Math For Programmers
steve-yegge.blogspot.com
Math For Programmers
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: Math For Programmers
#2What is kind of weird is seeing Information Theory and Kolmogorov Complexity being described as "kind of new".
I guess in some sense it is, but for myself in 2012 I recall first hearing about the work of both Claude Shannon and Andrey Kolmogorov as a university student in 1982 in a first year maths / CS bridging lecture called computational mathematics or some such.
Pretty much everything to do with signals, compression, error correction, etc. happened post the invention of the telegraph - you had Gray Codes (patented Frank Gray ~ 1945ish) popping up in recreational mathematics in the 1880s and being applied to the telegraph by Émile Baudot, from that time forward we see the unfolding of much of what is CS / computational mathematics today.
I guess everything last century is "kind of new" but it is starting to feel as though it's all been around for a while now.
Re: Math For Programmers
#3The last times this post was here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=87393
Re: Math For Programmers
#4I think that in this article Steve discounts the effect of actually doing the math for yourself. It's comparatively easy to read about something and think that you've understood it. It's another thing entirely to be able to do that math on paper and get the 'correct' answer without needing help.
Re: Math For Programmers
#5One big pet peeve from math class: circular functions are taught in "Trigonometry" while imaginary numbers and vectors are lumped together with basic "Calculus" meaning Euler's formula seems like terrifying voodoo for years after it is first described!
Re: Math For Programmers
#6I think that in this article Steve discounts the effect of actually doing the math for yourself. It's comparatively easy to read about something and think that you've understood it. It's another thing entirely to be able to do that math on paper and get the 'correct' answer without needing help.
There's actually a place slightly beyond "able to do it on paper" at which you grok the maths so well that you can apply it in non-obvious situations without any conscious effort. I'm not sure how to get there in general, but I've noticed that I'm more likely to be able to do this for subjects that I learned in proof-heavy classes.
Re: Math For Programmers
#7The last times this post was here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=87393 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16006 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1450483
I actually needed to read this again... and perfect timing, too.
Hmm... a feed sprinkled with systematic reposts of things that you enjoy, that motivate you, or that you don't want to forget. Has anyone tried that?
Re: Math For Programmers
#8I think that in this article Steve discounts the effect of actually doing the math for yourself. It's comparatively easy to read about something and think that you've understood it. It's another thing entirely to be able to do that math on paper and get the 'correct' answer without needing help.
There's actually a place slightly beyond "able to do it on paper" at which you grok the maths so well that you can apply it in non-obvious situations without any conscious effort. I'm not sure how to get there in general, but I've noticed that I'm more likely to be able to do this for subjects that I learned in proof-heavy classes.
I've always envied people who could do that. A friend of mine told his mathematics professor a riddle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_permutation_statistics#O...) that had taken my friend hours to logic out. The professor began talking it out and, within about 15 seconds, had produced the simple group theoretic solution that Wikipedia gives.
Re: Math For Programmers
#9The last times this post was here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=87393 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16006 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1450483
A bit off-topic, but isn't HN checking whether a URL has already been submitted before?
I ask because sometimes I tried to submit an article that was already there and HN just pointed me to the original discussion, so I don't understand how can duplicates happen.
Re: Math For Programmers
#10I learned maths by attending:
http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/softeng/subjects/SEM.html
Which is open to anybody willing to pay ~$2k for a week and get their ass to Oxford - you don't need to be enrolled as a student.
If you don't have that kind of money to spend (or can't get to Oxford), the course is essentially the first few chapters of: http://www.usingz.com/ which is available for free.