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If we are talking about content you can find plenty of advice here or elsewhere. But do yourself a favor and pay a tutor and/or find a study group. As in writin

If we are talking about content you can find plenty of advice here or elsewhere. But do yourself a favor and pay a tutor and/or find a study group. As in writing, dancing, etc. you cannot evaluate your own work good enough. You will not improve your math watching youtube videos and reading books. You need to produce stuff that pass the "sniff test" to your colleagues.

mindcrime 8y ago
You will not become good at math watching youtube videos and reading books. That depends on exactly what you mean by "become good at math". If you're talking about "becoming a mathematician" and doing original research in pure math, then you're probably right. But if one means "learning existing math well enough to apply it to a problem", I would argue that one can learn this stuff just using books, videos, etc. At least up through a certain level. That said, I do encourage the idea of finding peers to work with. I used to coordinate a "math study night" at the local hackerspace for that exact purpose. It fell off because I got busy and couldn't keep committing to it, but generally speaking, it is a good idea to have other people to work with. I may well try to find a math major from UNC to hire as a tutor at some point as I keep working on this stuff. And if one can't find somebody to work with in person though, and they need, say, a proof evaluated, there is the option of using math.stackexchange.com or the like.
- ducttapecrown 8y ago
  I'm sure padthai meant that you need to do math to learn math, not just read or watch videos.
  - mindcrime 8y ago
    I'm sure padthai meant that you need to do math to learn math, not just read or watch videos. Sure, I'm just saying that it kinda depends on what part of math one is referring to. I think sometimes in these discussions on HN, we overload the term "math" to mean both "calculation" or "applied math", and "pure math" or "math research" and it can be unclear which is being referred to in a given statement. I believe you can learn the former - "applied math" - (at least up to a certain level) just by reading books, and watching videos (and doing exercises, of course). But for the latter - "pure math" - I agree that you need other people, since you can't easily verify your own proofs.
konschubert 8y ago
Let me add to that. It you don’t have somebody challenging you and checking your work, you will likely plateau very quickly unless you are especially gifted. You will Hit walls of concrete and walls of glass. You will misunderstand concepts and not notice it. Your proofs will have logical gaps and you won’t notice it.
- unboxed_type 8y ago
  Listen to this wise man, he knows what is speaking about.

mindcrime 8y ago

You will not become good at math watching youtube videos and reading books. That depends on exactly what you mean by "become good at math". If you're talking about "becoming a mathematician" and doing original research in pure math, then you're probably right. But if one means "learning existing math well enough to apply it to a problem", I would argue that one can learn this stuff just using books, videos, etc. At least up through a certain level. That said, I do encourage the idea of finding peers to work with. I used to coordinate a "math study night" at the local hackerspace for that exact purpose. It fell off because I got busy and couldn't keep committing to it, but generally speaking, it is a good idea to have other people to work with. I may well try to find a math major from UNC to hire as a tutor at some point as I keep working on this stuff. And if one can't find somebody to work with in person though, and they need, say, a proof evaluated, there is the option of using math.stackexchange.com or the like.

ducttapecrown 8y ago
I'm sure padthai meant that you need to do math to learn math, not just read or watch videos.
- mindcrime 8y ago
  I'm sure padthai meant that you need to do math to learn math, not just read or watch videos. Sure, I'm just saying that it kinda depends on what part of math one is referring to. I think sometimes in these discussions on HN, we overload the term "math" to mean both "calculation" or "applied math", and "pure math" or "math research" and it can be unclear which is being referred to in a given statement. I believe you can learn the former - "applied math" - (at least up to a certain level) just by reading books, and watching videos (and doing exercises, of course). But for the latter - "pure math" - I agree that you need other people, since you can't easily verify your own proofs.

konschubert 8y ago

Let me add to that. It you don’t have somebody challenging you and checking your work, you will likely plateau very quickly unless you are especially gifted. You will Hit walls of concrete and walls of glass. You will misunderstand concepts and not notice it. Your proofs will have logical gaps and you won’t notice it.

unboxed_type 8y ago
Listen to this wise man, he knows what is speaking about.