six times seven

[marnanel]

Counsellor: here's something you can do about anxiety. What if I asked you: what's six times seven?

Marn: (long pause...) well, I have a first in computer science, and I was kept down in maths in primary school because I couldn't memorise my tables. But I can tell you that six squared is thirty-six, so it'll be that plus another six. So that'll be forty, plus two. Forty-two.

C: right, okay. So if you occupy yourself in thinking about things like whether six times seven is forty-two...

M: ...although I suppose I'd be more likely to think of forty-two as six times nine.

C: why?

M: well, do you know much about Douglas Adams?

Comments

[cjsmith]

♥

[simont]

Surely especially in that context, where you get told the number first and then have to decide what's interesting about it!

[gjm11]

Out of curiosity, what was the counsellor's actual point? From the snippet here, I can imagine it being "you can distract yourself from anxious thoughts by thinking about numbers" or "see, even when I ask you a question that's just about numbers your thought processes get onto how you weren't able to learn your multiplication tables; now, here's a way to get past that sort of thing..." or any number of other things. I suspect the actual idea was something I haven't thought of, though.

(Obviously, feel free not to answer if their point was too tangled up with things you'd rather not talk about in kinda-public.)

[marnanel]

I think it was about distraction, but I have forgotten in the time between you posting this comment and me seeing it!

[hitchhiker]

:D