Learning algebra in my 60s
theguardian.com
Learning algebra in my 60s
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Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#2No, but once you have learnt some algebra you'll be in a position to learn other things - electrical physics for example, or audio engineering. These subjects, and many others, use the language of algebra, because algebraic explanations are very compact and easy to follow.
Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#3No, but once you have learnt some algebra you'll be in a position to learn other things - electrical physics for example, or audio engineering. These subjects, and many others, use the language of algebra, because algebraic explanations are very compact and easy to follow.
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Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#4In my opinion, nothing can make you smarter. Learning rationalist techniques may make you better at thinking through problems, learning memory techniques like Memory Palace may improve your memory, using learning techniques like Spaced Repetition may help you learn and retain large amounts of information with the minimum necessary effort, but nothing can make you smarter.
Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#5Probably not. Knowing more stuff doesn't make you "smarter". Nor would mastering kinds of math that many people find challenging prove you are more intelligent. Clearly many intelligent people are not great at math or don't know algebra.
But exercising your curiosity and practicing the art of learning will always increase your mental fitness and the ability to apply your intelligence better. It's always good to keep in shape - mentally too.
I don't think it matters much what the subject is. It doesn't have to be algebra, as long as it captures your interest. Algebra is very challenging because it requires thinking in abstract concepts, so it's a great subject. It will indirectly lead to deeper understanding in many other fields too, including computer science.
Intelligent people are often curious and desire to learn new things, so No I don't think learning algebra makes you smarter - but I think the desire to is a possible symptom of this kind of curiousity.
Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#6In my opinion, nothing can make you smarter. Learning rationalist techniques may make you better at thinking through problems, learning memory techniques like Memory Palace may improve your memory, using learning techniques like Spaced Repetition may help you learn and retain large amounts of information with the minimum necessary effort, but nothing can make you smarter.
What about adderall? /s
Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#7Despite the title, I don't think the article is about algebra "making you smarter", but more whether you can learn it successfully and if by pursuing such an endeavor you can hamper age-induced cognitive decline.
Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#8It's a shame he went to all the trouble of avoiding conventional education (for the wrong reasons), but then still ended up going down an execution rather than concept focused route. As soon as you start memorizing operations and treating math more like a narrow grind only approached through arbitrary problems solved primarily through computation or use of rote application of poorly understood technique, you lose the ability to understand math as anything other than a human attempting to be a computer.
The author expresses his misintuition of variables - there are plenty of simple examples and thought exercises which can inform the intuition. Later he expresses getting mixed up dealing with fractions - this is a clear demonstration that a fundamental understanding of fractions was skipped in order to grind out solutions. Modern math education is spectacularly guilty of going too far too fast.
Fundamental understanding gives exponential results yet most courses try and get the axioms and basics out of the way as fast as possible, working through basic proofs or derivations is cute sideshow, if anything. If the fundamentals are well understood, the applications feel trivial, intuitive, beautiful, clever - when the fundamentals are taken for granted, one word describes the relationship to the rest of the material: arbitrary.
Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#9It's a shame he went to all the trouble of avoiding conventional education (for the wrong reasons), but then still ended up going down an execution rather than concept focused route. As soon as you start memorizing operations and treating math more like a narrow grind only approached through arbitrary problems solved primarily through computation or use of rote application of poorly understood technique, you lose the…
[deleted]
Re: Learning algebra in my 60s
#10In my opinion, nothing can make you smarter. Learning rationalist techniques may make you better at thinking through problems, learning memory techniques like Memory Palace may improve your memory, using learning techniques like Spaced Repetition may help you learn and retain large amounts of information with the minimum necessary effort, but nothing can make you smarter.
What about adderall? /s
Adderall doesn't make you smarter; it just makes you more alert. It helps you focus longer on whatever intellectual task you're working on, be it problem solving or studying. (Not /s)