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Think about it; how many adults have downright childish issues with math? Childish misunderstandings, childish opinions, childish beliefs? Coincidence? Bad moti

Think about it; how many adults have downright childish issues with math? Childish misunderstandings, childish opinions, childish beliefs? Coincidence? Bad motivation? Right here. I taught myself programming and I got pointers (references, same difference) within the first week I started reading about php. I enjoy learning new concepts except for math. I really want to learn math but I am so afraid of just opening a math book and not understanding anything in it. (Posttraumathematic stress disorder?)

jrp 17y ago
I would try to find a book that balances managable and brain stretchy. _Calculus made easy_ was good for me at a certain level of understanding (yes algebra and geometry, no calculus). Try things at a library, and get recommendations, until you find one that turns you on. There's no penalty for trying a book and aborting after 1 page ;)
rw 17y ago
Are you in school? Get an independent study going with a professor on a topic she likes and you wouldn't mind learning. Emphasize that you want to get your training wheels for autodidactic math education.
- epochwolf 17y ago
  Sadly, I'm graduating in 6 weeks. I think I'll have to figure it out on my own.
  - buckler 17y ago
    May be you've seen these HN threads about self-learning maths already... if not, hopefully you'll find these textbooks useful. Here's a little HN link dump, in the order of time at which the discussions took place (from the oldest to the most recent): - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108723 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108723 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=201913 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=201913 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458926 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458926 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755043 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755043 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058359 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058359 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193352 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193352 One caveat is that many of these textbooks do not come with a solutions manual. So, in terms of practice, I think that's where the dearth of uploaded lecture materials could come in. Sometimes, there might be no e-learning/opencourseware material for the topic you're interested in. In such cases, I found that if you look through universities' Websites closely enough, professors upload a lot of course materials on their personal pages. You can do this by finding a random university's math dept. page, then searching from course/faculty listings. Last of all, I'm pretty certain you've heard of this site already, as it's being circulated quite a lot lately, but many have professed that videos from khanacademy.org to be quite helpful when grasping basic mathematical concepts.
    - epochwolf 17y ago
      Thanks for the list. Saves me from cluttering HN with a another similar thread. :)

jrp 17y ago

I would try to find a book that balances managable and brain stretchy. _Calculus made easy_ was good for me at a certain level of understanding (yes algebra and geometry, no calculus). Try things at a library, and get recommendations, until you find one that turns you on. There's no penalty for trying a book and aborting after 1 page ;)

rw 17y ago

Are you in school? Get an independent study going with a professor on a topic she likes and you wouldn't mind learning. Emphasize that you want to get your training wheels for autodidactic math education.

epochwolf 17y ago
Sadly, I'm graduating in 6 weeks. I think I'll have to figure it out on my own.
- buckler 17y ago
  May be you've seen these HN threads about self-learning maths already... if not, hopefully you'll find these textbooks useful. Here's a little HN link dump, in the order of time at which the discussions took place (from the oldest to the most recent): - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108723 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108723 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=201913 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=201913 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458926 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458926 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755043 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755043 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058359 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058359 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193352 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193352 One caveat is that many of these textbooks do not come with a solutions manual. So, in terms of practice, I think that's where the dearth of uploaded lecture materials could come in. Sometimes, there might be no e-learning/opencourseware material for the topic you're interested in. In such cases, I found that if you look through universities' Websites closely enough, professors upload a lot of course materials on their personal pages. You can do this by finding a random university's math dept. page, then searching from course/faculty listings. Last of all, I'm pretty certain you've heard of this site already, as it's being circulated quite a lot lately, but many have professed that videos from khanacademy.org to be quite helpful when grasping basic mathematical concepts.
  - epochwolf 17y ago
    Thanks for the list. Saves me from cluttering HN with a another similar thread. :)