We all have that thing. The subject that makes our eyes light up, the hobby we can talk about for hours, the niche interest that others might call “obsessive.” I call it “geeking out.”
I want you to realize this: when you genuinely geek out about anything — music, art, gaming, sports, fashion, historical trivia — you are finding your inner mathematician. You are engaging with the world using the very same sophisticated tools of analysis, pattern-seeking and structure that defines mathematics.
When you truly love something, you search for the most efficient, refined and flawless expressions of it. You don’t just hear a song; you analyze the elegant structure — the repeating motifs, the ratios in the harmony, the sequence of the chords. You are captivated by the perfect, minimal structure that creates maximum emotional impact — that is mathematical elegance applied to sound. You don’t just play a game; you seek the most elegant strategy to win — the shortest path, the optimal resource allocation, the flawlessly timed execution. You are an optimizer, and optimization is mathematics in one of its purest forms.
Every passion has a layer of complex knowledge that only those with patience can access. To a neophyte, it’s noise; to you, it’s a language. You don’t just watch a game; you track the statistics, analyze the probability of a play succeeding and identify subtle trends in player performance. This is mathematical glamour — the ability to see the deep, predictive forces that others miss. You don’t just browse at an art gallery; you recognize the beauty of particular placement of paint strokes or the complex symmetry of architectural design. Like it or not, you see the mathematical rules that give the artwork its compelling power. That is the sophisticated glamour of recognizing order in chaos.
The reason we stick with our passions, even when they’re difficult, is because we’re rewarded with the unparalleled feeling of “getting it.” The moment you finally understand a complex historical context, master a difficult chord on the guitar or figure out why a character made a key decision is a moment of pure discovery. This deep satisfaction is the charm that keeps you coming back. It’s the reward for the patience and perseverance that you put forth without anyone forcing you to do so. This feeling is exactly the “Aha!” moment when a difficult mathematical proof finally clicks into place. The truth is revealed, and you earned the right to see it.
There is no “math gene.” There is just the human capacity to geek out — to relentlessly pursue the beauty of structure, pattern and truth. When you are lost in your passion, you are thinking with elegance, seeing with glamour and driven by charm.
You are, in that moment, a mathematician. Now, go geek out.
