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This is sweet news. I'm over 40. I enrolled at my local university in January and I'm studying (literally right now) for my linear algebra midterm [0] which is

• saganus 2y ago
  Off-topic but this is a pretty interesting study guide format. Maybe it's standard in lots of places, but I've mostly seen study guides where they just list a ton of topics and that's it.
  • semireg 2y ago
    It’s been twenty years so my opinion is skewed and my memory is quite faded, however, I’ve got opinions on the guide and class in general. The main thing is there are no surprises or tricks. The exams are straightforward and EXHAUSTIVE. I do all the assigned homework twice. Once when we cover the material and again before the exam. Let’s hope that strategy pays off again.
    • saganus 2y ago
      I'm pretty sure it will. Sounds like you are putting some real effort so I don't see why you won't do just fine. Good luck!
• gmays 2y ago
  Good luck! You should check out Math Academy, it's more effective/efficient/cheaper but also a good supplement since it's accredited. I recently turned 40 myself and I'm working through their Foundations courses (made to help adults catch up) before tackling the Machine Learning and other uni courses.
  • teeray 2y ago
    Have you found Math Academy better than just prompting ChatGPT/Claude/etc. to be a math tutor?
    • gh0stcat 2y ago
      Not OP, but I have found MathAcademy to be infinitely better. I really liked the assessment portion which levels you and gives you an idea of where you are are at the present. As someone who graduated with an engineering degree a while ago, there were things I realized I didn’t know as well as I thought I did and I probably would not have prompted an LLM to review.
    • gmays 2y ago
      Yes, much better. ChatGPT/Claude/etc. are useful the times I want extra explanation to help connect the dots, but Math Academy incorporates spaced repetition, interleaving, etc. the way a dedicated tutor would, but in a better structured environment/UI. Their marketing website leaves a lot to be desired (a perk since they are all math nerds focused on the product), but here are two references on their site that explain their approach: - https://mathacademy.com/how-it-works https://mathacademy.com/how-it-works - https://mathacademy.com/pedagogy https://mathacademy.com/pedagogy They also did a really good interview last week that goes in depth about their process with Dr. Alex Smith (Director of Curriculum) and Justin Skycak (Director of Analytics) from Math Academy: https://chalkandtalkpodcast.podbean.com/e/math-academy-optimizing-student-learning-with-alex-smith-and-justin-skycak-ep-42/ https://chalkandtalkpodcast.podbean.com/e/math-academy-optim...
      • galaxyLogic 2y ago
        I used an early e-learning platform not because I wanted to but because I was one of its developers. I didn't develop the course-content just the technical implementation. What I didn't like about the content is I often had questions about it but there was no-one to ask the questions from. Whoever wrote that material was no longer around. It's a frustrating feeling when you can't really trust what you're studying is factually correct, or is misleading. I assume AI will have a huge improvement in this respect.
• Toutouxc 2y ago
  Cool, good luck!
  • Propelloni 2y ago
    Good luck!
• geniium 2y ago
  Nice, good luck
• thom 2y ago
  Good on you! Of course even after 40, it's still not the end of the world if you don't get what you're hoping first time, but I hope it goes well.
• janwillemb 2y ago
  Good luck! You can do it! I started doing statistics classes three years ago when I was 45, continued doing a MSc degree, which I finished successfully a few months ago. I am now looking into doing a PhD. This is more fun than I ever imagined (fair enough: I was a teenager when imagining it).
• TheHideout 2y ago
  Good luck! I'm over 40 and just had my midterm for General Linear Models (statistics + linear algebra). This YouTube playlist was invaluable for me: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmM_3MA2HWpYYo7QExaRvor_unoSIZYYh https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmM_3MA2HWpYYo7QExaRvor_u...
  • barrenko 2y ago
    Appreciating the link!
• taeric 2y ago
  Kudos! Curious how you got back into classes? If you are getting another degree, sounds like you went back through admissions?
  • semireg 2y ago
    Yes, through admissions. Getting a degree in math, maybe... depends on how much stress this adds to my life. If I were retired I'd just take a full load, but raising a family and running my business I can only take it one class at a time.
• tsumnia 2y ago
  Keep making those pushes! I was a non-traditional graduate student because around 10 years I got very serious about going for my doctorate. I literally scheduled times with my friends to watch Khan Academy videos on upper level maths and spent time practicing those skills. Then grad school is just one intensive learning session. Years of martial arts ingrained that sense of being a life-long learner. I was taught the mantra of "Progress comes to those who train" and "Practice makes permanent" and even though those phrases were focused on learning to beat someone up, I've carried them on into other parts of my life.
