A Mind For Numbers: How To Excel At Math And Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra) (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
The title of the book doesn't do it justice. This is a book about how to get good at anything, not just math and science. It's a light read because it's full of simple advice. But the stuff it teaches is effective, and I wish it had been taught to me back in 1997 when I was starting graduate school.If you find yourself checking your phone or screwing around on Facebook while you should be working, read this book. If you're having trouble learning stuff you need for work at a higher rate than you're forgetting it, read this book. Do so especially if you're young, because the longer the time you have left to reap the benefits, the more reading this book is worth to you.Read this book, put your butt on a reasonable schedule, get your sleep and exercise, and the chances are excellent that you will never want for satisfying, well-paid employment no matter your field. This is a book about making your zombies work for you, not about learning how to fight them. “A mind for numbers” is a must-read for everyone in this century. Not only is it helpful for someone wrestling with math and science, it provides answers for most of the problems faced by a learner based on insights from neuroscience and cognitive psychology.What I like a lot about this book is how it is actually structured to reflect the principles given in the book. For example, Barbara Oakley talked about active recall of material to help with remembering (rather than passive re-reading); at the end of each chapters, she prompts and provides questions for readers to recall the chapter's material. Next, the author also talked about space repetition; when something new is introduced, such as habit formation, readers will read about it for about two or three chapters, and the pace will then be broken up with either something from the beginning or something new. This, in my opinion, reflects the spaced repetition concept she writes about in a very nice and creative way! Dr. Oakley’s book ultimately helped me enjoy what I do in a way I never could before, when I procrastinated and was stressed out and then tried to shoehorn a bunch of information I hadn't processed into something coherent. This book was a life-changer for me.
What do You think about A Mind For Numbers: How To Excel At Math And Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra) (2014)?
Excellent. It provided a better summary of how to learn than any previous material I've read.
—Tasleem17
This is NOT just about how to learn math and science; it is about how to learn anything.
—Age
Great companion to the MOOC on Coursera.
—yeahbuddy
