4 ms·

I bought it, got stuck on the maths in chapter 1 of volume 1, and it's now in my friends Attic in another country. Maybe one day! But not yet.

currymj 4y ago
just skip ahead!
- JadeNB 4y ago
  This is such great advice at least for reading mathematics, and I assume for reading most science. Skip the introductory part you don't understand, which is almost certainly explanatory throat-clearing, and get to the part that interests you. Now you won't understand it! But you'll see the reason you don't understand it, and you can go back to the introduction with the mission specifically of understanding that part. It is consistently amazing to me how the same sentence that was baffling when you had no context in which to put it becomes enlightening when you have a problem to which to apply it. (That is also, if I may air a personal pet peeve here, why, though I am always delighted to see people understanding a concept, I get defensive as a teacher when later-life learners say "why didn't my teacher just say that?" Because the answer is often some combination of (1) even if they had said that exact thing, it wouldn't have reached you then, because you weren't then in the head space that you are now; and (2) they probably did say that, or something like it, and, because of (1), it seemed so far from relevant that you don't even remember it.)
  - jimhefferon 4y ago
    I also am a teacher and I also find that exact thing is true. I think it at least party accounts for second book syndrome, where someone asks the Internet, "Hey, I'm having trouble with Calc I, can someone recommend a good text?" and people in all seriousness suggest Spivak, or Rudin. "I also didn't understand it until I did Rudin" they'll say, having overlooked your point that headspace changes over time.
    - boppo1 4y ago
      > people in all seriousness suggest Spivak, or Rudin What's wrong with them?
      - JadeNB 4y ago
        > > people in all seriousness suggest Spivak, or Rudin > What's wrong with them? They are excellent books in their own right, and can be excellent books for mathematically mature students looking for a mathematically mature perspective, but their likelihood of serving well someone who is struggling with an introductory calculus course is, I would suspect, vanishingly small.

currymj 4y ago

just skip ahead!

JadeNB 4y ago
This is such great advice at least for reading mathematics, and I assume for reading most science. Skip the introductory part you don't understand, which is almost certainly explanatory throat-clearing, and get to the part that interests you. Now you won't understand it! But you'll see the reason you don't understand it, and you can go back to the introduction with the mission specifically of understanding that part. It is consistently amazing to me how the same sentence that was baffling when you had no context in which to put it becomes enlightening when you have a problem to which to apply it. (That is also, if I may air a personal pet peeve here, why, though I am always delighted to see people understanding a concept, I get defensive as a teacher when later-life learners say "why didn't my teacher just say that?" Because the answer is often some combination of (1) even if they had said that exact thing, it wouldn't have reached you then, because you weren't then in the head space that you are now; and (2) they probably did say that, or something like it, and, because of (1), it seemed so far from relevant that you don't even remember it.)
- jimhefferon 4y ago
  I also am a teacher and I also find that exact thing is true. I think it at least party accounts for second book syndrome, where someone asks the Internet, "Hey, I'm having trouble with Calc I, can someone recommend a good text?" and people in all seriousness suggest Spivak, or Rudin. "I also didn't understand it until I did Rudin" they'll say, having overlooked your point that headspace changes over time.
  - boppo1 4y ago
    > people in all seriousness suggest Spivak, or Rudin What's wrong with them?
    - JadeNB 4y ago
      > > people in all seriousness suggest Spivak, or Rudin > What's wrong with them? They are excellent books in their own right, and can be excellent books for mathematically mature students looking for a mathematically mature perspective, but their likelihood of serving well someone who is struggling with an introductory calculus course is, I would suspect, vanishingly small.