Against Algebra

I'm confused - the author never did a word problem or shopped in a mega-store? If the price is 3 for $5, what's the price for 1? 3x=5, x=5/3. This is algebra. Unless there's some more-complex definition being assumed... If this is too complex to visualize, I would think that maintaining a checking account would also be too complex to visualize.

YMMV. I heartily dislike memorization-based fields and don't really do well in them. I have no problems picking up piles of arcane information (programming, military history), these are interesting. Botany, for example, would be on the order of teeth pulling. Organic chemistry, as discussed in another thread, damn near death to my GPA.

Edit: I've taken algebra courses. I tried to take a statistics course. How can one do the latter w/o the former and it's a series of equations and formula?

> But I’m terrible in areas such as algebra, which rely entirely on abstraction and provide nothing to visualize.

but also

> I could do trigonometry by visualizing, for example, the cables on a suspension bridge. But algebra: no.

????