Ask HN: How did you learn math notation?

Also it's perhaps more likely to occur to the person using the frob notation that maybe they should define frob somwewhere.

They do arithmetic's perfectly.

> You're going to tell me that if I want to use math, I have to let go of every preconception I had and crawl into Plato's cave, to see the light in the darkness.

No, math is a huge with an extreme amount of flexibility and power. You have lists of solutions like this one, you can add those in a program and then have the program look them up and spit out answers, with maybe some simple algebra testing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_series

But nobody will be able to just program all solutions to all math problems like that, or give you a bible of everything to look up, as nobody knows what math is useful to you specifically. This is why every field that applies math tend to create their own subfield in math, like mathematical physics or chemistry or statistics or computer science. They create their own compendiums of useful notation and results that you can use. Nobody understands even a fraction of all of that and where it is useful, instead you will have to understand what discipline the paper you are reading is coming from, usually noted somewhere on the paper, and then look that up. For someone doing computer science you mostly look at the subfields statistics, probability, combinatorics and algorithmic complexity. Most of those papers will be written by people who do math mostly on the side though, not pure mathematicians. Pure mathematicians mostly works on problems that are too abstract for programming. (Pure vs applied, probability statistics and combinatorics are examples of applied math fields).

Edit: So from my perspective the main problem you have is that CS professors have yet fleshed out and formalized the subfield Computer Science math. When I studied higher level physics all the math was taught by physics professors, since mathematicians doesn't understand that math, it is mostly developed by physicists. Why doesn't CS do the same? You can't expect mathematicians to do that work for your field, as there are too many fields depending on math and too few mathematicians to handle everything.

So does abacus. Even something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A is capable of doing arithmetic. Does that mean that the marbles somehow understand what addition is?

> look them up and spit out answers,

Wolfram Alpha does this, and let me tell you: things I couldn't understand listening to lectures and trying to work through handbooks (well, most of them were hand-me-downs from the '60s, so take that as you will), became clear in just a few days of work. I didn't cancel my subscription for 2 years after that, out of gratitude.

But, most of the papers out there don't use interactive platforms for publishing. Even though they could. But as you said, that would be too much work, so they simply don't. I accepted it, it's all good now.

> Pure mathematicians mostly works on problems that are too abstract for programming.

I was pretty sure we're not talking about "pure" math. I mean, we both agree that that particular branch is of interest to a tiny minority. Of course the pure mathematicians can stay inside their ivory tower forever, nobody cares. Notice that I repeated the word "use" multiple times. I was trying to imply having a goal that's not mathematical in nature.

EDIT:

> Why doesn't CS do the same? You can't expect mathematicians to do that work for your field, as there are too many fields depending on math and too few mathematicians to handle everything.

I... don't know. That's a very good question. Yes, teaching math in CS depts is generally outsourced to mathematicians. It was like that for me. You may be right, that could be the reason to all my problems.

So, you mean that if we want to have math that's understandable for programmers, we need to make it ourselves? Fair enough if so, I think.

Exactly! Which is why I love it, and why I think it would be good to extend it to encompass more than just that one book, too.

> The problem with papers written by peo I went that route, I knew a few others who did, but most of those I know didn't. ple who apply math is that usually they don't really understand the math, they just apply it, so they can't explain it well.

This is already a third time you said something that made me really think again about the issue...

It sound very plausible. I think I've probably never even seen a proper maths paper. I've been struggling with math, but it didn't occur to me that a part of the reason (other than me being dumb) was that the authors struggled with it too! Were I in their place, I would definitely also try to reduce the amount of explanations to the absolute minimum, so that there's less of a chance I'll be called out for it.

EDIT:

> I went that route, I knew a few others who did, but most of those I know didn't.

I'm not joking, this is very serious: is it possible to learn from you somewhere/somehow? Because you're incredible, honestly, your patience is not running out even now, this deep into comments thread; and you really can speak in programming - this much I can see - and I think you're at least as competent on the other side (though I obviously can't judge it myself, so I'm deferring to (your) authority that I came to believe in). I'd be incredibly happy if I could somehow get a bit of your help.

(Seriously, I'm not sarcastic or anything, this is 100% honest. EDIT2: well, I still disagree with you on some points :P but I think if it's from you, I wouldn't have a problem with actually listening to you)

You're not the only one - I also hated some of the things you've said about programming; I couldn't help it, programming is a large part of my identity, so I got defensive really fast.

But that doesn't matter, I mean, we're just talking here, I think none of us has really any bad intentions, and I really benefited from this exchange a lot. And it's not like you wanted to specifically hurt me with what you said, so even if I felt hurt I won't cry you a river because of that :)

> If you want to talk about something you can reach

Thank you! Saved it. The thing is, I have this inferiority complex caused by not understanding much about math even if I try to learn it. In college I was already good at programming, so I didn't have much interest or need to learn math back then. And later, when I realized that it would actually be a good idea to learn some, I found myself completely alone with it. I mean, nobody around me cared at all, there were no lecturers to go and ask questions to, no peers that would be solving the same problems at the same time, nothing, just the Internet, Wolfram, and a lot of head banging. I realized too late that I've made it this hard for me basically myself.

But what's done is done, so I started thinking about how to cope with the situation. And I came up with the idea that if someone explained maths to me in terms I'm familiar with from programming, it would be much easier for me to digest. But, there are no materials like that. That's understandable given the very specific path you'd need to take to be able to write or create them... And you've taken that exact path. Honestly, at this point I wouldn't mind you calling me an idiot and programming a children's game, if only I could understand the things that were eluding me for years.

Again, thank you. I will write an email, definitely.