Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#31

Post by michael_nielsen » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 6:29 PM UTC

Maro wrote: post #30

michael_nielsen wrote: post #27

I was a theoretical physicist for 13 years, and struggled a lot with this question. I found it very useful to develop several different styles for reading mathematics and physics. Mostly I did this in the context of reading papers, not books, but the comments below are easily adapted to books. One unusual but very useful style was to set a goal like reading 15 papers in 3 hours. I use the term "reading" here in an un…

Here's my list of distributed papers, I think you're missing quite a few good ones: http://bytepawn.com/readings-in-distributed-systems/ But, more importantly, I'm curious about the 15/3-routine. How often do you do this? Recently I subscribed to the arxiv RSS (astro-ph.co, gr-qc), there's lots of papers uploaded daily, but most don't look very interesting, so 15 interesting ones would be ~1 weeks worth for me.

That's an interesting list on distributed computing, thanks.

As regards how often I do this: I go through periods where I do it a lot (sometimes several times in a week), and then months where I don't do it at all. I do it thematically (i.e., with closely related papers), so I've never tried doing something like what you suggest with the arXiv's recent papers. They're usually not all that closely connected.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#32

Post by keefe » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 6:35 PM UTC

Yeah, I have a wide variety of very interesting books collecting dust on my shelves. I don't know why really, I think maybe I spent my time in graduate school immersed in theory and these last few years I have been completely focused on understanding how that theory relates to practice. Maybe the pendulum will swing the other way again once I have more free time.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#33

Post by justlearning » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 6:38 PM UTC

Thanks HN, Many times a rhetorical question is answered in ways more than i can ask for. I have few attributes that I suspect are behind my depression. This being one of them. I have been doing the same- but unlike the OP and others, I get depressed that I bought a book and by not reading it completely, I didn't give its due. I take it very personally that I have Cormen's Algorithms and not gone past chapter1. It's like insulting the writers- i don't know if you get it. It's like you want to be the most passionate religious man on earth and the holy bible you really wanted to read and you know that is what you want is lying on the shelf, while you are trying to sort floating divs on a web page...and whenever i pick up a book, i will hit a block where it gets difficult to understand and because i am used to reading other books in a more casual way, i come to tell myself how dumb i am. i convince myself this to be true when i read about everyone i follow and all the books they have read...it's a vicious cycle that's been eating me inside out - in almost a literal sense.

...But many a times, I will just grab a book (anything - even non technical) and read it while sitting on the throne - read a few lines and ponder over it. my favorite is sicp - which i have not completed after having it well over a year. The few minutes of pondering is much more valuable compared to the regular day, when I am less patient and I want to do some "quick fix" things. I am so glad to find that I am not alone to read parts in between.

so @zkz, thank you for posting this question. The answers posted removed one more attribute which added to my depression. many more to overcome. what a day! I feel so relieved! - i would say this if I met you, so posted it here.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#34

Post by aheilbut » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 6:42 PM UTC

bluishgreen wrote: post #21

The problem with math books. Succinctness. There you have it. This is the single most annoying problem with succinctness. When you go over a line of text sometimes it is justified to spend 3 hours with it. But sometimes its not, its just something that you are not seeing. The thing with math books is you cant tell if it needs 3 hours or 2 minutes because all the lines look the same and the succinct ones kinda jump at…

I'm surprised that nobody has made online math books where you can click on a succinct line of clever math and expand it, in place, to the two-page explanation.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#35

Post by chrisduesing » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 6:56 PM UTC

bluishgreen wrote: post #21

The problem with math books. Succinctness. There you have it. This is the single most annoying problem with succinctness. When you go over a line of text sometimes it is justified to spend 3 hours with it. But sometimes its not, its just something that you are not seeing. The thing with math books is you cant tell if it needs 3 hours or 2 minutes because all the lines look the same and the succinct ones kinda jump at…

This is really interesting advice. I have spent a lot of time lately considering how I could become more effective at teaching myself math. The community aspect is fundamental to my success as a programmer, but that is something that I have not come across for math. Where would you suggest someone find peers and or mentors?

