I'm a Math Genius, Dude

Between work and dinner with the fam, I didn’t have much time to study math or programming yesterday. It’s a shame. But hey, everyone needs a day off from time to time, right?

Wrong

Not me.

Not for this experiment.

So alas, I put on my big brain cap and figured out what to share today. And it’s gonna terrify you.

That’s because I…

I did…

I did math…

For fun…

GASP.

That’s right. You see, two weeks ago, I researched stuff about quantitative finance and discovered that some quants prep for job interviews by practicing their quick math. And I like quick math.

Once during freshman year of college, I felt a bit, err, under the weather (if you know what I mean). My illness was so bad that my roommate thought he should call the local campus superheroes aka Harper’s Ferry. No matter how much I said I was fine, he didn’t believe me.

So I whipped out the big guns…

“Give me a math problem,” I said.

He gazed at me a bit stunned (or so I think) and asked me a complicated question involving one too many addition, subtraction, and multiplication steps.

I answered the problem so quickly that he had to take out his calculator to see if I was right.

And alas, I nailed that problem -- a math genius in the making.

Anyway, after reading about quant finance, I found a website called Zeta Mac and became a freaking addict.

Every day, I’m spending at least 20 minutes flexing my math skills.

In case you don’t know what it is, which you should you data dork, it’s a timed challenge to solve as many math problems as you can in two minutes.

But this ain’t your easy “What’s 2 plus 2?” or “What’s 8 times 3?” elementary school questions.

Sure, some of those are mixed in, but a lot dive into the two-digit range. So don’t be surprised at seeing “What’s 57 times 34?” or “What’s 544 divided by 16?” on the screen.

This is where the big boys and girls come to play.

Big brains only.

Here are a few examples of questions you’d see…

The first time I tried it, I scored around 20.

But quants score around 60, 70, or 80+ on Zeta Mac.

I’m nowhere close.

At least not at that time.

Now I’m averaging in the mid-40s and have a high score of 53.

Remember, I’ve only been playing with it for two weeks so going from 20 to 53 is a big jump. Hopefully, within the next few days, I’ll hit 60 and start averaging in the 50s.

Try this website out yourself.

Even though you’re not learning anything new, you’re pushing your brain’s limit and giving yourself a nice mental workout.

You won’t regret it.

I promise.