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Which is more useful in the real world?

Blueberry LaLa

New member
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Messages
21
MBTI Type
INFP
I'm on Team Math for this one.

First you get the maths, then you get the money, then you get the power.

Call me a bitter ex-journo, but it's been my experience that almost no one -- NO ONE -- knows where to put apostrophes or how to spell correctly or how to write coherently -- and no one cares. I don't think writing is as valued as society as it should be -- sad!

But a typo or a poorly written paragraph probably won't bring down a company, where a math error could.
 

disregard

mrs
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
7,826
MBTI Type
INFP
Writing, more than the observation of correct grammar usage, is an art of communication.
 

dee

New member
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
136
MBTI Type
Enfj
Enneagram
2+1
I would say math, because it is more in demand. Hard to find people that know math really well, and easy to find people that have really good writing skills.
Percentage wise that is.

Cheers, Dee
 

Rajah

Reigning Bologna Princess
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
1,774
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
7
Writing, obviously.

I'm going waaaaaaay out on a limb here, but math is a pretty visual thing. Ergo writing is kind of a necessity to even learn math in the first place. Math class conducted by audiobook might be a little, um, tough.
 

Darjur

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
493
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5
Both.

I would spec in math and get my writing skills to a decent level. But to get ones writting to be good, you don't need to go to university for it.
 

mippus

you are right
Joined
Jan 15, 2008
Messages
906
MBTI Type
Intp
Enneagram
5w6
As much as I hate to admit it: maths.
But a variation might be: being good at foreign languages vs maths (especially when you live in a relatively small language community)
 

Laurie

Was E.laur
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
6,072
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
7w6
ENFPs

No, really, it's just a bizarre question.

Which is more important - breathing or heart beating?
 

Cirrus

New member
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Messages
12
MBTI Type
INFJ
More useful would be Maths. There are fewer people who really understand Maths, so if you have a lot of potential in that area then go for it.

Plus it's more extreme than Writing. Just like in answers - in Maths it's easy to get 'right' or 'wrong', similar to how most people are either amazing at Maths or crap at it (not saying everybody, just generalising here). Writing ability, any linguistic ability is much harder to categorise. Usually if you fully understand one area of Maths you'll be good at the others too, because they're all logical and if you have a mathematical mind it'll usually work out. Writing is different, I've seen people terrible at spelling and grammer but good at other forms of writing.

More valued by society... it's probably more respected to be say, a mathematician than a journalist. There are less jobs specific to English/writing ability (English is the only subject I really excel in and I'm finding it hard to decide on jobs to aim my life at) whereas with Maths it's easier.

That's what I think anyway. :)
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
5,903
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w8
Well, I think a fairer comparison would be maths vs foreign languages, because in this case both tasks would be rather complex. I think that knowing many foreign languages with different roots (so, say, French, German, Russian, Chinese) can be as useful as having a deep comprehension of mathematics. An high writing ability in your mother tongue can be thought about as being akin to good knowledge of univariate calculus, more or less, in terms of complexity.

Yet, being fluent in Romance, Slavic, Chinese and Saxon (not to mention the many others available) would be akin to having a deep knowledge of most fields of mathematics - very few people can reach this level of ability.
 
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