
Ask HN: How to get into maths again? - philippnagel
During high school and afterwards I never really cared about maths. Now through web development I got really into cryptography and suffer from my lack of interest a few years ago.<p>Can any of you recommend resources (e.g. MOOC&#x27;s or books) to learn on my own?
======
ColinWright
As always, it depends ...

If you just want to learn the maths relevant to your specific interests then
you can simply pick a page on wikipedia, build a tree of topics you need to
cover, then start to knock them off one by one, building a web of knowledge as
you go. Then ask questions on
[http://math.stackexchange.com/](http://math.stackexchange.com/) making sure
you take the advice about how to ask questions the smart way[0][1].

If, on the other hand, you want to get into studying maths generally and build
your maths study skills, then I would recommend starting with a really good
maths text book and work through it, doing all the exercises, reviewing
earlier material, and taking it seriously. Two options are Spivak[2][3] which
claims to be about calculus, but is really about analysis, or "Sets and
Groups" by Green[4]. The latter is great to create the underlying basic
knowledge you need for cryptography, but more, it teaches you how to do maths
properly.

You could also just pick something you think is interesting on Khan Academy[5]
and go for it.

But having said all that, it's tough to get back into maths, and you need to
make sure you really understand your motivation. Most people don't want to
write a book, they want to _have written_ a book. Most people don't want to
study maths, they want to _have studied_ maths. If you're not serious, you
won't succeed, especially with no one to track your progress, answer
questions, and generally encourage, coax, support, and inspire you, it will be
tough.

How well motivated are you?

[0] [http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-
questions.html](http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html)

[1]
[https://www.mikeash.com/getting_answers.html](https://www.mikeash.com/getting_answers.html)

[2]
[http://computo.fismat.umich.mx/~fhernandez/Cursos/Calculo201...](http://computo.fismat.umich.mx/~fhernandez/Cursos/Calculo2015/spivak.pdf)

[3] [http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-4th-Michael-
Spivak/dp/0914098...](http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-4th-Michael-
Spivak/dp/0914098918)

[4] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sets-Groups-Course-Algebra-
Second/d...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sets-Groups-Course-Algebra-
Second/dp/0710212275)

[5] [https://www.khanacademy.org/](https://www.khanacademy.org/)

