r/mentalmath

I kept changing my routine because I thought that was why I was getting nothing done. New schedule, new lists, planning everything the night before. Somehow I still kept avoiding the same task. I think I finally realized I just don’t want to deal with it 😅Anyone else ever spend more time planning around a problem than dealing with it?

I’m tired of being tired. I feel betrayed by life. My father betrayed me. He is the one who made all these people take advantage of the situation, betray me, and destroy my mental health. No one was there for me. Not friends, not family. I was completely destroyed by everyone. The person I trusted and thought would make up for the love and affection I never received from my father ended up making fun of me. In the end, he made my mental health even worse. My father also prevented me from traveling and stopped me from visiting other countries and my family. My family never cared about me. I don’t seek attention. I’m just talking about my story. I just want to let out what I have inside. I’m sorry.

I just got an abacus to attempt to improve mental math. Is it worth it to take classes or is it better to learn online/videos. On top of this are there any other things to do (practice etc.) to get really good at mental math.

In India, there are quite a few social initiatives where teachers and volunteers visit villages and spend time teaching children for free. I recently got the chance to be part of something like that.

I went there thinking I would probably spend a few hours teaching some basic maths and then come back home.

The kids were really excited. Some of them had notebooks, some were sharing with each other, and a few were just sitting there listening.

I started with some simple questions and noticed one boy, probably around 10 or 11, solving things differently from what I was teaching.

So I gave him another question.

He looked at it for a few seconds and gave me the answer.

I asked him, "How did you get that?"

He just shrugged and said, "I don't know. I just did it in my head." 😄

I gave him another one. Same thing.

What surprised me wasn't really that he could calculate quickly. It was how naturally curious he was. He kept asking me for another question.

There was no exam, no marks, no pressure. He just wanted to see if he could solve it and that part stayed with me.

We sometimes get so caught up in marks, exams and finishing the syllabus that we forget how enjoyable maths can be when a child is simply curious about it.

I went there thinking I was going to teach them something.

I came back thinking about how many children might have that same curiosity but just need someone to sit with them and say, "Okay, let's try one more."

I'm the sort of person who still misses Digits. Four rounds of numbers, ninety seconds of staring, that little click when you find the path. The NYT killed it in August 2023 after 120 puzzles and never replaced it.

So I made one. Four rounds a day, the same for everyone, six numbers and a target, the four operations. Free, no account, no ads, nothing to install. The bit I care most about: no timer. Digits had one and I always felt it made me worse. Without it you actually search, and you find more.

Also, I wanted to add some additional fun and introduced some cool bosses, beware, they talk trash ;)

https://abako.games/daily

There's an archive with one possible solution for every past round, and the sharing is spoiler-free, just stars.

I built it alone and I'm not going to shut it down. Happy to answer anything about how the puzzles are generated, that part was harder than I expected.

https://preview.redd.it/ckn0ptl28phh1.png?width=780&format=png&auto=webp&s=39922fbf1d830ddbb37dbfc3f7863428f10e997c