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!
I would recommend not starting with Linear Algebra Done Right unless you already know the basics of linear algebra. The book does not cover some basic material (like row reduction, elementary matrices, solving linear equations) and instead focuses on trying to build up the theory of linear algebra in a "clean" way, which makes it enlightening as a second or third exposure to linear algebra but a cruel way to be introduced to the subject for the first time. I think 3Blue1Brown videos → Vipul Naik's lecture notes → 3Blue1Brown videos (again) → Gilbert Strang-like books/Treil's Linear Algebra Done Wrong → 3Blue1Brown videos (yet again) → Linear Algebra Done Right would provide a much smoother experience. (See also this comment that I wrote a while ago.)