Common Core Math

I have been watching a comedian recently, whose name is Nate Bargatze. That guy is funny! I mean, probably not Gen-Z funny, but funny enough for my 'old soul' (that's exactly what my friend put it out...thanks Seb). 

He has a point about how they began teaching a new kind of math, known as Common Core. It’s all about breaking the problem down... and then breaking it down some more... and just when you think you're done? Break it again. Meanwhile, the “old school” way of solving the same problem could take, I don’t know, one minute tops. But here we are. I didn’t grow up with the easy math system, but I can see his point.

Maybe the math got more complex, but ironically, life didn’t. Not really. If anything, our routines are easier than ever. Now I’m not talking about politics or the economy here. I’m talking about the daily stuff. We teach kids to break down problems endlessly, while the world around us is speeding up and simplifying everything else.

Consumer capitalism? Sure, it kicked off hard in the U.S., no denying that. But let’s not act like it hasn’t gone global. Pre-chopped onions in the market, 3-minute microwave meals, drive-thru, DoorDash... It’s everywhere now. Convenience isn’t just an American obsession anymore, it’s the world’s new baseline.

Unfortunately, convenience didn’t just take over our kitchens. It hijacked our curiosity, too.. ChatGPT, Instagram, TikTok, X…just whatever is out except actual research papers, are more common than the source. We started accepting everything that was put in front of us, as if someone had put a magic wand on our heads and said, "You will believe this."

And I am sure if this were a TikTok video, everyone would nod, agree, and just keep swiping. Don’t get the wrong idea, I love social media, I think it gives a lot of space to be creative and share your passions with other people. But not a lot of people are creating anymore, we are owning other people’s routines, and adding to that standard. 

I hate math. Like, I hate it. I’m not good at it, and I don’t really want to be. Despite all this, I’ve come to respect the kind of thinking that doesn’t rely on swipes or shortcuts. To the people who make sense of it, who sit with the mess, take it apart, look at the pieces, figure out the logic, and put it back together. That’s life. Just like math, a mess you’ve got to make sense of. Maybe that’s why human relationships are just as complicated. We can’t deny that the common core is keeping us alive both scientifically and socially. 

Keeping our minds and bodies casually busy means living a life with more. You decide whatever emotion is more to you: joy, anxiety, or exhaustion. At least I know mine, it is complicated enough. And while we have the time, why does everything have to be effortless? That’s what I find bizarre about this fast-food, fast-fashion, fast-education lifestyle. We love that everything is just a few clicks and a few bucks away. But when everything becomes that easy, isn’t that just... greed?

I think we have made our lives too easy, so that we have stopped enjoying some hard work and achievements. I met this friend from Norway, such a gentleman, the kind of person who listens before he speaks, puts his soul to everything in his life. One day, he told me his biggest hobby was carpentry, and that he wanted to make it his future. I’ll admit, I thought he was joking. Carpentry? In this world? A world that rewards speed, scale, and sameness?

I couldn’t help but think that we live in a time where hardly anyone notices the labor or love behind the things we use. Why would someone spend weeks crafting a chair when you can just grab one from Home Depot, or some upscale store with mass-produced designs that thousands of other people already have in their living rooms? But then his work started showing up on my FYP (like I said, I love social media), and I realized. It meant more to him. He wasn’t chasing convenience. He was choosing meaning over efficiency. Now, this was rare.

I wanted to be an artist as a kid. Every time someone asked about my future, I’d say something creative. Maybe a painter, poet, writer, or actress? But where I grew up, the message was clear: “If you become an artist, your pockets will be empty.” They didn’t know it back then, but it was better than having an empty soul. 

Now we are raising generations thinking that discomfort is wrong. Common core is maybe not about solving something easier, but it is about understanding, seizing, and most importantly, enjoying it. This is partly why we hate it so much. It is too much effort, takes time and energy, but the opposite is making us lose control over our lives. And maybe, in a world built for speed, shortcuts, and sameness, the most radical thing we can do is slow down, dig deeper, and do the hard thing on purpose. Not because it’s easy. But because it matters. It will make us realize. Discomfort is not dangerous; it is just unfamiliar. 

This was how we enjoyed life once.