That’s because they aren’t teaching math. They’re teaching “tricks” to solve equations easier, which can lead to more confusion.

Like the PEMDAS thing that’s being discussed here. There’s no such thing as “order of operations” in math, but it’s easier to teach by assuming that there is.

The “why” goes a little further than that.

In actuality, it’s because of fundamental properties of operations

• Commutation

a + b = b + a

a×b = b×a

• Association

(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)

(a×b)×c = a×(b×c)

• Identity

a + 0 = a

a×1 = a

If you know that, then PEMDAS and such are useless because they’re derived from those properties but do not fully encompass them.

Eg.

3×2×(2+2) = 3×(4+4) = 12+12 = 24

This is a correct solution that is improper if you’re strictly adhering to PEMDAS rule as I’ve done multiplication before parenthesis from right to left.

I could even go completely out of order by doing 3×2×(2+2) = 2×(6+6) and it will still be correct

Oh yeah, that’s a fun one.

Where I live, this would be considered juxtaposition, at least by uni professors and scientific community, so 2(4-2) isn’t the same as 2×(4-2), even though on their own they’re equal.

This way, equations such as 15/2(4-2) end up with a definite solution.

So,

15/2(4-2) = 3.75

While

15/2×(4-2) = 15

Usually, however, it is obvious even without assuming juxtaposition because you can look at previous operations. Not to mention that it’s most common with variables (Eg. “2x/3y”).

I’d advise you to read more on how Chinese government and spin dictatorships work. There’s a really good book written by Treisman and Guriev

It’s not really a country you’d choose over US even despite all it’s massive (cough healthcare and consumer protections cough) flaws

“Anymore” as if it ever was. Even USSR never claimed to be a communist country

P.S. They claimed to be a socialist, then “developed” socialist country that’s “on the path of building communism”.

It’s more convenient than dragging a cursor across the screen. Works especially great with a 360° hinge.

Have you ever built PCs? Macs are significantly more expensive for the same spec

The rest I agree with, it doesn’t help that Windows has been steadily going downhill with each new version…

I agree that the gestures feel great (pretty much the only good part about this mouse imo), but why not just use a track pad instead?

If games, modding uses a lot. It can go to the point of needing more than 32gb, but rarely so.

Usually, you’d want 64gb or more for things like video editing, 3d modeling, running simulations, LLMs, or virtual machines.

I work in IT as PM, you’re pretty close.

Modern technology is glued together NOT random shit that somehow works.

Everything created has been built with a purpose, that’s why it’s not random. However, the longer you go on, the more rigid the architecture becomes, so you start creating workarounds, as doing otherwise takes too much time which you don’t have, because you have a dozen of other more important tasks at hand.

When you glue those solutions together, they work because they’ve been built to work in a specific use case. But it also becomes more convoluted every time, so you really need to dig to fix something you didn’t account for.

Then it becomes so rigid and so convoluted that to fix some issues properly, you’d have to rebuild everything, starting from architecture. And if you can’t make more workarounds to satisfy the demand? You do start all over again.