Hello all,
My goal is to learn some basic math + programming skills as quickly as possible, so that I can read research papers without being tripped up by the math, and because they are by far my weakest skill area at the moment and feel like a bottleneck for me. My plan is to spend 15-25 hours a week on this for the next five months and experiment with what works best.
My background:
- Have not taken a math class since completing Calculus.
- 1 year of intro CS classes only covering C++
These are my current ideas on what I should learn:
- Programming
- Python
- Data Structures + Algorithms
- Machine Learning
- Math
- Statistics / Probability
- Linear Algebra
- Multivariable Calculus
My hypothesis on what would work fastest is to hire a tutor for each of these topics from Bountied Rationality and work through the most highly recommended textbook on each topic (I suspect this would work better for math than for programming). Other than that, the options I’m currently aware of for learning are taking lectures from Coursera, Codecademy, and various coding BootCamps.
My Current Questions:
- What textbooks would you recommend for these topics? (Right now my list is only “Linear Algebra Done Right”)
- What other ideas do folks have for learning these topics that I can experiment with?
- What other topics might I be overlooking?
- What other feedback might you have for me?
Thank you so much!
IMO, talking with someone experienced is very much worth it, even if only to understand better what to study in your situation. Or to get feedback on your exercise sheet write-ups.
Besides, I strongly recommend you find someone at your level who wants to learn these subjects as well, so you can meet regularly and discuss exercises/unclear points for free. Discussing your half-formed ideas is more fun and results in faster learning if you can unstick/learn by explaining to each other.
Some more points:
Active learning (as in brilliant.org) seems worth a try to me as well, but I don't know if it is comprehensive enough.
Usually, lecture notes are based on (and share notation with) one or a few books, which you can fall back on if you don't understand something.
I'd be happy to tutor you; I'll PM you more information about me :)