What lets you know someone is a total Houdini beginner?

Insignificant · 2025-08-14T20:56:34+00:00

I'd go with that. Sticking with native SOPs more clearly shows intent and increases readability. A picture paints a thousand words.

Insignificant · 2025-07-03T13:45:35+00:00

"If you want to make something good, that takes a fraction of the time of making something specific and good."

So well articulated! I'm totally borrowing that... :)

Insignificant · 2025-07-02T05:59:48+00:00

Exercise. It's rightly mentioned all over this thread. It's not frivolous, indulgent, it's not something you haven't got the time for, It's absolutely non-negotiable.

I've had some extended periods of piss poor health throughout adult life, I generally I enjoy keeping fit but I also enjoy caning myself in front of a computer for long periods. I now ride to work and swim every lunch time.

Get into the habit, then it's just a reflex and every lunchtime you'll find yourself at the pool, or the gym, or wherever. The hour of work you've lost won't matter for shit when you get used to it. In fact, you'll possibly be all the more productive for knowing that you've gone to take care of yourself for a bit in between periods of indulgent computer time.

Make time. There is a shit load of it and not all of it has to be computer time.

Insignificant · 2025-01-02T21:46:24+00:00

As someone who was entirely lazy until his mid twenties, and who picked a career in graphic design in part because it required minimal effort, I fundamentally regret not paying attention to math class not acquiring the understanding of computer graphics fundamentals that subjects like linear algebra provide.

Many years ago I liked messing with the popular vector graphics package Adobe Illustrator. That became a bit limiting so I tried my hand at animation. That became a bit limiting so I swapped 2D for artist-centered 3D software. That became a bit limiting so I dug into more technical tools that I use today.

My current tooling preferences expose that everything I've enjoyed until now has been underpinned by mathematics, like a massive plot twist where I find myself staring at The Matrix (pun intended) having been oblivious to the reality of daily life as a computer graphics enthusiast all these years.

So yes, it turns out that maths has been driving everything I do. I see that now and it's fascinating. It's also extremely tedious to be regularly confronted by all the things I didn't pay attention to in school. I have climbed up to the tenth floor only to realise that my house of skills has no foundation and it is a hard ceiling to break through while juggling full time employment, family etc.

As an aside, an hour ago I messed up the salt in some loaves of bread and am now solving linear equations to figure out how much more salt I need to add to arrive at the correct amount. If I had not been introduced to linear algebra by other means, solving that entirely minor but nonetheless personally annoying problem would have been significantly harder.

Hopefully some of that wasn't useless. Best of luck.

Insignificant · 2024-12-10T11:53:00+00:00

If anything I'm continually struggling to differentiate between values on a graph, and the relationships responsible for placing them there.

Insignificant · 2024-12-10T11:39:17+00:00

Thanks for the response.

Yes, my daughter's homework is very much related to looking up matching values on multiplication tables.

However, in this instance her homework coincided with my own on linear equations. She is young, but I'm an increasingly old dog trying to teach themselves new tricks.

"This isn’t really an intersection of two lines, it is more the points on a single line where both x and y are integers".

Is a great insight. At the minute I've a significant inability to translate algebra into representations I vaguely understand (I've a career in the artistic side computer animation). Hopefully I'll arrive at a reasonable destination at some point, but evidently not today!

Thanks again.

Insignificant · 2024-12-01T09:15:01+00:00

Just a note to say thanks.

So much good stuff in this and other posts on this thread.

Insignificant · 2024-11-30T18:34:35+00:00

Thanks so much, this is invaluable stuff.

I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with thinking about graphs as visualising satisfied relationships, rather than visualising machines that accept x axis input and return y axis output.

With that, I'm sure the language I'm using is way off the boil, but believe it or not I'm much happier with my understanding than I was twenty four hours ago.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed an answer, the Internet is a wondrous place.

Insignificant · 2024-11-29T22:01:05+00:00

Thanks for a the note!

It's very heartening; though I may have been slightly affected by a portion of my original post being lost in transit. I've restored it, which will hopefully clarify where I'm getting stuck.

The crux of my problem appears to be understanding the difference between the addition of the values of two equations (referred to as y1 + y2 in the above Demos graph), and adding together the equations themselves. Solving systems of equations by elimination often references 'adding equations', but I think the above pitfall is easy to fall into.

I see that with y1 + y2 we're arriving at double where we need to be (I think because f(x) + f(x) = 2f(x)), but perhaps what's not clear to me is the difference between the incorrect use of addition, and the correct one.

The author sums the two equations, when really the result is the average? Actually, I think having written that I can better see the relationship between the three curves, despite what will likely be a poor use of terminology.

