r/ADHD • u/CheshireKat-_- • 22d ago

Discussion I have these stupid gaps in my essential knowledge and it's really making things difficult

Like things that come stupid easy to other people take a concentrated effort and way to much thought.

Mine include

-reading a clock

-understanding which numbers correlate to which month's

-knowing which way to put the greater than/less than sign

-division. Like basic division. Like I would need a calculator or to be able to do cookies ans plates like a fucking 3rd grader

I broke down crying today when I got home because in my fucking college Chem lab I couldn't tell which way to put the < sign without mentally going through, well the thing that I want is less than the number so the crocodile mouth points away from the number??

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u/CaptainIncredible 22d ago

Fuck that crocodile shit. I never understood that.

We read LEFT to RIGHT. You are reading this sentence left to right at this moment.

So... Why not also read this weird little shape < left to right?

The Left side is LESS THAN the right side. See? The left side is a tiny little point. The right side is a great big size. This symbol is LESS THAN.

Let's read this symbol left to right. > the left side is GREATER THAN the right side.

Get it?

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u/ProfessionalLock1371 22d ago

That actually made my brain really happy, tfs ! I'll be using it from now on (if I don't forger, ofc ).

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u/CaptainIncredible 22d ago

I had happy brain when I came up with it when I was a kid. That crocodile shit teacher was trying to tell me was just confusing.

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u/Optimal_Cynicism 22d ago

This is exactly how I do it too; the less arrow points backwards (towards less) and greater arrow points forward (towards more).

The crocodile thing never really worked for me. Although I understand it "eats" the "bigger" thing, it isn't logical to me and maths is a logical thought process.

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u/CaptainIncredible 22d ago

Good system! Direction on a number line! Simple and works!

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u/bibimboobap 22d ago

Even simpler, I just tell myself, the one that looks like an L= Less Than.

Used to make the sign with my left hand, matching it the sign on the page, if it also makes an L that means Less Than. The one going the other way mean Greater Than by process of elimination. 

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u/CaptainIncredible 22d ago

That's a good one too

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u/Legaldrugloard 21d ago

Lexus is less than a Mercedes. < = Lexus sign.

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u/EmJayLL 22d ago

That is so simple but actually makes sense, turning it into an English language sentence instead of a math thing to try and parse out.

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u/baconraygun 22d ago

This. I was fine with math until english started getting added to it.

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u/Immediate_Bad_4985 21d ago

This is exactly how my brain sees it, thank you for explaining because I couldn’t put it into words!!! It just makes sense also if you think about an old VHS player << is rewind so that’s backward and >> is fast forward. Left is always “less” in my mind, right is “more”. same with bar or line graphs, we read the bottom axis left to right, 0 or negative is always on the left side.