square | Yan's One Minute Math Blog

Math geeks or nerds are frequently labeled a “square.” Nonmath or non-symbol-minded folks also nickname them a “block” or “bore”!

Indeed, it hurts if you’re dubbed one! There is no shortage of negative or unflattering labels to describe those who’re apparently born or blessed with the “math gene.”

Fortunately, these days, with so many math geeks using their talent or gifting to help produce all kinds of technological marvels, or helping the world solve a number of wicked problems, respect or awe for the socially awkward or romantically inept seems to be at an all-time high.

Getting Rich from Math

Think of those tens of thousands of millionaires and billionaires worldwide, who’ve made their fortune thanks to the oft-invisible power or applications of math and science.

Their “square” looks or dating habits might make you avoid them like the plague, but you can be sure that a good percentage of these “bores” or “non-blockheads” are laughing all the way to the bank.

Many of those “squares” or “blocks” are being paid handsomely because of their sought-after mathematical or coding skills.

And many of these (oft-foreign-born) guys Trump & gang think they can do without them because they’re “stealing” white-collar jobs or “spying” on Americans—the MAGA cult want to deport (or even demonize) them to protect local high-tech jobs from skilled aliens.

Yes, some of these geeky guys and gals are arguably unhandsome or plain-looking. Who cares when math is their god, which has allowed them to retire prematurely or to attain financial independence, when their non-STEM peers are struggling to pay the bill?

Love + Math = Success

And if you’re a hundredaire or thousandaire, it’s not too late to befriend or even date some of them. There is exponential power or benefit when love meets math. When you discover in no time that the square-looking geek is often an (imperfect) circle inside.

Remember: The geeks shalt inherit the earth!

Squarely & securely yours

If you were given a chance to redefine a square, what would your new definition be other than it being another word for a geek, nerd, or bore? Or, a figure who refuses to do any of those immoral, illegal, or unethical things when pressured by peers: drug, booze, sex, porn, gang, scheme, graft, ….

Geometric Stereotype à la Singapour

In Chan Li Shan’s Searching for Lee Wen (2022), the author wrote:

“A well-known actress, Nancy Kwan once gave a talk at a conference of British-born Chinese. Having started in the film The World of Suzie Wong, she was talking about what it was like to be a Chinese actress working in Hollywood. Noticing Lee Wen [a deceased Singaporean artist who received the Cultural Medallion in 2005, Singapore’s highest award for the arts] at the back of the room, she said,

“Who’s that young man sitting behind? How come you’re so quiet? Where are you from?”
“I’m Lee Wen from Singapore.”
“Oh! Singapore… people there are all very square, right?”

Don’t you agree that there’s an iota of truth that people in the “fine” city don’t so much look like a square but do often behave like one? By this, I mean that they’re generally conservative, conformist, or compliant, or all three. Few would wish to be seen as an odd one in a sea of evens, because an oddball often creates waves, positively or negatively.

At work, few would step out of their invisible square to question, much less challenge, the oft-dated rules and regulations. Most hate their job, waiting for Fridays and dreading Mondays. They’ve subconsciously squared to live an uneventful or fearful life, because switching to an alternative career path looks pretty disruptive, not to say, (initially) painful.

Your choice of a meaningful life lies squarely on you. If you’re a math educator, are the math things you’re presently doing square with what you desire in future? For instance, are you waiting until you retire to write that book? Or until the kids go to college to start working on that manuscript? Whatever it is, just make sure that you don’t die with a book still inside you!

If you’ve been dubbed a square, or secretly see yourself as one, remember that squares are circles with corners, and over time, most of them do turn into a beautiful (imperfect) circle.

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