Why Guessing Is Undervalued

Quick, take a guess: About how many feet high is an eight-story building? Approximately how many tons does the average pickup truck weigh? About how many oranges must be squeezed to yield a gallon of juice?

Maybe you gave these your best shot — or maybe you skimmed right over them, certain that such empty conjecture isn’t worth your time. If you fall into the second group, you may want to reconsider. The science of learning is demonstrating that the ability to make accurate estimates is closely tied to the ability to understand and solve problems. Estimation, this research shows, is not an act of wild speculation but a highly sophisticated and valuable skill that, some experts say, is often given short shrift in the curriculum. “Too much mathematical rigor teaches rigor mortis,” says Sanjoy Mahajan, an associate professor of applied science and engineering at Olin College. Many math textbooks, he notes, “teach how to solve exactly stated problems exactly, whereas life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions.”    Full Read