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Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

courses.csail.mit.edu

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Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#61

Post by layer8 »

mgaunard wrote: post #16
october8140 wrote: post #2

I always see lists of like 100 MUST HAVE books for Computer Science. Is there like a top 5 must have books for Computer Science?

It's more useful to practice programming through projects. Then once you feel you're missing the knowledge for a particular problem you're trying to solve, read up about that one.

Computer science is to programming what physics is to engineering. They are not the same thing. You can do some programming without knowing computer science, but a general knowledge of computer science will give you a much more solid foundation, and for some aspects is indispensable.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#62

Post by teshaq »

danielfalbo wrote: post #13

Context: Thomson Leighton is the founder of Akamai Lectures here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB7540DEDD482705B One of the set of lectures on the internet I loved the most.

a couple of other resources:

- More recent lectures on MIT OCW https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-1200j-mathematics-for-computer...

- A well-paced course that follows the textbook and uses online videos done by another one of the authors (Albert Meyer) of the textbook: https://openlearninglibrary.mit.edu/courses/course-v1:OCW+6....

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#63

Post by layer8 »

goldenjm wrote: post #51
davepeck wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give https://www.paper2audio.com/ a try; it is targeted at just this use case. It’s a Seattle-local startup.

I'm the Paper2Audio founder and I'm thrilled to see you recommending us here. Paper2Audio specializes in narrating complex documents like research papers to you. It is free for personal use. This PDF exceeds our page limit, so you would have to split it up. We're working on increasing our page limits.

This is great! However, would it be possible to add dark mode support to the PDF view? Otherwise I have to manually follow along using Adobe Reader (which has a night mode), or separately convert PDFs to inverted-color versions. The latter is relatively straightforward, but having it integrated into the viewer would be much more convenient.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#64

Post by currysausage »

maqp wrote: post #17
october8140 wrote: post #2

I always see lists of like 100 MUST HAVE books for Computer Science. Is there like a top 5 must have books for Computer Science?

Top 5 will never cover the field. Here's my top 10 * Brookshear and Brylow - Computer Science - An Overview * Forta - Teach yourself SQL in 10 minutes * Stallings - Computer Organization and Architecture * Stallings - Operating Systems - Internals and Design Principles * CLRS * Kurose, Ross - Computer Networking - A Top Down Approach * Sipser - Introduction to The Theory of Computation * Stallings, Brown - Computer S…

When I need a refresher on the basics of Python, I refer to Python Distilled, and when I want a deep dive, I turn to Fluent Python. Reading these books makes me feel like I'm sitting next to an experienced, witty colleague.

I will take a look at Python Crash Course.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#65

Post by sn9 »

PanoptesYC wrote: post #19

I've not worked through a large book of problems like this before. At risk of sounding silly, are there solutions to the sample problems? I've given a few a go but can't find the answers anywhere to check my work.

Math Academy has a comparable Discrete Math course that shows you how to solve every problem after you submit a solution and incorporates spaced repetition.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#66

Post by fuzztester »

eimrine wrote: post #39
fuzztester wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"1-2 pages" Simplifying: -1 pages.

Excuse me! I am a J programmer, we have right-to-left execution order.

J programmer, huh? You are right of left, which is inexcusable, so, by order, you will soon be summarily executed.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#67

Post by ky3 »

AstroBen wrote: post #52
ky3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The logical skills to evaluate the output of a LLM are the same skills brought to bear reading any book. What makes you trust this textbook then? Textbooks are not infallible.

Good textbooks have gone through expert reviews and multiple iterations of improvement. That can't be said of an LLM answering your personalized questions or the book problem But why not both?

> Good textbooks have gone through expert reviews and multiple iterations of improvement.

That's an assumption increasingly false, unfortunately. The spirit of collegiality has been beaten back.

Far better to hone logical skills that sift between fact and error than to rely on social reputation. Ironically we're discussing a text designed to do exactly that.

The savvy LLM user already knows to be on the lookout for falsehood, if not bad pedagogy. That's a benefit, not a drawback of LLMs.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#68

Post by MaxBarraclough »

ky3 wrote: post #49

re: Chapter 15.8 on the so-called pigeonhole principle Following Dijkstra’s EWD1094, here’s a way to solve the hairs-on-heads problem eschewing the language of pigeonholes and employing the fact that the mean is at most the maximum of a non-empty bag of numbers. We are given that Boston has 500,000 non-bald people. The human head has at most 200,000 hairs. Show that there must be at least 3 people in Boston who have…

For good measure here's a link to Dijkstra's The undeserved status of the pigeon-hole principle.

https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD109...

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]

#69

Post by ky3 »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #68
ky3 wrote: post #49

re: Chapter 15.8 on the so-called pigeonhole principle Following Dijkstra’s EWD1094, here’s a way to solve the hairs-on-heads problem eschewing the language of pigeonholes and employing the fact that the mean is at most the maximum of a non-empty bag of numbers. We are given that Boston has 500,000 non-bald people. The human head has at most 200,000 hairs. Show that there must be at least 3 people in Boston who have…

For good measure here's a link to Dijkstra's The undeserved status of the pigeon-hole principle . https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD109...

For even better measure here's a slice of HN reactions to EWD1094:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46085897

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