Reading Log

• Computer Science
  
  • Downey, Allen, Chris Meyer, and Jeffrey Elkner. How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, Chapters 1,2,4
    
  • Goodger, David. Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python, “Other languages have ‘variables’”
    
  • Pilgrim, Mark. Dive Into Python, “Tuples”
    
  • Python Software Foundation. The Python Tutorial, “Tuples and Sequences”
    
  • Wikibooks. Python Programming, “Strings,” “Input/Output,” “Conditional statements,” “Loops”
    
• Fiction
  
  • Pratchett, Terry. Witches Abroad (audiobook)
    
  • Wodehouse, P.G. The Code of the Woosters, Chapters 1–3
    
• Mathematics
  
  • Kleitman, Daniel J. Calculus for Beginners, Chapters 1–2
    

Journal Entry

It’s been a very busy time for me since I started my new job. For a while I was getting up an hour early every day in order to continue with my reading project, then in the evenings I had begun working on programming and tech related materials. Before long I was absolutely exhausted and unable to continue. And at this point my reading project is on hold as I delve deeper into my technical studies.

Before I lost my last job, I was routinely getting 5 hours of sleep or less and doing nothing but working. I had stopped reading and was losing my thought life to mere “tech.” When I lost my job, I tried to continue with my technical studies, but with the growing frustration of the general lack of interest in my résumé let alone my mind (a harder, and less immediate thing to evaluate) by those who were hiring, I very quickly diverted myself into more immediately pleasurable studies—bread, literature, music, movies—and the false dichotomy of mind vs. the bogey of schematizing “tech” continued and strengthened.

The simple fact, however, is that as satisfying and nurturing as are bread, literature, music, and movies they will not, for me, bring home the bacon. And, I think I am realizing, they represent a sort of comfort blanket, perhaps even a pacifier, to the extent that I use them to avoid dealing with the challenges of making a living.

After spending some time with various programming books, I started on the intro level Computer Science class from MIT’s OpenCourseWare program. (MIT have done a great thing in making their class materials, sometimes even video lectures, freely available to the public.) It didn’t take long for me to run into one of my most frustrating limitations: mathematics. I hated all maths in gradeschool. I took only the minimum required of me as both a high school student and as a first year music major. I am now realizing that this was a missed opportunity, attributable to laziness, pride, and timidity. I simply didn’t want to confront what wasn’t easy for me. I don’t want to do that at which I am not immediately skilled. But of course, it is an adult’s recognition that for most of us natural ability counts for very little. And for those for whom it counts for more, it is still considerably less meaningful than their dedication to their craft.

I started looking at MIT’s mathematics offerings. Their math starts with Calculus. I barely remember more than the most basic algebra, let alone geometry or trigonometry. And so off I have gone in pursuit of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry refreshers. I have not yet settled into any particular course or book, so suggestions are welcome.

I have come to realize that mathematics is simply another language, and as such, it can be learned, and more importantly, in the process of learning it, my thought structures will be broadened. It isn’t an either/or between the artistic and the technological, between the spirit and the rational mind. Most of the old masters knew this very well. I suspect that the opposition has grown with the dehumanizing effect we have collectively experienced since the industrial revolution. The complete person isn’t an artist or a mathemetician. The complete person is both, bringing each to bear on the other. And so, I find that I have been limiting myself as a person in shying away from maths. It’s time to embrace the other half.