Ask HN: the road to learning useful math

59 points

17 years ago

Background: I've got a fairly good intuition for logic and algorithms as a coder, but no formal training in the maths side of things. I last did math in high-school (A-level here in the UK at 18) and while I remember some calculus, pure maths, probability etc., I've never really touched advanced stuff. I didn't take any maths modules at University either.

I've recently come across quite a few interesting stats-heavy compsci papers where the mathematical notations and concepts expressed escape me. I'd like to correct this -- and I've seen a few comments floating around here that this stuff isn't actually that hard, and this has got me thinking.

Could HN recommend any 'math for programmers' resources or suggest structured approaches (ie. 'look into X, then Y, then try understanding Z) to go about learning this sort of stuff? I think I'm probably not alone here in wanting to learn more about this sort of thing.

A quick google provides some interesting links to get started:

Math for programmers: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/math-for-programmers.html

'Concrete Mathematics' by Graham, Knuth & Patashnik: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Mathematics

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