Math is hard. I often say this as a joke, but recently I found out the truth in the statement.
While working on a promotional deal, my colleague and I set up a pricing structure that we thought made sense. The more someone purchased, the more they received for free. In our minds, it was a way to encourage people to purchase more while giving an increasingly better deal.
Then, an acquaintance called me about the promotion.
She had looked at the numbers differently. When she calculated the cost per item at each level, she came to a different conclusion than we had. She wondered if we had made a mistake in the pricing. From her perspective, the benefit wasn’t necessarily greater with the larger purchase.
And that’s when I discovered that math is hard. Both ways of doing the math was true.
More importantly, I remembered that sometimes two ways of looking at the same thing can both make sense. That realization made me think about how often I want life to work like a math problem. There should be a right answer. One way should be correct, and the other should be wrong.
I don’t particularly like the reminder that two things can be true at the same time. I tend to believe that there is one right way of doing things. I was certainly raised with that mindset. When I believe that something is right, it can be easy to assume that all the other options must be wrong.
But life rarely fits quite so neatly into an equation, like our promotional deal.
Good intentions can still offend. An opportunity can be exciting for one person while creating disappointment for another. Leaving one home can be sad even as moving into a new home marks the dawn of a new season. In each case, two things are true at the same time.
Maybe that is part of the complexity of being human. We each see life from our own vantage point, shaped by our experiences, expectations, and circumstances. What looks like a good experience to me may feel very different to someone else.
We had the best intentions with our promotional deal. Someone else simply saw it through a different lens. Neither perspective had to erase the other.
And that’s where communication and empathy become so important. I may not always be able to see a situation the way someone else does. But I can listen. I can ask questions. I can make room for another perspective.
Because sometimes math really is hard, and sometimes two things are true at the same time.