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Comment by readingnews | Hacker News Reader

Books do not make you better at math. Working math problems makes you better at math. Go ahead, down vote all you want.

Reading about running does not make you a better runner. You can watch 1000 marathons, sprinters, Olympians. You may get _ideas_ for running, but it will never make you a better runner. To be a better runner you have to do it. To be a better programmer/mathematician/physicist/whatever, you need to go work at it.

I suppose I am just taking action against how the question is written, but I see a lot of people seemingly hoping that "if they just found the correct book, tutorial, or video, they would be better". A lof of those people are my students. When I ask how many problems they have worked, I typically always get the same response. Zero, or the bare minimum.

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Problem sets are useful for improving your mathematical ability, as is looking at an expert's attempt at a problem after your attempt. Both are a core part of reading books well. So when someone asks for books to improve their mathematical ability, a likely interpretation is just "they want books with good problem sets, clear presentation and elegance". Another interpretation is "what's a book which, when after I intrepret all the individual sentences into a vague impression, will make me good at maths?"

Your answer is somewhat helpful in the latter sort of world where OP didn't know how to read a textbook (which is unfortunately common) but not in the former sort. You seem to be venting though, which is understandable. But venting with a side of helpful content would be even better.

For instance, advising OP on how to to read a maths book (generate content yourself, check dependancies, connect things to what you know etc.) or suggest books which contain advise like this alongside their main content (I think Tao's analysis texts might do this?)

> Books do not make you better at math. Working math problems makes you better at math.

But math books are often full of exercices that you are supposed to do! Actually reading a math book means that you try to anticipate the proofs before reading them, and you work out all the details and do all the exercices. Reading a math book and working math problems are essentially the same thing.

So many great responses recommending all kinds of books and then there's... this. Lol. Such a jaded/cynical teacher thing to say, but sure, nothing is a substitute for what you get out of putting the effort into doing. For me, the biggest hurdle to succeeding at college-level math was a lack of motivation due to the meaninglessness of most of the content.

If I were a student, eager to solve math problems and become better at math, no book would be better than any other book at presenting and guiding me to problems that would improve my understanding?

Reading math textbooks typically involves solving a lot of problems, so you saying it like it's books OR problem solving doesn't make sense.

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