• thrwwy001 2y ago
  > graduated college with major in computer science and a minor in math. Me too. High five! > My goal is 5-8 more classes for a second degree in math (major). But why? Wouldn't it make more sense to go for a master in computer science? Are you going to use it for work. Otherwise, aren't you going to "lose it" anyways? Also, is your job paying for the degree or are you paying out of pocket?
  • acedTrex 2y ago
    An academic pursuit can be done for sake of knowledge. Forcing your mind to constantly flex is never a bad idea.
    • amelius 2y ago
      It could be both, though.
  • semireg 2y ago
    I’m self employed and this is “for fun.” My wife is a professor in another department and I’ve got a tuition waiver.
• alsetmusic 2y ago
  No doubt, a lot of us are greatly relieved to read this.
• avgDev 2y ago
  I will be 40 in 2 years and I also plan on going back for a masters in something :). Maybe CS, maybe business who knows. Best of luck on your pursuit.
• hombre_fatal 2y ago
  I went to the University of Texas but I took summer courses in Houston Community College (calculus II, physics II, and more -- those classes were SO bad at UT). It was insane how much better the courses were in the community college. Tiny class of 15. $300 or something. Amazing professor that you could ask questions to like you could in high school. Normal 20-30 question textbook homework where you just work basic problems and build confidence that you know the material. Meanwhile UT was the opposite. I think I paid $1400/class/semester (and that's a bargain). Lecture halls where you couldn't possibly ask a question. Weird math/physics homework that was like 3-5 super hard questions that I often couldn't figure out, demoralizing. Often a TA that could barely speak English. It's actually quite insulting. I sometimes think about enrolling in a local college for fun, the experience was that good.
  • timr 2y ago
    I had a similar experience -- took physics at a community college when I was in high school. The 'up-side' of the overproduction of PhDs is that many people from elite backgrounds end up teaching at community colleges. The only negative for me was that the students were pretty checked out.
    • lurk2 2y ago
      > The only negative for me was that the students were pretty checked out. I didn't put a lot of thought into where I went to school but if I could do it over again this is something I would have considered when I applied. The school I ended up at did not have many serious students. It was a night and day difference taking courses with even one or two students who were similarly engaged with the material, but most of those students ended up transferring to better schools after a year or two. You also run into the issue later on that the people you went to school with wash out of industry (or never work in it to begin with) at much higher rates in comparison to those who went to more serious schools.
  • Telemakhos 2y ago
    Large universities are focused on research, and they incur a lot of expenses due to administrators' egos (build build build), the number of administrators, and the range of microstate services offered, like their own health care system and mental health counseling (a major thing in universities now). Community colleges are focused on teaching.
• mmooss 2y ago
  Great for you; that's really fantastic and by posting about it, I hope you make a lot of other middle-aged people comfortable with persuing education. > My goal is 5-8 more classes for a second degree in math (major). Why not get a masters degree? Edit: answered here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43282629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43282629 > Wish me luck! You don't need it. :)
  • semireg 2y ago
    A masters in CS doesn’t interest me as much as pure math. Maybe when I’m 50…
• dehrmann 2y ago
  > My goal is 5-8 more classes for a second degree in math (major) Do colleges usually let you do this when you're adding to a degree you earned 20 years ago?
  • semireg 2y ago
    This college requires something like taking 30 credits from the institution to award a degree. That's somewhere between 7-10 classes (mix of 3/4 credits each).
• dsiegel2275 2y ago
  Congrats! It is never too late to be doing this type of study and work. I'm doing something similar: I just turned 50 and have been taking graduate ML classes where I work (at Carnegie Mellon). When I finish the graduate certificate program in generative AI and LLMs that I am enrolled in, I will be only two semesters away from earning a full masters degree.
• sztanko 2y ago
  How did it go?
  • semireg 2y ago
    I didn't ace it, but knew immediately what I had done wrong as I rode my bicycle home. I kept checking my linear transformation matrix and the Eigen values didn't compute... Looked again at the TI-89 when I got home and realized I swapped the orientation on the Jordan constants. I wrote all the equations out, so maybe my professor will have mercy on me. Oh well, another case of elevator wit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier
    • Tade0 2y ago
      Is calculus included in your classes?
