[anonymous]

Ah, yes the "I can't fit it to my mental model, therefore it is impossible" argument.

When little, my brother used to mix up the words "more" and "less" while speaking. I don't doubt someone could mix up > and <.

[Chris2048]

It's easy. They're alligator mouths, that always go for the larger number (greedy alligators!)...

[ronaldx]

This genuinely confused me because I thought the larger number would eat the smaller number.

[Chris2048]

The alligator is just the symbol, ignoring the smaller number completely.

[blablabla123]

I used to mix it up in elementary school because the school teacher explained that "<" is "less" and ">" is "more". Even worse, she suggested to memorize it like this: |<leiner = kleiner (german, meaning less)

At some point I realized it's possible to memorize it visually, since then I never mixed it up again

[inthewind]

Yeah people frequently mix up left and right also. And my brother always wrote his numbers backwards or rather left to right (units on the left).