Counting with your fingers... is it just me??
By vivasuzi
@vivasuzi (4127)
United States
February 8, 2008 8:39am CST
So just now I had to look up to see if someone's password has expired. Every 6 months, our users passwords expire and we have to reset them. I saw the date it was set was 8/3/07. Now you would think I could just say "Ok, that's 6 months ago"... but instead... I had to go
1. Sept
2. Oct
3. Nov
4. Dec
5. Jan
6. Feb
in order to know it had been 6 months.
I don't just do this for months, but for simple additions too! If I'm playing blackjack, for example, I often am counting under the table. It's never been in my head to add up numbers real quick.
So am I think only one that still does this well into my 20s? Or are there other people out there whose brains just aren't designed for simple math? I always got good grades in math b/c I'm great with a calculator :)
3 people like this
8 responses
@kareng (59281)
• United States
8 Feb 08
I hated math when I was in school but always got good grades in it. It just wasn't my favorite subject. I also can't do math in my head and have to have pen and paper to do figures. When it comes to days or how many days until the 20th for instance, I will use my fingers. It's just habit and a quick way to figure it out. Oh well, we are all human!!
1 person likes this
@vivasuzi (4127)
• United States
8 Feb 08
Yeah same here. I could have gotten all A's if I wanted, but it bored me so much that I got A's and B's overall.
It is a habit but it helps! My mom still does use her fingers too, but she is much better at adding two numbers in her head.
My husband is sooooo good at it that I have forgotten even more basic math since I met him. Instead it's usually "Hubby, how much should we tip?"
1 person likes this
@smacksman (6053)
•
25 Mar 08
Nothing wrong with using fingers is there?
Well try this. On your left hand count your digits starting up from 1 and you get 5.
On your right hand count down from 10 (hopefully you have all ten digits on your hands - haha) and you get to 6.
So 5+6=11 Hmmmm! So you still have to be careful even when counting on your hands.
1 person likes this
@enchantedleppard (1541)
• United States
30 Mar 08
I am in my 20's too and I still do that. When I was first starting my job I would have to do it all the time since our policies run every 6 months and I could not figure it out like March and September would be 6 months.. your discussion made me laugh and realize that there are other people out there that to that too.
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
9 Feb 08
LOL...Nope it's not just you and I'm in my fifties and still have to count on my fingers. If I don't have some kind of calculator handy I resort to counting on my fingers too...I wasn't bad in math when it was geometry or algebra, but simple math...yikes the worse...
1 person likes this
@izathewzia (5134)
• Philippines
9 Feb 08
I also do it that way. So I will be accurate in counting. I am so afraid in committing mistake. So to make it sure, I used and do it "manually".
@raijin (10345)
• Philippines
11 Feb 08
I do count by my fingers, since I'm not that good in numbers and I want to make sure that I was right about my judgment!;)
It's hard for me to simply count numbers on my mind, I guess I get too much dizzy by just doing that alone. So in order to be sure, I use all my fingers not just in my hands but sometimes on my toes!;)
@Farside604 (870)
• Canada
11 Feb 08
I also use my fingers when i comes to math or things my brain thinks as over simple. I do alright in math but i would defintly say im over dependant on my calculator.
