Math problems we rarely solve: On technical explanation questions
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1 session
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SP
HM
JG
This series ended on February 6, 2022. All 1:1 and group chats related to this series are disabled 7 days after the last session.
About
Are you a student of math or science, especially physics, chemistry, economics, or programming? Do you test yourself with practice problems? What if I told you that there are some important problems that most math students (myself included) usually don't work through?
No, not the problems we skip. These are a special class of questions. They are what computer scientist Cal Newport calls 'technical explanation questions.' These are questions in everyday language that build your understanding of the underlying meanings of the math concepts and tools you use in your problems.
These are not a substitute to problem sets. But they're a helpful complement, especially when you want to know why things work the way they do in math (or any math-heavy course, for that matter).
So, if this piques your curiosity, and you're ready to add a simple but highly effective study habit to your learning toolkit, join this series! There are only two sessions, and you can attend the one you're most comfortable with.
Also, since this topic doesn't require much time, the session is only 20 minutes long—short enough to fit into your schedules, I hope.
Finally, bear in mind that I'll be using examples from arithmetic and pre-algebra to illustrate the art of writing technical explanation questions. This is because I'm still learning math, and haven't started calculus and statistics yet. But you can always translate the underlying method to any branch of math or science.
Tutored by
I'm a volunteer-tutor at Schoolhouse.world. I used to host (and co-host) Ask Me Anythings on autodidactism. But in 2024, I'm looking to tutoring reading and philosophy. Outside Schoolhouse, I hold an undergraduate degree in the social sciences (especially political theory), and wrote my capstone BA thesis in global philosophy. I also enjoy improvising remixed covers of various songs, but all mostly from the 1980s to present, give or take a few decades.
Schedule
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You can choose which session to attend.
SESSION 1
6
Feb
SESSION 1
Office Hours
Office Hours
Sun 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM UTCFeb 6, 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM UTC
We'll take a quick look at technical explanation questions, and learn some practical tools for incorporating these into our study routines. It might help to read this article before or after the session, since it's from the author I learnt it from: https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2009/04/06/4-weeks-to-a-40-streamline-your-notes/
(I read it in one of his books, though the central idea is in the blog post linked above.)