Neil deGrasse Tyson on Why You Should Never Say, "I Will Never Use This"

Neil deGrasse Tyson has a message for anyone who's ever looked at the board during math class and thought, "There's no way I'm going to use this information outside of school." While it's true that you may never again be asked to solve for x or calculate when trains will collide based on when they left the station, just learning how to approach basic math- and science-related topics helps your brain become a better problem solver in general. In the video above, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why it's so important for even the most math-phobic among us to keep an open mind during Calculus class: 

"...the act of learning how to do the math establishes a new kind of brain wiring in your mind, a kind of problem solving brain wiring. So it’s not about what you learn, it’s about what methods, tools, and tactics you have to develop in order to solve the problem that you may never see again for the rest of your life. But you will see other problems where these methods and tools will become immensely valuable to you.”

[h/t: The Kid Should See This]