Back in grad school, whenever a statistical problem had us stumped, we would joke about having a bad case of dyscalcula, comparing ourselves to dyslexics because the problem was so puzzling we weren’t sure we understood the question, let alone had a clue about finding the answer. Well, dyscalcula is making its real-world debut.
Oh goody! another friggin’ made-up disability just begging for an army of thumbsuckers to cater to it. I can already see the Math Ed folks gearing up to teach college-level courses in counting your fingers. Right behind them come the Food Nazis, who’ll jump on this to explain that dyscalcula leads to obesity due to Poor Portion Perception. Then come the financial regulators, the traffic safety gang, the FDA, the FTC, the PTA, etc. etc. This will be a research (and comedy) goldmine.
Dollars to donuts (that’s 2:1 for you dyscalcics), most of these poor performers catch on just fine if their baby sister tries to short them on the split of the Halloween candy or a piece of cake.
