Daniel Tammet’s Thinking in Numbers
“According to psychologists, humans can count in flashes only up to quantities of four. We see three buttons on a shirt and say “three”. We glance at four books on a table and say “four”. No conscious thought attends this process. It seems to us as effortless as the speech with which we pronounce the words.
The same psychologists say the smallest numbers loom largest in our minds….. It’s one possible explanation for why only the commonest qualities feel REAL to us. Why most numbers we accept only on the word of a teacher or a text book.
Forty to us is but a vague notion.
Fourteen on the other hand is a sensation within our reach.
Four is something solid and definite.”
Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet.
Book of the Week, and not to be missed on Iplayer
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