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Preface
How to Succeed in
Business Mathematics
Are you a “people person” or a “numbers person”? Can you “do math but not word
problems”? Do you experience “math anxiety”? Have you “always hated math”? We frequently
hear such comments in private discussions about mathematics. The expressions
in quotation marks are familiar. The questions do not seem unusual.
Now consider these questions. Are you a “people person” or a “music person”? Can
you “do English but not write paragraphs”? Do you experience “biology anxiety”? Have
you “always hated history”? These questions seem odd—even ridiculous. So why is it
that mathematics is viewed so differently than other subjects? Why will people openly
and jokingly admit to being “so bad at math I can’t balance my chequebook,” but be
reluctant and embarrassed to admit to spelling poorly or not knowing the meaning of
a word? As stereotypes for people talented at mathematics, why do we have stereotypes
of the “math nerd” and the “boring accountant” instead of the creative design engineer
and the incisive bond trader?
The point of this introduction is to demonstrate that popular attitudes toward
mathematics are distorted, biased, and unjustified. Particularly damaging has been the
myth that you must be either a “numbers person” or a “people person,” implying that
you either have or do not have the “math gene.” Every year this groundless but widely
accepted classification causes thousands of high-school students, at the first sign of difficulty
with mathematics, to conclude that they haven’t got the “right stuff” to do
math. Believing their math ability is seriously limited or flawed at the core of their
being and genome, many of these students put little effort into their math courses.
Consequently, their beliefs are self-fulfilling, and the myth is perpetuated as accepted
wisdom....
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