I’ve always been a math-phobe and had a very hard time retaining math skills. It’s not something I’m proud of. I’ve tried in the past to boost my skills “just because”, but I have a poor attention span and unless I have a practical use for something I find it really hard to retain much of it.
I never really excelled at algebra; I learned it because it was required but I never really enjoyed it (other than Cartesian plotting). I certainly don’t remember much of it. Statistics on the other hand I really enjoyed and it’s something I can apply to my daily life as a software developer. I do find my lack of a traditional maths education to be a disadvantage at time but I manage to work with it.
I find I do best when I learn about something because it’s a skill I need, not because it’s something a curriculum requires. I feel confident if I have a need to learn trigonometry or geometry I can do so. I’ve been slowly starting to pick up calculus as I’ve started getting more into electronics as a hobby.
I will say thank goodness for Khan Academy making all levels of math education accessible.
To get back on topic for the post, as a self-professed math-phobe I would have probably enjoyed learning math using an approach like that. That certainly works better for me than being assured “you’ll need to know this as an adult” or “you’ll never get into computers unless you know this”. All bullshit. Learning and applying using practical and interesting examples is a winner.
