Words of Mine

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If you were ever enrolled in one of Prof. Achim Kehrein’s Mathematics classes and remember only one thing, it has to be FACTORISATION. Written all caps with a red whiteboard marker inside a big heart. I‘m certain if the lecture hall was only his it would have been written in a permanent marker.

The emphasis put on factorisation in mathematics is simply in its power of dynamic change. Capable of humbling the most complex overwhelming problems to the most simple ones.

Mathematics factorisation is the realest representation of “less is more“. If you know a little bit of calculus, you know exactly what I mean.

People often complain about not having a use for the hours of mathematics learned in school in real life but fail to comprehend that the real fruits of these mathematics lessons are in its logic itself. The way of thinking and viewing problems rather than the technicalities of it. The sweetest of those fruits is FACTORISATION. Once you know how to prioritize factorization and know how to look for ways to break down complex math problems into simple fragments, you can easily implement this approach of thought in solving life problems.

First time I heard from Tim Ferris was not through his renowned 4-hours Work Week book but rather via this talk, where he explains his DiSSS method [Deconstruction Selection Sequencing Stake]. And I think its worth noting his case study examples and approaches as examples of real life factorisation.

For instance, his case study examples include him practicing kitchen knife skills by using a letuce knife (plastic knife with the same form factor as a regular knife) to factorise out fear and the risk of cutting himself. Or practising saute skillet motion with dried beans instead of eggs on a stove to factorise out the pressure and risk of creating a mess.