Learning to enjoy maths again

Question

I'm a first year computer science student, having returned several years after finishing high school.

As I delve deeper down the rabbit hole I am gain a greater appreciation for the importance of math in computer science.

The problem is I don't enjoy math, I read an article called Lockhart's Lament that I think sums up my experience with math in high school. I want to learn more math to improve my programming abilities and broaden my problem solving abilities and at the moment I am working through Rosen's discrete math text but it feels like a grind.

I used to enjoy math as a kid, and I naturally enjoy problem solving and logic. I am hoping to somehow rekindle my interest in math. Has anyone managed to rekindle their interest in math for its own sake?

Where did you start, what type of things did you do? I'd be interested to hear other peoples experiences, maybe inspiring books or good text books

Answer 1

I enjoy solving project euler problems a lot. They are mathematical in nature and may sparkle your interest.

Answer 2

I never enjoyed math either and getting a degree in Engineering was not as simple...I barely managed to get decent grades in high school and college! As I graduated and started working at an IT company, I started gaining interest in finance and accounting. Being weak with numbers made this even more difficult. So, I searched online and came across this YouTube Channel: The Khan Academy. This guy is amazing! He has posted video tutorials on pretty much everything that we learnt in high school, including algebra, probability and arithmetic and much more. His tutorials are easy to understand and a great way to engage with other people who are on the same position as you on the learning curve. Even better, Bill Gates and his sons follow the tutorials too. Read more about it here: http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/

Answer 3

The problem your solving with the math as you learn it must to be important to you, then the math will be worth it. Just reading a book that bores you without working on a problem you enjoy simultaneously probably won't work very well.

If you have been running into programming that requires math, find some variant of that programming that is important to you, and solve it, learning the math required as you go.

Answer 4

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7136440703094429927#

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feynman_Lectures_on_Physics

Answer 5

The problem with math becoming a grind (from an instructor's perspective) is the notation. Most people read problems or descriptions of concepts and have no trouble. The moment a notation is introduced to describe a problem mathematically, people tend to freak out.

Your question indicates you are specifically interested in discrete mathematics specifically. In a lot of discrete mathematics that I've covered, it is helpful to have a fun puzzle to solve that is specifically designed to focus on the logical and separate elements of a problem at hand.

Attempting puzzles is only one part of it though, because you can get puzzles at any bookstore. If you can't describe the problem mathematically, though, you haven't really learned anything beyond the algorithm in your mind which you may or may not be able to describe programmatically. Solving a cryptogram is a simple dictionary attack that most people can manage through their own experience with language. Trying to program an algorithm to do it logically is another story altogether.

As you find the puzzles you enjoy solving (or attempting to solve), use your textbook(s) to attempt to describe the logical problems involved through appropriate notation. A good example of this would be the many Knights, Knaves, and Normals puzzles on the internet. Get regular logic problems and attempt to write the logical descriptions of each clue/deduction through the notation.

When you get to Big O/Big Theta notation... good luck. I still struggle with this beyond basic understanding of the concepts.