I did this during university, but made it much more efficient. I wrote a program that would work like this: - while reading, instead of copying, the software would ask me to enter "facts" in form of questions with the most important piece of knowledge being the answer. I would type the question and the answer into the software - much faster than writing anyway - after I have gone through all the material, I would sta…
How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
11–20 of 79 posts
Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#12This is not bad advice, especially for people new to proof-based mathematics. (I've noticed more mathematically experienced people do something like the linked method intuitively, without writing things down.) But, it's only half the story. After you learn the definitions and theorems, you have to learn how to apply them to do computations and solve problems. This means working at least a few "easy" problems to learn…
I am the kind of person who likes to solve more practical problems but it is more of a hindrance in advanced maths, where you manipulate concepts that are too abstract for practical use, like infinities.
Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#13I did this during university, but made it much more efficient. I wrote a program that would work like this: - while reading, instead of copying, the software would ask me to enter "facts" in form of questions with the most important piece of knowledge being the answer. I would type the question and the answer into the software - much faster than writing anyway - after I have gone through all the material, I would sta…
Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#14Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#15I did this during university, but made it much more efficient. I wrote a program that would work like this: - while reading, instead of copying, the software would ask me to enter "facts" in form of questions with the most important piece of knowledge being the answer. I would type the question and the answer into the software - much faster than writing anyway - after I have gone through all the material, I would sta…
Intuitively, it does make sense. If you only ever encounter something once, it probably does not make sense to spend brain resources storing it.
Parallel adaptation of probability estimation?
Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#16Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#17When I started learning to code. I remember people would buy the famous books and do an intellectual dive into them.
As for me I bought 'SAM's Learn C in 21 Days.' Then for the next one month like a dumb bot I would just read the code and type it out on my desktop. Religiously. Like wake up everyday spend significant part of the day just to read and write code into the editor and run it. Most of the time I had a hazy understand of what I was doing.
But surprisingly this approach worked better than the intellectual fantasising exercise(Most of my friends quit after a while). I've used this technique of using dumbest possible method to study anything useful in everything I've touched since. Including workout and fitness.
Over the years I've also wondered why it works. One reason is when you just wake up everyday and do this ritual, you are basically spending time with the subject. Add a month or two to this journey it's now a habit. Even though your understanding is relatively poor, you haven't quit at a point most people quit. You are comfortable doing work in the subject and therefore you are already scoring wins everyday. This not only builds confidence, it will eventually take you to higher levels.
Turns out the hardest part of learning and doing anything is sticking with a subject for long. Once you have practice the hard parts become easy.
Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#18This is probably true. I always used to try to understand to avoid the bother of rote learning... but the truth is, I probably examined it so intensively while trying to understand, that I rote learned without realizing it.
Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#19I get a 410 Gone when visiting the page.
Re: How to learn mathematics: the asterisk method
#20This is not bad advice, especially for people new to proof-based mathematics. (I've noticed more mathematically experienced people do something like the linked method intuitively, without writing things down.) But, it's only half the story. After you learn the definitions and theorems, you have to learn how to apply them to do computations and solve problems. This means working at least a few "easy" problems to learn…
It seems like proof-based maths and applied maths are different fields. The latter is more closely related to engineering. I am the kind of person who likes to solve more practical problems but it is more of a hindrance in advanced maths, where you manipulate concepts that are too abstract for practical use, like infinities.