Introducing... crumbs!

Hello friends! I've decided to launch a new series on the blog called crumbs! Every now and then, I'd like to share little stories -- crumbs, if you will -- from behind the scenes of Math3ma. To start us off, I posted (a slightly modified version of) the story below on January 23 on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, so you may have seen this one already. Even so, I thought it'd be a good fit for the blog as well. I have a few more of these quick, soft-topic blurbs that I plan to share throughout the year. So stay tuned! I do hope you'll enjoy this newest addition to Math3ma.

In honor of National Handwriting Day, (Yes, that's a thing.) I feel obliged to share a photo of some of my mathy scribbles. 

While I was tossing out some scrap paper last weekend, I found the note above and just had to take a picture. As you might have noticed by now, I write down everything (EVERYTHING) - including my thoughts - while doing math.

And I remember this note in particular. I was trying to construct something, had an idea, tried it, but it didn't work. And once I realized why it didn't work, I felt dumb for trying it in the first place. 

That was so silly, I thought. What a waste of time.

But I eventually worked it out and moved on to a different problem. And it turned out the key to that solution was contained in the mistake that I had just made.

And this happens ALL THE TIME, y'all.

Punchline?

Handwritten notes are good.

And so are mistakes.

Write on.