A return to confidence
A two week vacation with a clean home and time to exercise and study seems to have helped a lot with my stress levels. Got a lot of things done but did not make getting things done my #1 priority. I haven't done a lot of that in my adult life so I think it was kind of useful.
At the very least, a rested and a relaxed state seems to have paid off with my study time. I began reading 'The Art of Computer Programming', which means I read about a dozen pages and then detoured into 'Concrete Mathematics' (which is a supplement to TAOCP) and then further let myself derail into really understanding some of the underlying mathematics.
Sometime last night, the concepts of mathematical induction really clicked for me, as did understanding and solving more complex multivariable problems, numeric sequences, and a bunch of other things. In school, I learned how to memorize formula and plug in numbers. What I am learning now is the why and how of those formula and to be honest, it's all the fun and exploration. Understanding the proofs to various shortcuts and how the proofing mechanism itself works has made those shortcuts make more sense and made the idea of working future problems exciting. It also meshes nicely with programming concepts and unit testing.
At work, the painful project is slain and I am on to a new project. One which, not entirely coincidentally, is all about mathematics and problem analysis. I haven't yet gotten into the deeper aspects of the new project of course but I feel like it is a project I get to approach in a much more scientific manner and in that, it is way more enjoyable.
At the very least, a rested and a relaxed state seems to have paid off with my study time. I began reading 'The Art of Computer Programming', which means I read about a dozen pages and then detoured into 'Concrete Mathematics' (which is a supplement to TAOCP) and then further let myself derail into really understanding some of the underlying mathematics.
Sometime last night, the concepts of mathematical induction really clicked for me, as did understanding and solving more complex multivariable problems, numeric sequences, and a bunch of other things. In school, I learned how to memorize formula and plug in numbers. What I am learning now is the why and how of those formula and to be honest, it's all the fun and exploration. Understanding the proofs to various shortcuts and how the proofing mechanism itself works has made those shortcuts make more sense and made the idea of working future problems exciting. It also meshes nicely with programming concepts and unit testing.
At work, the painful project is slain and I am on to a new project. One which, not entirely coincidentally, is all about mathematics and problem analysis. I haven't yet gotten into the deeper aspects of the new project of course but I feel like it is a project I get to approach in a much more scientific manner and in that, it is way more enjoyable.