I woke up in the middle of the night, utterly confused. I had been dreaming—of an equation. I was in a classroom, and on the blackboard, there was a simple equation written in chalk: 0.8 * 0.2 = 0.16.

In grade school, you were probably constantly drilled on mathematics. Whether it be multiplication tables, simple addition, or complicated division, it was taught over and over again that quick math ...