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Ask HN: Is is possible to self study undergrad mathematics from books?

by optbuild on 5/24/23, 7:30 AM with 14 comments

• by landosaari on 5/24/23, 11:37 AM

  There is an Open Source curriculum [0].This consists of: MOOCs, videos, pdfs, etc. It should provide you with a guide of what/where to study.

  Neil Sainsbury posted their own list of books [1]

  Alan Kennington provides a 10 steps learning mathematics[2]

  Another source to get an overview of a topic [3]

  [0] https://github.com/ossu/math

  [1] https://www.neilwithdata.com/mathematics-self-learner

  [2] http://www.geometry.org/tex/conc/mathlearn.html

  [3] http://mathonline.wikidot.com/

• by senkora on 5/24/23, 7:52 AM

  The main reason this is hard, is that learning to write proofs that are both rigorous and human-readable is extremely difficult without a teacher+grader.

  This process is not taught in high school, most or all textbooks implicitly assume that you know how to do it, and if you don’t know how to do it then it isn’t obvious what’s wrong until you realize that you can’t do the exercises anymore.

  Math is largely proof-writing. Proofs are an interactive process between writer and reader. Without a reader there is no feedback loop and you don’t learn to write understandable proofs. If you can’t explain math than you don’t truly understand it.

  Once you know how to write proofs, it becomes possible to learn more through books. But you really need a class setting for that first part.

• by akasakahakada on 5/25/23, 3:16 AM

  And you can see from the comments that Math is not self-learnable because someone decided this property and they intentionally make Math not self-learnable through books.

  Just look at those excuses. "you need a mentor" "you need someone teach you how to prove" "you will do it wrong" blah blah blah. Are these just implying that Math is not a storable and transferable knowledge because you simply not smart enough to record the knowledge down into analogue or digital form whatsoever?

  That is why I love Math, but hate mathematicians. Unlike programmers, programmers just write and teach every god damn thing they know without a hassle. But mathematicians? They keep everything as secret and bring them to their tomb.

• by smckk on 5/24/23, 8:18 AM

  Rushing throw math for Computer Science/Engineering courses has become necessary, mainly because there is a lot more CS to learn,(data science, ai and lots more to come) but it comes at a cost.

  I am constantly running into people who feel like they are missing something in their CS pedagogy without this rigorous math knowledge.

  After many false starts to correct this, I think a good plan would be to enrol in an affordable long distance or online course in math - so it's not full time - and stick to a timetable and deadlines in order to faithfully complete the work and become as familiar with the material as it pertains to you, just passing where you need to pass and diving deep when it directly affects you and your work.

• by segmondy on 5/25/23, 1:49 AM

  Yes it's possible. If you're motivated enough and willing to put the time, you can do it. There are unlimited resources on the net, find what works for you. Key is to stick to it and work through it. Get the fundamentals out of the way, begin with Khan Academy for those.

• by AprilPhoenix on 5/25/23, 3:42 AM

  I think the issue isn’t resources, it’s having people around you to keep you going and help you when you get stuck. Especially if you are working full time as a grown up.

  We ought to form a group here for people attempting to do this. Not just with math either.

• by abudabi123 on 5/24/23, 8:07 AM

  You can pair self study from books with an Emacs session to internet relay chat on the ##math channel for beehive mind feedback.

• by wly_cdgr on 5/24/23, 7:43 AM

  Yes

• by _hzw on 5/24/23, 7:40 AM

  The d