As a thank-you present to our readers on HN, Nautilus wanted to give you exclusive full access to this Prelude article from our latest print Quarterly online "preview". Subscriptions to our print edition are how we make all our online content free. We thought the HN audience would like this piece so in appreciation for your traffic and your comments, here it is.
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While print is exactly the medium I want for something of this sort, I do think it would be wise to look into some sort of digital subscription / supporter option.
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I notice that you only sell print subscriptions. Do you plan on selling any digital-only subscriptions? I would sign up in a heartbeat because your online layout is Really That Good (TM).
>I learned Russian by gaining fluency through practice, repetition, and rote learning—but rote learning that emphasized the ability to think flexibly and quickly. I learned math and science by applying precisely those same ideas. Language, math, and science, as with almost all areas of human expertise, draw on the same reservoir of brain mechanisms.
Author approached learning mathematics in the same manner as learning a new foreign language (Russian), and it served her well.
Student focus on maintaining grades throughout school is sadly a detriment to slow learners who actually do need to spend the time to absorb, savour, play with and drill new concepts. I used to think I was a smart, but after years of successfully guessing the teacher's passwords[1] in class and on exams, I realized I only short-changed myself. Comparing against others with the benefit of age and hindsight, I realize now that I'm one of the slow learners who actually need an inordinately longer duration to thoroughly understand concepts than others.
MOOCs and other forms of self-study are great in this regard since pace-setting is now controllable, but rarely lead to a degree or credential one can leverage later in life. I'm glad that the author was able to apply her effective language learning approach to mathematics and science presumably within course durations (all the way to her PhD).
Thank you for that article. Well written and it hit me straight away. I struggled through getting my B.S. Mechanical Engineering - fighting to learn the heavy math load along the way. Looking back, it would have been nice to have the perspective presented by this article.
