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This is really interesting advice. I have spent a lot of time lately considering how I could become more effective at teaching myself math. The community aspect

This is really interesting advice. I have spent a lot of time lately considering how I could become more effective at teaching myself math. The community aspect is fundamental to my success as a programmer, but that is something that I have not come across for math. Where would you suggest someone find peers and or mentors?

drhodes 17y ago
there's a #math channel on irc.freenode
bluishgreen 17y ago
If you are a good programmer its very easy to become friends with math/phys/cs profs. They typically have many projects that they are not looking at at the moment for lack of programming power. Offer a few hours a week of your time to a particular project that you feel interested in. You will learn crazy lots. This is what a "Grad Student" is. But IMO this is much better than being a grad student and suffocating through the bureau-crazy.
- chrisduesing 17y ago
  Are you suggesting trading programming time for mentoring time, or just programming a math teacher's projects as a means to learn? How would you initiate something like that anyway? I would feel more than a little awkward wandering on to a local campus and knocking on doors in the math dept. Are there any online resources/communities?
  - bluishgreen 17y ago
    First Question: Both. Second Question: Read online about the interests of a prof. Select a few. Watch a few of their introductory lectures to see if you like how they explain stuff. Select one. Look up the office hours. Wander into the room and state your mind.
- menloparkbum 17y ago
  This is how I got started programming professionally. During my freshman year, my CS prof had funding for a climate research project and he first set me up as a UNIX admin then a C and Perl programmer. In addition to learning UNIX and programming, it paid about 3 times as much as any other work study job, and I got to put "participated in NSF funded research" on my resume. I wasn't even a good programmer, I just wasn't as bad as everyone else.

drhodes 17y ago

there's a #math channel on irc.freenode

bluishgreen 17y ago

If you are a good programmer its very easy to become friends with math/phys/cs profs. They typically have many projects that they are not looking at at the moment for lack of programming power. Offer a few hours a week of your time to a particular project that you feel interested in. You will learn crazy lots. This is what a "Grad Student" is. But IMO this is much better than being a grad student and suffocating through the bureau-crazy.

chrisduesing 17y ago
Are you suggesting trading programming time for mentoring time, or just programming a math teacher's projects as a means to learn? How would you initiate something like that anyway? I would feel more than a little awkward wandering on to a local campus and knocking on doors in the math dept. Are there any online resources/communities?
- bluishgreen 17y ago
  First Question: Both. Second Question: Read online about the interests of a prof. Select a few. Watch a few of their introductory lectures to see if you like how they explain stuff. Select one. Look up the office hours. Wander into the room and state your mind.
menloparkbum 17y ago
This is how I got started programming professionally. During my freshman year, my CS prof had funding for a climate research project and he first set me up as a UNIX admin then a C and Perl programmer. In addition to learning UNIX and programming, it paid about 3 times as much as any other work study job, and I got to put "participated in NSF funded research" on my resume. I wasn't even a good programmer, I just wasn't as bad as everyone else.