Today I learned that mathematics is a very very dense language. Been studying theoretical basis of computer science for an exam from a textbook of some sort. Well actually it's the draft of a textbook that was going to come into existence at some point but hasn't been updated since 2008. There's still references like "I need to put so and so here". It's pretty funny.
Funny references aside, it takes a surprisingly long time to read that stuff when you actually read out in your mind what the mathematics is saying instead of just looking at it. I mean it's basically a sentence right, if you want it to stick in your mind at least a little bit you have to read it as a sentence; not just as a random string of characters.
Another thing I learned is that you can somewhat almost easily transform a context unaware grammar into such a context unaware grammar as to not contain any needless generations (such that run in loops without ending in a character from the final alphabet) and even such that don't produce any epsilon strings.
Apparently this is very useful for minimizing state automata processing such grammars because the language pertaining to that grammar remains the same in all practical aspects.
Related articles
- The mathematics generation gap (worthwhile.typepad.com)
- You don't understand something until you think it's obvious. (mebassett.blogspot.com)
- The Genius in My Basement: the Biography of a Happy Man by Alexander Masters - review (guardian.co.uk)
- Why do textbooks present information as if it were certain (wiki.answers.com)
- Mathematical learning (and math as a hobby) (3quarksdaily.com)
- 2-year-old children understand complex grammar (esciencenews.com)
Learned something new?
Want to become a high value JavaScript expert?
Here's how it works 👇
Leave your email and I'll send you an Interactive Modern JavaScript Cheatsheet 📖right away. After that you'll get thoughtfully written emails every week about React, JavaScript, and your career. Lessons learned over my 20 years in the industry working with companies ranging from tiny startups to Fortune5 behemoths.
Start with an interactive cheatsheet 📖
Then get thoughtful letters 💌 on mindsets, tactics, and technical skills for your career.
"Man, love your simple writing! Yours is the only email I open from marketers and only blog that I give a fuck to read & scroll till the end. And wow always take away lessons with me. Inspiring! And very relatable. 👌"
Have a burning question that you think I can answer? I don't have all of the answers, but I have some! Hit me up on twitter or book a 30min ama for in-depth help.
Ready to Stop copy pasting D3 examples and create data visualizations of your own? Learn how to build scalable dataviz components your whole team can understand with React for Data Visualization
Curious about Serverless and the modern backend? Check out Serverless Handbook, modern backend for the frontend engineer.
Ready to learn how it all fits together and build a modern webapp from scratch? Learn how to launch a webapp and make your first 💰 on the side with ServerlessReact.Dev
Want to brush up on your modern JavaScript syntax? Check out my interactive cheatsheet: es6cheatsheet.com
By the way, just in case no one has told you it yet today: I love and appreciate you for who you are ❤️