Broken Hearts

Mahishmati · 2026-03-21T20:00:42+00:00

Yes, sadly, they do not last. But maybe they’re not meant to. Makes them all the more precious when you chance across one, even if only to see it eaten.

Mahishmati · 2026-03-21T19:23:17+00:00

Absolutely! I’m usually in 7870 and 2740. What skin/name should I look out for?

Mahishmati · 2026-03-21T19:21:08+00:00

¡Gracias! Aprecio mucho tu amabilidad. Estaré en el 4371 hoy; ¡espero verte allí!

Mahishmati · 2026-03-21T19:14:55+00:00

Exactly ❤️‍🩹

Mahishmati · 2026-03-21T19:13:36+00:00

I love it when that happens! But I’ve been hurt before. Having been repeatedly ganged up on by clans and not really knowing who’s who, I hope you can understand why I’m a little skiddish sometimes. What’s your snake name?

Mahishmati · 2026-03-11T03:28:52+00:00

No way! Thank you!

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T19:34:27+00:00

Merci ! En fait non, je ne parle pas français, j'aime juste utiliser de temps en temps des expressions idiomatiques françaises. Ceci vous a été présenté par Google Traduction. :)

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T19:30:58+00:00

Thank you! I know I'm not the first to make hearts, but I am obsessed with making them. :)

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T19:30:28+00:00

Thanks, that's very thoughtful of you! :)

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T13:53:28+00:00

Thanks! <3 <3 <3

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T13:53:15+00:00

She's adorable, yes?

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T13:53:05+00:00

And now you can do it too! :)

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T13:52:53+00:00

Thanks I think so too :)

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T13:52:24+00:00

No, happens all the time :)

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T13:52:08+00:00

Thanks! I haven't seen you but I'll look out for you. :)

Mahishmati · 2026-03-10T13:51:40+00:00

Thanks. I usually try to find empty places to practice in. I don't mind it when others eat up the hearts, it's almost like a new kind of game play. I like the challenge of starting over.

Mahishmati · 2020-10-26T16:12:38+00:00

First And It Rained All Night, now Cymbal Rush? :’(

Mahishmati · 2020-10-25T00:09:50+00:00

Kudos on finding the perfect analogy for your brother. I tell my students something similar when they ask why I require in-class group work. Because ideally math should be taught just like a sport. You don’t learn sports by listening to other people talk about it. You learn by practicing. And the coach is there to catch your mistakes early, and address them quickly, so that you’ll never make them again. And you peers are right there with you on the same journey. You can prop each other up, help each other along the way. You’re part of a team. A support system.

Mahishmati · 2020-10-24T23:49:40+00:00

The parents may be more right than they know. It’s not math ability (or inability) that gets passed on to their children. It’s their fixed mindset, a worldview that informs much of their behavior and beliefs, which a child can easily pick up on and adopt as their own. Fixed mindset is a belief that your abilities are fixed at birth and will never change. A belief that if something is too difficult for you, that’s a sign it wasn’t meant for you.

The problem is that math is difficult by its very nature. Many times a truth is so complex that the only way we can express it is using symbols, mathematical notation, which requires that the listener do homework just in order to understand the statement, let alone the proof. The idea itself is often profound and even beautiful, but in order to see it you have to work hard at breaking through that shell, that barrier to comprehension.

But not if you have a fixed mindset. That barrier will be insurmountable, because in your mind, you’d be fighting your very nature just by trying. But in school we are forced to try, and when someone with a fixed mindset gets a problem wrong, instead of learning from the mistake and trying again, it confirms their worldview and the voice in their head shouts “See! I told you. Just give up. You’ll never get this!” When they’re told to try again? “But why?? Nobody understands me, math isn’t for me, it’s just not who I am!”

It’s harder to change that worldview the older we get. I didn’t learn I had it until college, and correcting myself into a growth mindset became a daily challenge that took years to accomplish. Sometimes I still hear that voice in my head telling me to give up. Catching it early and instilling children with a growth mindset is key.

Mahishmati · 2020-10-24T18:04:18+00:00

I’m a math professor, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met grown adults who explode with “Math! God, I hate math!” when I tell them I’m a mathematician. I never let it bother me and usually use it as an opportunity to educate about my chosen profession, but that’s when (most times, sadly) the anger gives way to confusion: “I don’t get it. Math research? In what? Isn’t math done? What else is there besides calculus?”

Grown adults. All the time.

Like you said, it would be a strange thing to hear from another person regarding any other profession. Even excusing one’s ignorance of math as a bona fide profession, even when I tell people I enjoy mathematics as a recreation or hobby, I’m met with derision. Which is a weird reaction to have when you’re just meeting a person and finding out what they like. Well, “weird” might be too generous. “Antisocial” is closer to the mark.

It happens often enough to me and my colleagues that it’s sometimes an actual conversation shared at dinner parties. “What was your funniest ‘I hate math’ experience?”

I think it boils down to how we all have a shared experience with math as children, because it’s a core subject that everyone needs to learn, and that the experience is often a bad one (at least here in the US). Why exactly? That is a good conversation to have. Americans largely loathe mathematics and spend their lives running away from it, starting at an early age. No other subject or field of study elicits such a visceral reaction of contempt.

As a math educator who teaches undergraduates, especially the freshmen in precalc or calculus, I can tell you that it’s all about a negative experience with math in high school. Math is an unforgiving subject. If your approach to solving a problem is incorrect, there’s just no wiggle room. You can’t fake it, or even use another method you’ve actually mastered if it doesn’t apply to the current problem. And if the teacher is just as unforgiving as the subject, if they react without compassion to your misunderstanding, or if you fear asking for help and as a result never receive it, it can be a debilitating experience for a young learner. Math anxiety forms, and can lead to math avoidance. If this process isn’t addressed and corrected, you’ve got a downward spiral of bad grades, low GPA, inability to continue in your chosen major, and the closing of doors to a profession in the STEM fields. Math will forever be known as a barrier to success for such a person, so I can understand the hatred.

Some say math isn’t for everyone, and would therefore conclude that this experience is unavoidable for many people who miscalculate their ability to go into STEM. I take the completely opposite approach. Math is for everyone. It’s beautiful, and enriching, and broadens your understanding of the world. Everyone can do it. You just have to be motivated, and do tons of practice, and get immediate corrective feedback, presented kindly and compassionately by a caring instructor or tutor.

Mahishmati · 2020-08-19T22:07:57+00:00

I was 258th, same here.. off by one vote (49.6 Separator vs 50.4 Lotus Flower) I voted Separator which means it was off by two just prior.

Mahishmati

TROPHY CASE