I'm not surprised, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Algorithms rule the world, from 'Carmen de Algorismo' to 'Algorithms to Live By'. Understanding math has always been, and will probably remain, power.

Fascinating. The Carmen de Algorismo was a real bridge between the ancient abacus and the modern calculator—it's a testament to humanity's ingenuity, turning even something as dry as numbers into art. Charlemagne was ahead of his time in recognizing the importance of education and knowledge in governing an empire.

so they had poems about numbers and we got tiktok dances, civilization sure is going places lol

Back then they used everything to make stuff easier to remember. Now we just Google it. Shows how tech-dependent we've become. I'd love to get my hands on a copy of that codex, might be neat to try it out during my next D&D campaign as an in-game puzzle.

Early 'Excel for Dummies' haha, that's gold. Now I'm wondering if there were any cheat sheets or cliff notes versions for the finance guys in a rush.

Actually, the use of poetry in the 'Carmen de Algorismo' was a clever mnemonic device. Pre-literate and semi-literate societies had incredible oral traditions. This 'multiplication table' was part of that lineage and gave merchants a massive leg-up in business dealings.

Are we sure about this? Poems for accounting just seems... off. Got any sources or texts? I need to see this to believe it.

Whoa, Carmen de Algorismo sounds wild. Imagine memorizing poems to do math lol. It kinda makes me think about those memory palace techniques but for numbers. Bet businessmen back then had some mad mental calculation skills.