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counting
October 2009 
What's the best thing about numbers?
Posted on Mar 14th, 2009
by 
Heartseed
Heartseed
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for March 14, 2009:
They're a tasty snack for the logical mind!
Access: Public
I love this answer … my significant other is a slightly eccentric genius who loves logic, math, counting, and still helping people (trauma surgeon by trade!), and I often watch him playing advanced complicated Sudoku puzzles on the computer; his mind absolutely craves it.
There is a part of the brain that craves certainty, that wants everything named and boxed and labelled and can’t abide by the unknown, the non-logic of intuition, the subtlies of infinite possibilities, etc.
The certainty of numbers is more comforting than any words. Words are still shifty things that have various meanings depending on whose mouth they come out of, with what intention.
As a Mensan, I encounter lots of bright eccentric folks like your husband, and have learned that as a highly intuitive person, I have to recognize / accept / understand that craving for certainty in those folks and know that I cannot ever satisfy their very real need for absolute certainty when I am working from my hunches/gut feelings.
On the other hand, I have worked over 20 years as a computer programmer and personally understand the tastiness of logic and certainty.
Thank you for your comment!