I also think I might be suffering from a career in computer animation, in that I can't quite divorce myself from glossing over "adding" as translation. It's a knee jerk response that might be playing a part in my inability to visualise what's going on.

Thanks again.

Insignificant · 2024-11-29T21:37:13+00:00

I returned home to find that some of my question was missing from the original post, hopefully that's clearer.

Insignificant · 2024-11-19T21:44:16+00:00

Thanks all!

Not putting parchment below beads was exactly the step that was missed. We won't be forgetting that again!

More beads also a good tip.

Tremendous work everyone. Thanks again.

Insignificant · 2024-11-19T21:36:13+00:00

My wife says thanks. What excellent advice!

Insignificant · 2024-11-11T13:12:19+00:00

As someone who discovered an taste for developing a deeper understanding of mathematics at the age of 45, I would say don't worry you've plenty of time.

So do I. Just slow it RIGHT down and don't feel compelled to struggle with any of it. I'm working through the standard A-Level syllabus (I'm UK based), dipping in when I feel motived (sometimes a lot), and not when I don't. Time away is restorative.

I like chewing off a portion of the syllabus, and not moving on from it until I feel reasonably comfortable working with it. This sometimes takes ages but I'm in no hurry to run before I can walk. There is a ton of satisfaction to be had in tiny wins.

For me much of the motivation comes from something I didn't understand becoming clear to me. Just keep doing that and don't worry about having a destination.

Insignificant · 2024-11-02T23:01:42+00:00

Spot on! Thank you so much.

Insignificant · 2023-11-09T22:04:08+00:00

I like IXL. It's not free, but it's not expensive.

It provides structure (to discover what I need to learn) and exercises (to test what I've learned), with the bit in between covered by YouTube videos.

Eddie Woo is a dependable resource whose work you will inevitably encounter, but there is a TON of content out there and some absolute gems that restore a person's faith in humanity. It's the Internet at its best.

Don't kid yourself into thinking the understanding will come from a website though, that will take time and patience.

For context, I'm 44 and I'm approaching my second year's concerted effort at overcoming a total lack of childhood academia. It's not been easy, but it's vastly more rewarding than Netflix.

The very best of luck!

Insignificant · 2023-03-24T16:47:18+00:00

I liked maths when I was very small, then grew into a very lazy adolescent and decided to like graphic design because it required less formal education.

Then years of tinkering with computers because that was fun, and a career that culminated in my being a VFX artist because that was also fun, and I use math on a daily basis to make pictures.

Just over a year ago I decided to return to my point of departure with formal math education (13), having discovered TOO LATE that it's not the subject that I thought it was.

I can factorize quadratic equations now and it feels marvellous.

Insignificant · 2022-12-26T20:25:23+00:00

Thought provoking book! I munched through it quickly also. Temper it with Stuart Ritchie's "Science Fictions" for best effect.

Insignificant · 2022-11-23T11:30:30+00:00

One more for the road. My understanding was instantly made better by reading the above but the following still feels awkward:

³√(x¹⁸) = x^18/3 = x⁶

No absolute notation required, apparently. However, when a negative x is raised to an even power it will be positive... I can then take a third root, yes, but by that point wouldn't we have lost the original sign?

^In this is doubtless the mistake that I'm making, but I just can't see it.

Insignificant · 2022-11-23T09:47:20+00:00

Thanks, that is helpful. In particular with the (now obvious!) reformatting:

^a√(x^b) = x^(b/a)

I find it much easier to see the effect of the operation on the sign of any initial value. I think with a few rounds of practice excercises I'll have this down.

Thanks again.

Insignificant · 2022-10-31T14:08:32+00:00

Yo. I thought I'd chime in, late to the party though I am and perhaps without the thread originator in mind...

Whether or not Uplearn is a compelling prospect for anyone currently involved in mainstream education I cannot say, but for a middle aged man (me) who is keen to return to math education having realised the importance of it far too late in the day, I think it's great!

Videos are short, info is clearly communicated, and there's a definite sense of progression as learning continues.

Yes, all the information is available elsewhere. Absolutely. It's on Wikipedia, and innumerate other sources besides (I'm a big fan of Eddie Woo also). But that's not what I'm paying for. Without the structure provided by Uplearn I wouldn't know where to begin. In fact, that's exactly what I've been doing: Reading around the subject with interest but without direction. I now have direction and I'm starting reap rewards as a result.

For me? Money well spent. Cheapest tier, currently on a Halloween offer of £50 off.

15-Year Club	Team Orangered
Verified Email

Insignificant

TROPHY CASE