talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

First there were red states and blue states, and now David Brooks is suggesting another divide: numbers people and paragraph people, and how/why that distinction suggests support of Bush or Kerry. Amusing. On the Times site and here, if the link's expired.

Historically, I test higher (on standardarized tests) in math than verbal, but I have experienced horrible math anxiety (despite being reminded that I test high enough to be placed into mid-level calculus without having taken a calculus class), dislike classic economics with its indifference curves and life-in-a-vacuum scenarios, and still cringe at the sign of an integral. But I am getting better, and to prove it:

∫ ∫ ∫ ∫

There. Almost no cringing, but then again, I wasn't typing those as part of a response to a problem set.

Despite what the test results tell me, I'm far happier surrounded by my books or books generally--in fact, Rizzoli's on 57th Street in NYC is one of the happiest places I can think of, and I could hide there for several hours, quite content. I'm finishing my third year of law school, and excel at contract drafting. Often I'm more comfortable with "it depends" or "maybe" than the binary yes/no, on/off way of thinking. And yet...I've been told I can be very judgmental (=binary?) on some issues.

This also brings to mind something from my younger years--people I knew (both of my age group and older) who would vote Democratic locally, but Republican nationally. Does that say more about the Chicago/Cook County Democratic party, or just that this type of number/paragraph split-personality is an indicator of something more? Nature, or nurture? Or simply going with the flow, since voting for the local Democratic ticket is a no-brainer when there are very few local Republican candidates. Perhaps this isn't an analysis one can apply to Chicago/Cook County voting. Perhaps I should get back to questions I can answer...