I can prove that 1 + 1 doesn't always equal 2

[Clint]

Poll: How much has this illness decreased your cognitive abilities?

It is certainly a grossly oversimplified model, but it provides a means for some people to express their feelings about the complex thing that happened to them. Overly simplistic models can be very useful. IQ is an overly simplistic model, and many argue that all of mathematics itself is an overly simplistic model: “The reason, Abbott says, is that because when you recognize that math is just a mental construct—just an approximation of reality that has its frailties and limitations and that will break down at some point because perfect mathematical forms do not exist in the physical universe—then you can see how ineffective math is.”

Mathematicians come one come all

Mathematics is just a set of models. Some models in it are useful for some realities and not for others. Both the model of negative numbers and imaginary numbers probably aren’t useful for counting bananas. They are probably more useful for quantum physics.

“The reason, Abbott says, is that because when you recognize that math is just a mental construct—just an approximation of reality that has its frailties and limitations and that will break down at some point because perfect mathematical forms do not exist in the physical universe—then you can see how ineffective math is.”