How is maths important in our lives?

I want to start off by saying that this is not going to be a long fragmented piece about how you-need-to-learn-maths-at-school-kids because one day you may have to do some simple adding and subtracting. Y’know, when you grow up and get a real job and have incomes/outcomes and budgets and life to deal with. No, this is going to be an article about the real maths we encounter. The - how many minutes in an hour, how to tell the time on a 24 hour clock (which to my horror is still a major task for some of the population, how? I’m not sure either.) The real Maths in our lives. The schedules. Do you make schedules? Yes of course you do. And, do you stick to them? Perhaps sometimes, depending on what you do for a living, I suppose?

As soon as you mention the word timetables or schedules, an instant groan appears across the sweat-drenched acne-ridden teenager in the corner who now has to slave away from his Warhammer for a night. Or, the middle-aged bearded man who has to peel himself off his rotten sofa, drop the weed he was going to smoke and concentrate on a given task. I may be a bit harsh here, though it’s the lack of freedom which is the main contributor as to why many object the idea of scheduling.

Infact there are several kinds of freedom and usually a misunderstanding between two of them leads to a confusion.

First: the freedom to choose, to perform a free act.
It means that a human person cannot be forced to perform any free act against his/her will. This a negative form of freedom, because it is freedom from external necessity (such as physical coercion)

Second: the freedom to determine oneself to form oneself and one’s act. This is a positive freedom for one’s goal.

According to: The Augustine Club, at Columbia University.

Apparently a common understanding of the latter explanation can lead you to believe you’re not free at all. Let me explain with an example we’ve all experienced once or twice before. It’s a sunny day, so one might be tempted to enjoy a day at the beach or the park. There is nothing freer, in my opinion than being at one with nature. Although if you spend the day have fun then it could result in failure in your exam. Therefore, if you study then you become “free” to pass the exam and the new (or revised) knowledge could enable you to pass and better fulfil your goal in life.

Schedules are important because they me the: “ability to do what I want with my life as a whole”. In a mixed up kind of way, Maths is essential in our life, and no, I did not take Maths further than the compulsory.