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#36

Post by drhodes » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 7:19 PM UTC

chrisduesing wrote: post #35

bluishgreen wrote: post #21

The problem with math books. Succinctness. There you have it. This is the single most annoying problem with succinctness. When you go over a line of text sometimes it is justified to spend 3 hours with it. But sometimes its not, its just something that you are not seeing. The thing with math books is you cant tell if it needs 3 hours or 2 minutes because all the lines look the same and the succinct ones kinda jump at…

This is really interesting advice. I have spent a lot of time lately considering how I could become more effective at teaching myself math. The community aspect is fundamental to my success as a programmer, but that is something that I have not come across for math. Where would you suggest someone find peers and or mentors?

there's a #math channel on irc.freenode

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#37

Post by caffeine » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 7:25 PM UTC

michael_nielsen wrote: post #27

I was a theoretical physicist for 13 years, and struggled a lot with this question. I found it very useful to develop several different styles for reading mathematics and physics. Mostly I did this in the context of reading papers, not books, but the comments below are easily adapted to books. One unusual but very useful style was to set a goal like reading 15 papers in 3 hours. I use the term "reading" here in an un…

Agree with Michael's points. My strategy: Buy problem books instead of text books!

- I KNOW I won't be able to finish them. That means it's OK not to, so I don't feel bad - but also that I shouldn't buy too many.

- The material within is bite-sized. Early problems teach you what you need for later ones, and you can always stop and come back later.

- Constant feedback is rewarding. Also, some say you only understand what you create for yourself.

- If I'm not advancing at all in a problem book, then I find open books on the internet, or (better!) I buy the Dover Publications paperback of the book by a master/inventor of the field, usually for $7 or so.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#38

Post by samuel » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 7:28 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #13

stcredzero wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this same inventory control problem with cookbooks. I solved it by making a rule for myself: No new cookbooks until I cook 30% of the recipes in all the ones I already have. I have this same inventory control problem with computer science books. Good textbooks are expensive. If you implement a utilization rule like this, you can save yourself a lot of money on books you never end up reading. B&N, Borders and th…

Buy older editions of textbooks and also the "Eastern Economy" (read: china/india printed on cheap paper) editions. You will save a pretty penny, and thermodynamics hasn't changed much since 1975. (Obviously this won't work for machine learning.)

Where do you buy such kind of books? I can't find them in Ebay anymore. Probably it was not legal to export them.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#39

Post by bluishgreen » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 7:39 PM UTC

chrisduesing wrote: post #35

bluishgreen wrote: post #21

The problem with math books. Succinctness. There you have it. This is the single most annoying problem with succinctness. When you go over a line of text sometimes it is justified to spend 3 hours with it. But sometimes its not, its just something that you are not seeing. The thing with math books is you cant tell if it needs 3 hours or 2 minutes because all the lines look the same and the succinct ones kinda jump at…

This is really interesting advice. I have spent a lot of time lately considering how I could become more effective at teaching myself math. The community aspect is fundamental to my success as a programmer, but that is something that I have not come across for math. Where would you suggest someone find peers and or mentors?

If you are a good programmer its very easy to become friends with math/phys/cs profs. They typically have many projects that they are not looking at at the moment for lack of programming power. Offer a few hours a week of your time to a particular project that you feel interested in. You will learn crazy lots. This is what a "Grad Student" is. But IMO this is much better than being a grad student and suffocating through the bureau-crazy.

Re: Ask HN: Do you read math & hard science books? How?

#40

Post by chrisduesing » Sat, Jun 20, 2009, 7:50 PM UTC

bluishgreen wrote: post #39

chrisduesing wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really interesting advice. I have spent a lot of time lately considering how I could become more effective at teaching myself math. The community aspect is fundamental to my success as a programmer, but that is something that I have not come across for math. Where would you suggest someone find peers and or mentors?

If you are a good programmer its very easy to become friends with math/phys/cs profs. They typically have many projects that they are not looking at at the moment for lack of programming power. Offer a few hours a week of your time to a particular project that you feel interested in. You will learn crazy lots. This is what a "Grad Student" is. But IMO this is much better than being a grad student and suffocating thro…

Are you suggesting trading programming time for mentoring time, or just programming a math teacher's projects as a means to learn?

How would you initiate something like that anyway? I would feel more than a little awkward wandering on to a local campus and knocking on doors in the math dept. Are there any online resources/communities?