What Eight brings to One

Two numbers rarely meet as equals. The older tables say which pairs help each other, which merely coexist, and which pull.

Eight asks something of One that does not come naturally, and the older tables call that friction. It is also where most of the learning is: the pull is only unbearable when neither will name it. Note that this does not read the same in reverse.

Try this: take the least interesting thing on the list and finish that one first.