I’m considering starting a Math QA Thread at the toplevel, due to recent discussions about the lack of widespread math understanding on LW. What do you say?
Some people, including me, can get away with knowing much less and just figuring stuff out as we go along. I’m not sure if anyone can learn this ability, but for me personally it wasn’t inborn and I know exactly how I acquired it. Working through one math topic properly at school over a couple years taught me all the skills needed to fill any gaps I encountered afterwards. University was a breeze after that.
The method of study was this: we built one topic (real analysis) up from the ground floor (axiomatization of the reals), receiving only the axioms and proving all theorems by working through carefully constructed problem sets. An adult could probably condense this process into several months. It doesn’t sound like much fun—it’s extremely grueling intellectual work of the sort most people never even attempt—but when you’re done, you’ll never be afraid of math again.
I had to figure out ALL myself, without the help of anyone in meatspace. I’m lacking any formal education that be worth mentioning. The very language I’m writing in right now is almost completely self-taught. It took me half a decade to get here, irrespective of my problems. That is, most of the time I haven’t been learning anything but merely pondering what is the right thing to do in the first place. Only now I’ve gathered enough material, intention and the basic tools to tackle my lack of formal education.
I’m not sure that people necessarily know what questions they need to ask, or even that they need to ask.
A math Q&A seems like a good idea, but it would be a better idea if there were some “the math you need for LW” posts first.
There was a very nice piece here (possibly a quote) on how to think about math problems—no more that a few paragraphs long. It was about how to break things down and the sorts of persistence needed. Anyone remember it?
I have been wanting something like this on LW for quite awhile, but wasn’t sure it was on topic. With your linked post in mind, however, I think this is a good idea, and I, for one, would be an active participant.
I’m considering starting a Math QA Thread at the toplevel, due to recent discussions about the lack of widespread math understanding on LW. What do you say?
Here is all the math you need to know to understand most of LW (correct me if I’m wrong):
The Khan Academy (For the basics.)
A Guide to Bayes’ Theorem – A few links (Just this might do too.)
I’m working through all of it right now. Not very far yet though.
You might want to add computer science and basic programming knowledge too.
Some people, including me, can get away with knowing much less and just figuring stuff out as we go along. I’m not sure if anyone can learn this ability, but for me personally it wasn’t inborn and I know exactly how I acquired it. Working through one math topic properly at school over a couple years taught me all the skills needed to fill any gaps I encountered afterwards. University was a breeze after that.
The method of study was this: we built one topic (real analysis) up from the ground floor (axiomatization of the reals), receiving only the axioms and proving all theorems by working through carefully constructed problem sets. An adult could probably condense this process into several months. It doesn’t sound like much fun—it’s extremely grueling intellectual work of the sort most people never even attempt—but when you’re done, you’ll never be afraid of math again.
I had to figure out ALL myself, without the help of anyone in meatspace. I’m lacking any formal education that be worth mentioning. The very language I’m writing in right now is almost completely self-taught. It took me half a decade to get here, irrespective of my problems. That is, most of the time I haven’t been learning anything but merely pondering what is the right thing to do in the first place. Only now I’ve gathered enough material, intention and the basic tools to tackle my lack of formal education.
Ok, you might add some logic and set theory as well if you want to grasp the comments. Although some comment threads go much further than that.
I’m not sure that people necessarily know what questions they need to ask, or even that they need to ask.
A math Q&A seems like a good idea, but it would be a better idea if there were some “the math you need for LW” posts first.
There was a very nice piece here (possibly a quote) on how to think about math problems—no more that a few paragraphs long. It was about how to break things down and the sorts of persistence needed. Anyone remember it?
I have been wanting something like this on LW for quite awhile, but wasn’t sure it was on topic. With your linked post in mind, however, I think this is a good idea, and I, for one, would be an active participant.