3 ms·

I wonder how good you can get at maths just by casually reading books. You need to work on problems for hours and hours to get a grasp on the theories. Programm

I wonder how good you can get at maths just by casually reading books. You need to work on problems for hours and hours to get a grasp on the theories. Programming is different in the sense that it's something people routinely do as a hobby because it's quite fun and addictive. But maths? maybe if you have already strong foundations you can pick up a new topic and develop your culture. But I doubt one can get these foundations without actually graduating in maths as it's an extremely strong commitment.

ag315 4y ago
I don't think you can get good at doing calculations without practicing the calculations, but reading books that discuss the higher-level aspects of math and the philosophical underpinnings can help you look at it in a different way that may inspire more interest as well as an easier time grasping the difficult parts.
posed 4y ago
I second this strongly, you can’t get better at math just by reading books. You need to hone your problem solving skills, you need to fight with the problems, have the mindset of a warrior, a conqueror, only then you’ll get the juice out of it and have a clear understanding of the subject. I’ll suggest starting with Concrete Mathematics by Donald Knuth, it’s a beautiful book that catches the essence of mathematics. Art of problem solving(https://www.amazon.in/Art-Problem-Solving-Basics/dp/0977304566 https://www.amazon.in/Art-Problem-Solving-Basics/dp/09773045...) is also a great start, especially if you don’t have much experience.
mindcrime 4y ago
I wonder how good you can get at maths just by casually reading books. You need to work on problems for hours and hours to get a grasp on the theories. Maybe I'm unique in this regard, but I always took it as sort of implied that "reading a math book" entails "reading the book and working (at least some of) the exercises". The tricky part is once you get to math where you can't trivially check your answer by "substituting back in" or "using a calculator" or whatever. Doing proofs, for example. Without a teacher, how do you know if your proof is correct? So far the only thing I've really found to do for that is to post on MathOverflow or one of the "learn math" related sub-reddits. I've often wondered if learning to use an automated theorem prover / proof assistant of some sort would be helpful, but that's such a huge undertaking in its own right...
rs999gti 4y ago
> You need to work on problems for hours and hours to get a grasp on the theories. Very true. For maths, it is drill to win.

ag315 4y ago

I don't think you can get good at doing calculations without practicing the calculations, but reading books that discuss the higher-level aspects of math and the philosophical underpinnings can help you look at it in a different way that may inspire more interest as well as an easier time grasping the difficult parts.

posed 4y ago

I second this strongly, you can’t get better at math just by reading books. You need to hone your problem solving skills, you need to fight with the problems, have the mindset of a warrior, a conqueror, only then you’ll get the juice out of it and have a clear understanding of the subject. I’ll suggest starting with Concrete Mathematics by Donald Knuth, it’s a beautiful book that catches the essence of mathematics. Art of problem solving(https://www.amazon.in/Art-Problem-Solving-Basics/dp/0977304566 https://www.amazon.in/Art-Problem-Solving-Basics/dp/09773045...) is also a great start, especially if you don’t have much experience.

mindcrime 4y ago

I wonder how good you can get at maths just by casually reading books. You need to work on problems for hours and hours to get a grasp on the theories. Maybe I'm unique in this regard, but I always took it as sort of implied that "reading a math book" entails "reading the book and working (at least some of) the exercises". The tricky part is once you get to math where you can't trivially check your answer by "substituting back in" or "using a calculator" or whatever. Doing proofs, for example. Without a teacher, how do you know if your proof is correct? So far the only thing I've really found to do for that is to post on MathOverflow or one of the "learn math" related sub-reddits. I've often wondered if learning to use an automated theorem prover / proof assistant of some sort would be helpful, but that's such a huge undertaking in its own right...

rs999gti 4y ago

> You need to work on problems for hours and hours to get a grasp on the theories. Very true. For maths, it is drill to win.