How Hard Is It To Get Better At Variables?

With time and effort, we may get better at constants. Variables are a completely different story.

Photo by Aaron Jones

We suck at variables. Granted, like every generalisation, that opening sentence is not entirely right. Some people are truly outstanding at dealing with variables, but by default, they baffle us when they don’t elude us altogether.

What do I mean by variables? Anything that changes without our influencing it to do so is a variable. How busy a train is or how much someone will like the meal we cooked are variables. Our mood is a variable too. And so are our feelings.

What about constants? We can count on constants to stay the same regardless of all the variables we may encounter. No matter how high we jump from, we will fall; regardless of whether there is a road or a swimming pool underneath, we will still fall. The existence of trains, our ability to cook and eat, the fact that we may experience different moods and develop different feelings, they are all constants.

Giving constants our time and effort will make almost anybody better at them. Constants are there to be learned, to bounce off them, they remain constant as we pass through. Sure, some constants are destroyed just as others are born (dinosaurs, nuclear power), but we can…