Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

neilwithdata.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 216 posts

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#61

Post by gherkinnn »

scranglis wrote: post #15
gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

Our site (brilliant.org) is designed for your use-case, among others.

I use Brilliant for the same reason.

I found Khan to have too many endless lists of equasions, while Brilliant is much better at building intuition.

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#62

Post by laichzeit0 »

peatfreak wrote: post #52

I'm pretty skeptical about these "best of" lists of books for self-directed mathematics education. I have my own "best of" list that is very different to this list, although there are a couple of crossovers. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a university library (or libraries) I would _highly_ recommend inquiring about access to their general collection. I was also fortunate enough to study mathematics to…

> I recently purchased volume 1 of my favorite calculus and analysis book.

Which book would that be if I might ask? I'm wagering... Courant? ;)

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#63

Post by ssivark »

gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

IIRC, the Schaum series books have been very good for this level. Very concise, no nonsense, gets to the point simply, and has a bunch of exercises.

One thing I’ve realized from experience: most books with lots of pictures and thick stacks are faking it (i.e. most college and school math/physics textbooks are not even worth the paper they’re printed on). The whole conceptual basis of these subjects is to distill everything down to a few simple ideas, which can then be applied in different contexts. The concise books typically tend to be much better at conveying the essence without bullshit. You just need to read a couple of hundred pages without getting stressed, rather than getting lost in an 800 page book and losing the big picture.

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#64

Post by sn9 »

gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

I would use Khan Academy. Start at a level that feels too easy, even if it's elementary school math. The key to learning anything is to start at a level that feels too easy and gradually increase difficulty.

As you finish a subject, see if there's a corresponding book in the Art of Problem Solving store [0]; you can revisit the subject at a deeper level that will strengthen your foundation. The AoPS books will also expose you to areas useful in programming like discrete mathematics.

Before any of the above, take Coursera's Learning How to Learn course. You'll learn lots of effective strategies to get the most out of your efforts. For example, you can use Anki [1] to remember definitions and concepts you've managed to understand and to schedule review of problems you've already solved.

[0] https://artofproblemsolving.com/store/recommendations.php

[1] http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#65

Post by vector_spaces »

gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

I like books by Ron Larson, particularly his Trigonometry and Applied Calculus books -- the applied calculus title (intended for social science and business majors) vs his "Calculus" book (intended for math, physics, and engineering majors) is much gentler for people seeing this material for the first time. Although I do highly recommend his Calculus book once you have the other book down.

Gelfand also has some nice texts on Algebra, Trig, and Geometry that are reasonably cheap, especially if used.

I'm older and went back to school later in life to study math, and these are the books I learned that material (for the first time -- I flunked math thru high school) from.

Here are the exact titles and ISBN-10s:

Ron Larson, Calculus: An Applied Approach, ISBN: 0618218696

Ron Larson, Trigonometry, ISBN: 1133954332

Israel Gelfand, Trigonometry, ISBN: 0817639144

Israel Gelfand, Geometry, ISBN:1071602977

Israel Gelfand, Algebra, ISBN: 0817636773

And as others have mentioned, Khan Academy is pretty good, although I tend to prefer patrickJMT's explanations a bit more: http://patrickjmt.com/

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#66

Post by OJFord »

gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

> (Also, curse the Greeks for not using more idiomatic variables. ∑ would never pass code review, what an entirely unreadable identifier)

S for Sum, T for Total, N for Number, I for Index, etc. might though.

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#67

Post by puritanicdev »

gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

I'm in the same shoes, and as ridiculous as it sounds but I've been in programming (self-taught) for 10 years now without an especially good knowledge of math. I've been slacking in HS on math classes, despite the fact that I loved math and was really good once I sat to listen, practice and understand the material. Also, I'm painfully aware of the fact that my math is really bad and that I'm missing on utilizing it in my job, so I've decided to practice at least one hour a day on Khan Academy, and eventually enroll to comp-sci university this year.

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#68

Post by rustybolt »

gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

Consider getting a private maths teacher. At this level it's probably not very expensive but you'll be able to learn so much more efficiently.

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#69

Post by c3534l »

gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

Khan Academy. Start with Khan Academy.

Re: Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner

#70

Post by rustybolt »

puritanicdev wrote: post #67
gavinray wrote: post #6

I know this is going to be the case for likely nobody, but I have browsed most of the self-study math threads that pop up here as a forever-on-my-todo-list thing and I have a remark to make: I have yet to find a guide that does not start with the assumption that you graduated highschool. That is a very reasonable assumption to make. We are in a community of technology and engineering, it would be a bit ridiculous to…

I'm in the same shoes, and as ridiculous as it sounds but I've been in programming (self-taught) for 10 years now without an especially good knowledge of math. I've been slacking in HS on math classes, despite the fact that I loved math and was really good once I sat to listen, practice and understand the material. Also, I'm painfully aware of the fact that my math is really bad and that I'm missing on utilizing it i…

What is an example where you missed mathematical knowledge to do your job? Honestly curious, I never needed any math during programming for my job.
Post reply on HN