted, so I’ll explain by my own example so that you can understand what I’m talking about.
For example, I think, starting from the closest convenient number (I will conditionally call their reference numbers). What I mean? For me personally, some numbers are considered easier than others. For example, 7 + 3 is considered easier for me than 7 + 5, so when I consider the value of the expression 7 + 5, I conditionally divide the five into 3 and 2, add to seven three, get 10 (reference number) and add ten to ten 2, getting 12.
Another example: imagine that I need to add 96 to 74. The closest convenient number in this operation is 100 for me. Knowing that 96 = 100-4, it is more convenient for me to add 100 to 74 and get 174 and subtract 4 from 174 and get 170.
Expressions in which there is no such closest number, for example, 77 + 66, I count by digits. That is, to 77 I first add 6 dozen and get 137, and then to 137 add 6 units and get 143. (by the way, by six I will add seven, as in the first example, representing the operation 7 + 6 through the nearest reference number, namely , the number is 14, and it’s easier for me to calculate 7 + 6 as 7 + 7 (knowing that 6 = 7-1) and then subtract 1)
In the course of this “study” I came to the conclusion that my system of counting in my mind seems to me, to some extent, irrational, because It requires additional auxiliary calculations that load my “RAM”, which leads to the fact that if the expression is a little more complicated, I already need to write it down, because I can’t keep the intermediate calculations in my head. For example, I will look for 12% of 84 by multiplying 84 by 12, and then moving the comma two characters to the left. For this, in my mind I will imagine a column in which, counting the second line, I will forget the first one and I will most likely solve these 12% right away with an error.
And now friends, my question is for you. What do you think at an elementary level? How fast do you think? How are you doing with the verbal account? And who they are doing well, please share the algorithm, how do you carry out these calculations in your mind?
Well, there are already philosophical questions: Do you think it is possible to significantly develop the skill of quick oral counting or is it such a mindset that it either exists or is not there, and if training will give a result, is it insignificant? And in principle: how do you think, in general, how critical is it for a programmer to be able / not to be able to quickly count in his mind?
Share, friends, in the comments your thoughts on this subject.