    • bitwize 2y ago
      This sounds like a line from a Silicon Valley type TV series used to establish "character am smart"... and I love it.
      • semireg 2y ago
        Ha! I was so nervous writing it because I am not qualified to use the smart math words!
• lanstin 2y ago
  I hope it went well! I am in my fifties and enrolled in a master degree program for pure mathematics about 2 years ago (I don't need the degree, so I"m just taking all the classes they offer, so not about to graduate). It definitely took some time to get my brain sharper, but I am better each semester. I hope people don't take away the negative side of the article, brain slows down, but the positive side: brain gets better with usage. Its uncomfortable, I can churn out programs as complex as programs I've already written and go to review meetings and planning meetings without much effort. But being able to solve PDEs reasonably quickly and accurately, I cannot, or have not without a great deal of practise. It's unconfortable in some weird mental but physical sense. But I'm sharper in everything else I do. One interesting thing about software as career followed by math classes is that there's no compiler - you can type any janky thought into LaTeX and if you don't detect that it's bogus, nothing will, until you show it to a professor. Also, the information density of maths notation is way higher than (good) code. We want code to be readable by some that doesn't know it; a lot of math seems to be readable when you sort of 80% already are familiar with all the prereqs. So no just skimming and then hitting compile/test/run (whatever validation you do). It's typing letter by letter and taking the mental effort to actually see and decipher the letter (at least, for me in my current stage; I'm trying to do novel research, but my demonstrated understanding of the details of the previous research is embarrassing low). Also, weirdly, I still have the same fear of professors that I did as a young person. I manage it better with my decades of maturity (really) but it is still a part of my social interactions.
  • BeetleB 2y ago
    > But being able to solve PDEs reasonably quickly and accurately, I cannot, or have not without a great deal of practise. No one - young or old - does well in math without a great deal of practice :-)
    • JadeNB 2y ago
      A related ancient XKCD with a slightly different take: https://xkcd.com/447/ https://xkcd.com/447/
  • semireg 2y ago
• AndyKelley 2y ago
  Good luck! I'm 36 and still hoping to master Digital Signal Processing at some point even though I find the math extremely difficult.
• hecanjog 2y ago
  Good luck! Are you in Winona, too? I live near the campus and have been considering taking some classes there, this was a nice surprise to see. :-)
  • semireg 2y ago
    Yes! I’ll send you an email.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• wut-wut 2y ago
  Break a leg and Good luck!
• noobly 2y ago
  Your school allows you to add a degree retroactively like that?
  • semireg 2y ago
    We will see. A degree is just the ends to justify taking math classes. My goal is to learn, if they give me a degree that’ll be a bonus!
• kadushka 2y ago
  Why take classes if you can learn everything with latest llms? Unless you actually need a formal degree in math ?
  • orphea 2y ago
    you can learn everything with latest llms That's a good idea if your goal is a degree in hallucinations.
    • kadushka 2y ago
      Can you provide an example where a top llm (sonnet 3.7, grok-3, o1, gpt-4.5) hallucinated a linear algebra answer?
      • semireg 2y ago
        Oh, I did... but it was more of a parsing error. Prompt: I have padlocks that I use to lock up my tools, or my bike, etc. The problem is, I often go several months without using some of them and forget the combinations. So, I decided to write down their combinations, but then I always lose the sheet. Being the math geek that I am, I decided on the following solution. I choose a 3 × 3 matrix and multiply this matrix by the combination and write the result on the back of the lock. For example, on the back of one lock is written “2688 − 3055 − 2750 : Birthdays,” indicating that the 3 × 3 matrix that I chose for that particular lock is the matrix whose rows consist of the birthdays of my brothers and me (from youngest to oldest). My brother Rod was born on 7/3/69, I was born on 7/28/66, and my older brother was born on 7/29/57. What is the combination of the lock? Now, technically the LLM didn't quite know how to parse "2688 − 3055 − 2750" and ran the calculation with "[2688;-3055;2750]" and produced a response of, "These values are clearly not typical lock combinations, which suggests a potential issue with the encoding process." Smart, kind-of. I reran with a more explicit prompt and it calculated the correct combination. Overall though, I'm impressed with using ChatGPT as a linear algebra tutor. I wouldn't hesitate to use it in the future.
        • kadushka 2y ago
• dboreham 2y ago
  Have one or more kids. Then you get to keep your edge teaching them linear algebra 20 years later..