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harryp_peng | 1 year ago

But humans aren't 'original' ourselves. How do you do 3*9? You memorized it. It's striking how humans could reason at all.

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oarsinsync|1 year ago

> How do you do 3*9? You memorized it

I put my hands out, count to the third finger from the left, and put that finger down. I then count the fingers to the left (2) and count the fingers to the right (2 + hand aka 5) and conclude 27.

I have memorised the technique, but I definitely never memorised my nine times table. If you’d said ‘6’, then the answer would be different, as I’d actually have to sing a song to get to the answer.