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Different Ways to Conceptualize Math?
rook a asks: "I've always been an avid reader but my math skills were poor, and TV had taught me that math was difficult. I knew only the concepts of the basic operations. From seventh grade through high school, I did only what was needed to get by and so my math skills remained below par. Now, as a freshman pre-cal student, I am struggling. I believe that I have a flaw in the basic way I think about numbers. I can think logically, but it does not carry over to math. I read somewhere that Feynman gave a lecture on arithmetic but I could not find it. I believe that different people have different thought structures for the same ideas. Has there been any research or books on the difference between how a mathematician, or a Richard Feynman, thinks about math and the way that the average person thinks about math? Or, did any of you initially find math difficult in college but go on to higher maths? If so what changed for you?"
"I wanted to be an EE and want very much to be good at math but if my ability does not increase I will not be able to. I am willing to do anything to increase my skill. I hate rote and do not want to be merely 'good' at math, I want to speak it. If math is a mindset then it's one I want to be part of.
This is similar to another question, however I found several interesting books but no comments toward learning a more efficient way to think."
This is similar to another question, however I found several interesting books but no comments toward learning a more efficient way to think."
Life is chock-full of lies, but the biggest is math. That's particularly clear in the discipline of probability, a field of study that's completely and wholly fake. When push comes to shove-when you truly get down to the core essence of existence-there is only one mathematical possibility: Everything is 50-50. Either something will happen or it will not. When you flip a coin, what are the odds of it coming up heads? 50-50. Either it will be heads, or it will not. When you roll a six-sided die, what are the odds you'll roll a three? 50-50. You'll either get a three or you won't. That's reality. Don't fall into the childish "it's one-in-six" logic trap. That is precisely what all your adolescent authority figures want you to believe, that's how they enslave you. That's how they stole your conviction, and that's why you will never be happy. Either you will roll a three or you will not; there are no other alternatives. The future has no memory. Certain things can be impossible, and certain things can be guranteed-but there is no sliding scale for maybe. Maybe something will happen, or maybe it won't. That's all there is. What are the chances your sister will dies from ovarian cancer next summer? 50-50. (either she'll die from ovarian cancer or she won't). What are the chances your sister will become America's most respected underwater welding specialist? 50-50. It will happen, or it won't. There are two possibilities, and both are plausable and unknown. The odds are 2:1. The facts are irrefutable. Quasi-intellectuals like to claim that math is spiritual. They are lying.