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As a software engineer, musician, and now taking on martial arts, yes. For me it helps that I enjoy perfecting/varying/repeating. There could be some element

by wumbo 2y ago

As a software engineer, musician, and now taking on martial arts, yes. For me it helps that I enjoy perfecting/varying/repeating. There could be some element of play in math homework. Play is practice that sparks interest. But what is playful math? “Here’s a character for Pathfinder. Optimize the shit out of it.”

chongli 2y ago
Math gets more playful and fun the more you study. The most fun I’ve had with math was when working through difficult proofs in logic, analysis, abstract algebra, and geometry. Some of the math learned in high school can be made more fun and playful with applications such as you mentioned, or with contest math designed for high school students. For a few years now I’ve been involved with the CEMC [1] (at my Alma mater) as a grader for the Euclid math contest which I think is quite fun without requiring anything beyond high school math (doesn’t even require calculus). [1] https://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/contests.html https://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/contests.html
- nordstreem 2y ago
  Not an endorsement but a criticism of how schools teach math: https://www.mentava.com/ https://www.mentava.com/ According to Mentava their program has 5th graders ready for AP math and middle schoolers ready for college computer science. 20 minutes a day. It’s just another language. A lot of people see it as esoteric wizardry; the debbil in der math, Bobby! One plus one 1+1 Same thing, less parchment, less writing stick needed. It’s data compression for an era where Walmart didn’t exist
- raverbashing 2y ago
  > Math gets more playful and fun the more you study. But not in the way teachers/professors teach it. Quite the contrary
inglor_cz 2y ago
I am programmer, musician (singer), author and I used to do some martial arts when I was younger, though I had approximately 0 talent for them. I also studied maths as my major (Algebra, to be more precise). Math is infinitely playful. Trying to weasel your way into a hard problem using various results is fun. (Especially if you don't have a fixed deadline that would turn the play into stress.) It is like sitting in an alien workshop and trying very exotic tools that fit other hands. If you are more of a visual guy, play around with stuff such as fractals. There, you can visualize the intricate structure on your screen. I will never forget the moment when I saw the Mandelbrot set for the first time. Neither probably did Mandelbrot himself; according to the lore, he expected nothing like that and thought that the computer had an error.
- wumbo 2y ago
  On the visual note, 3Blue1Brown math visualizations are amazing. It’s like going after a runner’s high though. It takes work to reach that point where you make connections and feel that neurotransmitter rush.
plokiju 2y ago
to me, programming is playful math. I think I would have enjoyed math a lot more as a kid if we learned programming alongside the traditional math lessons

by wumbo 2y ago

chongli 2y ago

Math gets more playful and fun the more you study. The most fun I’ve had with math was when working through difficult proofs in logic, analysis, abstract algebra, and geometry. Some of the math learned in high school can be made more fun and playful with applications such as you mentioned, or with contest math designed for high school students. For a few years now I’ve been involved with the CEMC [1] (at my Alma mater) as a grader for the Euclid math contest which I think is quite fun without requiring anything beyond high school math (doesn’t even require calculus). [1] https://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/contests.html https://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/contests.html

nordstreem 2y ago
Not an endorsement but a criticism of how schools teach math: https://www.mentava.com/ https://www.mentava.com/ According to Mentava their program has 5th graders ready for AP math and middle schoolers ready for college computer science. 20 minutes a day. It’s just another language. A lot of people see it as esoteric wizardry; the debbil in der math, Bobby! One plus one 1+1 Same thing, less parchment, less writing stick needed. It’s data compression for an era where Walmart didn’t exist
raverbashing 2y ago
> Math gets more playful and fun the more you study. But not in the way teachers/professors teach it. Quite the contrary

inglor_cz 2y ago

I am programmer, musician (singer), author and I used to do some martial arts when I was younger, though I had approximately 0 talent for them. I also studied maths as my major (Algebra, to be more precise). Math is infinitely playful. Trying to weasel your way into a hard problem using various results is fun. (Especially if you don't have a fixed deadline that would turn the play into stress.) It is like sitting in an alien workshop and trying very exotic tools that fit other hands. If you are more of a visual guy, play around with stuff such as fractals. There, you can visualize the intricate structure on your screen. I will never forget the moment when I saw the Mandelbrot set for the first time. Neither probably did Mandelbrot himself; according to the lore, he expected nothing like that and thought that the computer had an error.

wumbo 2y ago
On the visual note, 3Blue1Brown math visualizations are amazing. It’s like going after a runner’s high though. It takes work to reach that point where you make connections and feel that neurotransmitter rush.

plokiju 2y ago

to me, programming is playful math. I think I would have enjoyed math a lot more as a kid if we learned programming alongside the traditional math lessons